89- Strength Training for Women Over 35: A College Coach's Approach to Sustainable Fitness

In this episode of MilesFromHerView, host Kat reintroduces herself and her mission behind KatFit Strength. Kat, a mother, business owner, ultra-marathon runner, and strength trainer with nearly two decades of experience, shares how she integrates authenticity and resilience into her fitness coaching. Targeting busy women, especially in midlife, Kat emphasizes the importance of creating personalized, sustainable fitness plans that adapt to clients' unique lifestyles. She discusses her philosophy against the high-intensity, one-size-fits-all approach of the fitness industry and instead promotes consistency, self-compassion, and realistic goal-setting. The episode delves into Kat's background, origin story, and her coaching methodologies designed to empower women to find strength and vitality in their fitness journeys.

00:00 Introduction and Reintroduction

00:26 Meet Your Host: Kat's Journey and Experience

02:24 The Turning Point: From Coaching to Personal Training

06:31 Challenges in the Fitness Industry

11:00 Building a Sustainable Fitness Plan

21:07 Adapting Fitness to Individual Lifestyles

25:25 KatFit Strength: Programs and Philosophy

30:56 Conclusion and Call to Action

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Transcript

0:00

In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain and I am reintroducing myself. So if you've been here for a while, this is gonna be a bit of a reintroduction. I'm gonna share who I am, why I do this work, how my coaching actually works, and who I'm really here to serve. Think of this as you're sitting down with me, maybe having coffee or going out for a walk. It's all gonna be about real talk. No bs. So let's dive in.

Kat: 0:26

Welcome to MilesFromherView, the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in.

1:15

Welcome back to MilesFromHerView. I'm Kat, your host, and if you've been listening for a while, thank you so much for sticking around and if you're new here, grab a coffee or another type of hot beverage and let's dive in to have this chat. I am so grateful that you've tuned in. So it's been about two years since I started this podcast. Seems kind of crazy. I feel like I started it yesterday. However, I am not new to the world of fitness. Strength and conditioning, cardio, training, mobility, nutrition. I have been in this space for almost two decades, which sounds very shocking to say because I don't feel like I have two decades of experience. Maybe you're wondering that yourself when you look back or reflect on your life, when you can tally up the years or the decades and say with confidence how much of experience you've had for me, in the phase of parenting I'm in, my kids are in the upper levels of grade school, and that seems mind blowing to me today. I want to reintroduce myself. If you've been a long time listener, you may know about me, you may not know maybe my origin story, or maybe you have some questions on who specifically I coach. And how my mission and my philosophies in how I train clients go into that. And if you're new here, this is a great episode for you to really get to know me and what to expect on this podcast. And I encourage you to go back and listen to other podcasts that I have previously recorded. So I am Kat, as I said, that's my name, full name, Catherine, but I go by Kat. I'm a mom of two. I'm a boy mama. I am married I run a business and I consider myself an athlete for life. My first part of my career, I was a college track and field coach where I worked with both men and women, training them for. Regular season and post-season competition. I also worked in a capacity of strength and conditioning coach working with many other teams in developing their strength and conditioning programs for their respective sport. I also have taught physical education classes at the college level. Yes, some universities and colleges do require students to take physical education courses. At about, oh my gosh, it's coming up. On 13 years ago. I found myself in a weird predicament. I absolutely loved what I was doing. I loved coaching. I loved coaching the athletes. I love track and field. Track and field was my original sport that I got involved with around 11, 12 years old. Fell in love with it, competed all the way through college and tried to do some competition post-college, however. Wound up having an injury that went undiagnosed. I found myself as a new mom. My eldest was nearly two years old, and I was a hundred percent at work, a hundred percent at home, and 0% to myself. Though I was happy but miserable at the same time. See, things can be equal and opposite and not one or the other. It can be you're really happy in a place in your life, but you're miserable because I had nothing pouring into me. And at that point, I knew if I continued on this course, I would become a shell of a human being. Surely I would be happy. I have a great partner, a great child, a great job. But I was miserable on some levels, and that's when I literally end that figuratively saying I saw a sign I took a chance. I never thought I would be happy. It was more of like a holding pattern, knowing that I needed to continue to help provide an income, not only for the family budget but for myself. I thought it would be a sidestep, but I found myself in a position of loving and evolving into the work I do today. The origin of being a college track and field coach has shaped. And strongly backs how I train clients today. When I started out in the personal training world in the fitness industry. I was very perplexed by it. As I said, I have been an athlete for life. I have competed in track and field since I was around 11, 12 years old, and I fell in love with the sport. I fell in love with the way the sport challenged, not only my body, but also my mind. It was something I was not good at honestly. It was something I had to work at. It wasn't like I stepped out onto the track for the first time and excelled. I was arguably the worst athlete out there, but it was something about it, like I said, the challenge of it, the putting myself out there and figuring out how to get my body to do certain things, the growth capacity for my mental and physical aspects of life was amazing. And when I stepped into the fitness industry, it confused me here. I had clients coming to me who wanted to have more energy, build strength, get into a consistent routine. However, the prevailing voice in the industry was do these complex, intense workouts. Now, mind you, as an athlete, I competed in at the NCAA Championships numerous times and pushed myself. And helped my team win multiple national championships. I have done some insane, crazy, intense workouts to the point where you are exhausted, you are scraping yourself up off the floor. And when I saw some of these workouts that. Individuals were telling me they did and then thinking what is the purpose of this? Why are you doing these workouts? This doesn't make sense for your outcome goals. All it makes sense for is energy and work output at a high capacity that your body may not be prepared for. It doesn't mean that people aren't capable of doing hard work. However, if we are going to do hard work, it should support our outcome and our goals, When a client comes to me, a generalization here, most often, they are looking to feel stronger in their body. They are looking for longevity. They're looking for vitality, more energy, feeling at home in their body. It's often met with, at first an aesthetic goal, which there's nothing wrong with aesthetic goals. The back end of it. Like I said, the vitality, the strength, the feeling confident, and at home in their body is where the longevity of the goal and sticking with it is. But the industry, was saying we only have them here for a short amount of time. You need to push'em as hard as possible because they're no good to themselves outside of this. When clients came into me, I saw this is a problem. They have great goals that are achievable, but in a system that is setting them up for constant failure and telling them they aren't worth these goals. It didn't make sense to me because my background is in college coaching when I have an athlete that comes to me. About 99.9% of the time I recruited that athlete. So I saw them on a high school level and I recruited them yes, with the intention of I wanna build a strong team. Whatever the goal was for the entire team, it was to win a championship or. Get as many athletes qualified for the post-season and the other way I looked at athletes is I want to be able to nurture and grow them so that they are seeing progress from freshman year to senior year teach them the skills. To continue to get better. So with that idea is you're developing longevity, you're providing skills for that athlete, you are taking them where they're at currently, putting a plan in place that meets them where they're at, as well as. Allowing them to grow by increasing the intensity. Doesn't mean like you're throwing on tons of weight, but it allows them to grow in a container that provides curiosity, support, pushing them. A coach pushes you. This is what I was confused why it was not happening in the fitness industry. It was, if you can't hack these workouts, the problem is you, if you can't sustain this high level, the problem is you, if you can't resist the tempting food, the hyper palatable foods, the processed foods, if you can't show up when your child is sick, the work projects have piled up and you overslept. The problem is you and that is a thousand percent not true. That's not how athletes train. That is the opposite of how athletes train and athletes push themselves. The everyday person has a lot on their plate and they need a plan that supports. Themselves and allows them to thrive in their everyday life, as well as setting them up for success for next year, five years, the next decade plus. So I started to create the change. I started putting together plans that met clients where they were at, and allowing them to find success and strength immediately. The cool thing happened. They found consistency. They started saying things like, I never thought I could be one of those people that would show up and stick to a workout plan. I never thought on this tough day, I could find a spot for myself to fit in a five minute workout. Yes, five minutes can have a workout. Does that mean you're in there doing burpees for five minutes? It's you showed up and maybe they did one or two sets and it prevented them from that all or nothing. That perfection seeking model, because one of the biggest glaring issues with the fitness industry is it is designed for individuals who. It may feel more natural for them to work out. I will not lie. It is a a lot more natural for me to just go in the gym and workout. I know how to lift. I know what to do. It doesn't mean I never tire and I never have doubts that I don't wanna do my workout or I, the excuses do come up. They absolutely do. But I feel more at home. The fitness industry is not set up for individuals who, the gym feels like a foreign place. It feels. Just like you've been propelled into outer space and you're now on a different planet than your own. It feels so different to you. The thing is, everybody needs the gym, not in the sense that everybody has to walk around with a certain type of body. Absolutely not. Working out helps overall health and longevity. Strength training helps continue. Independence, so. As I progressed through this, I started seeing this and the area that I saw the biggest need for, where the fitness industry was doing a disservice and in a way that was fearmongering, was women, The message that I see from the fitness industry is the fact that you're told, you stopped caring for your body. You are told that your hormones are to blame. You're told that you have to work out to be a good mother, to be that role model, because if you don't work out, your kids aren't gonna work out It's perimenopause, it's postpartum. What do you expect? These things are gonna happen. But if you can't maintain and keep your body the same from the time you were in your twenties to the time you're in your forties and fifties, you failed. And that is not the truth. Bodies change. It's my favorite sentence. It's two words. Bodies change because bodies do change. You can still see the change that you want no matter your age. It's not. Well, sorry. You hit age 40 and all hope is lost for you. That's not how it works. Your body is the most brilliant, incredible, amazing thing and it is so adaptable and resilient and with the right program, it can set you up for success. The tricky part is the mindset, and I hate to be like, you gotta work on your mindset, but it's understanding that showing up. Lifting weight, walking, running, swimming, spinning, whatever form of cardio you have to show up in the capacity that serves you and a plan that works with your life. Seasons will change the way I train clients who are. Prenatal to postpartum is different. The way that I train clients who have grade school kids, the way I currently train is different than how I trained when my kids were babies. And toddlers does not mean you make up for any lost time. We can't do that. Does not mean that we hold our body,, hostage with the notion of how dare I let myself live and I'm chasing the 20-year-old body. No. You can undo having a child. That's not a negative thing at all. The body is remarkable and you can train and strengthen your body to feel stronger, to feel more resilient. It is by adopting the principles of living like an athlete. That's why I built something different. I created a way to support my clients continuously, I consider all my clients athletes, whether or not they consider themselves an athlete, I consider. All my clients an athlete, they're not just doing our scheduled sessions, but throughout the week and their month and their life. So I made it a way that is accessible that serves them without burning them out. I may not know exactly how your life feels, but I do understand what it's like to raise children a career, to want the best for yourself. I know what it's like to lose yourself in the process of caring for everyone else. I know what it feels like when your body changes and the old ways of working out. Just don't do it anymore, and it is so frustrating know the frustration of trying to fit into a fitness world that just wasn't built for you. It wasn't set up for you to find success. And this is why I built KatFit So I serve women, particularly in midlife. Typically 35 and above. Does not mean that I don't have clients that are 30 to 35, but most of my clients are 35 to 70, and these women are in the process of navigating pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause, working moms, business owners, caregivers, just women who do it all. They are wearing so many different hats during the day, switching out to many different roles, and I get it. My training works where it is. Looking at your individual lifestyle does not mean that it won't be hard to adhere to a fitness plan. It's hard. It's hard for me, and hard doesn't mean bad. There are gonna be days where you're going to make the tough decision that I know I need to show up and I'm gonna be here and I can do this. It means that it's okay to not finish a workout. Even when life feels overwhelming, I can still show up for myself. And that is so empowering. It is something that I get asked a lot from clients is how do I show up for me? How do I do this? Because we're not taught to show up. We're taught to push it down. We're taught to ignore our own feelings, our own unmet needs, and with our health, our health eventually will. Give out. And that's not a threat or a fear. It's if we're not taking care of our health and ourselves, who is you spend time taking care of and ensuring that your family has food, water, slept, checking in with their social emotional aspects, but who's doing that for you? And this is what my programming provides. It is a plan that is doable, a plan that, yes, it takes work. And I hate saying work because. Yes, it does take work to show up. It can feel uncomfortable and awkward, but I sit there and I strategize that I want these movements to feel good. I'm in partnership with my clients they know because my clients are some of the most incredible individuals I have ever worked with if they show up and put in the time, they will see the results that they will feel more energy sleep, better. See health biometrics improve. They will do things without thinking like, jump in front of the camera and smile where that dress. Without hesitation, they will challenge themselves in a physical capacity by signing up for an adventure vacation or doing a athletic feat that they would've thought twice or said no, or shied away from jump in and start running around with their kids. It is incredible because I see women every day getting more of themselves back. Stepping into more of them by way of tangible fitness, not fitness that makes you feel miserable, not fitness that makes you not be able to move for weeks, not a fitness routine that is so intense that you. Cannot function in everyday life because you have to get prepped for your next meal, not a fitness routine that requires 15 different supplements, 16 different magic potions. And if you don't do them in a certain order, by the time the sun rises, you have failed. It's literally getting to the tried and true. Methodologies of strength training and what athletes do today. Now, I'm not talking athletes that are, you're not gonna be training for an athletic event unless there are some of my clients who are training for running races, endurance races, and there are some of my clients who are training for, expeditions in the sense of adventurous vacations. Where is the high physical demand? Maybe it's mountaineering or going on multi-day backpacking trips. What I'm talking about is living your life like an athlete where sleep, stress mitigation, strength training, movement, mobility, and fueling your body is at the promise of this. These. Six foundational things are what drive my programs. It's what I help my clients figure out to work with them in their lifestyle. Back when I started training, it'll be 13 years in June. I saw another big issue with the industry. I had clients who wanted to come in and see me, but something always came up. Vacation work projects, kids got sick and that's when I was like, if I can't reach my clients, I'm doing them a disservice. I'm failing my clients. I need to be able to reach them, and provide them with a plan that works with them. So that's where I went back to something that I did with my college athletes. They would have a program via Google Sheets or sometimes, because when I coached it was. Started in the early part of the two thousands. And so technology has evolved. So it was, here's your printout, here's your Google sheet, or whatnot. So with my clients, I did a Google sheet. They had workouts outside of that, they had the ability to just. Give me feedback in the Google sheet so that they could still show up for themselves. I was able to design workouts around the hotel gym because they were traveling. That was part of their lifestyle, and so I had to conform to them, and that is what coaching is, is being able to provide a plan for you that sets you up for success because you are coming to me, the expert, the professional. You have this challenge, this sticking point where you have a goal but there's barriers I provide you with a plan. Now again, as I stated, you have to show up and do the work that I cannot do for my clients. that can feel very uncomfortable. So I help. My clients with a plan that's tangible we acknowledge that there are gonna be seasons of life. We just came through the whole holiday season. There's a lot that happens with that. I made sure that my clients had plans that were set up for their lifestyles that met them where they were at and elevated them. We lived. We enjoyed the holidays. Here's how we're gonna keep moving on. We get back to our routines. You might feel some sluggishness. I will not sit here and say I did not enjoy cookies or maybe a holiday special over the holidays. My workouts felt a little sluggish and that's okay. There was no major scaling back. There was no, I gotta jump into a 75 heart or do a cleanse. It's let me resume eating how I normally do. Let me make sure I am. Tuning into my sleep a little bit more. Let me make sure I'm boosting my hydration here because it's been a little bit lower because I've been. Enjoying the holidays. That is how we look at it. This is how we shift the mentality. Athletes have this mentality where they're not plugged in at a level 10, where they're like, workouts must be hard every single day of the year. 365 days a year. Absolutely not. They have a periodization to their workouts. There is an off season, there's a maintenance period, there's a build season, there's the championship season. It all crescendos up and comes back down. It is a way for them in how training should be and in everyday life. It was beautiful. They would come back on campus in August. They would be gone in May, and I knew their off seasons. It was more predictable because we had a more controlled container of college athletics. Everyday life is not that way. So how do we do this in everyday life? It takes more creativity, but it's doable. It's mastering your schedule and knowing, Hey, I have a big work project coming up. Okay, we can fluctuate workouts we work with your system, again, moms who are in that stage where they have an infant, a toddler where their sleep isn't predictable, we adjust. I teach'em the skills on how to adjust their plans and workouts. So is working with them now. Because technology has come. I train my clients through an app in person or virtually. They come through an app. They have their workouts right there. They can communicate directly to me. Their plans are there, built around the equipment that they have access to, whether it's a full gym or a couple. Sets of dumbbells and body weight training, it is set up for them and it allows them, we can plan the next four weeks, this is what you're going to be doing. I have the bigger plan behind the scenes, and they know for the next four weeks, this is what the plan is. When life changes, I just adapt the plan so it meets their needs and progresses them forward. I do not believe in one size fits all programming. The fact is there are 24 hours in a day, but my 24 hours is not your 24 hours. Your 24 hours is not my 24 hours. Your goals are not my goals. We have different goals and that is. Fine. But what I believe in is adaptability. Consistency doesn't mean doing the exact same thing every single day, but it means showing up in whatever way you can as often as you can, and building from there. And what I wanna say is this is not at all costs at all. That is completely different. I teach my clients on how to show up. What I'm talking about is you have a 40 minute workout. And you only have 10 minutes. Well, I teach my clients that it's okay, here's what I want you to do. If you only have 10 minutes, that's adaptability. A client has a sick child, they have a workout on, but they can't get to their home gym downstairs or they only have a set of dumbbells. Well, there's. Already something in there for them so that they know that they can still show up for themselves. Or maybe they're just exhausted that day and there's a hard workout on the schedule. They know they can switch it to mobility. Sometimes they'll send me a message, I'm always checking in, but they'll send me a message like, Hey, this came up. I swapped it to mobility. Amazing. You listened to where your body was at, you gave it what it needed, and you didn't walk away. There was no guilt or shame in that. That's adaptability. I also believe in self-care over obsession with how you look. I believe progress over perfection, and I believe that. Self-compassion and resilience are actually what create lasting change. Not punishment, not restriction, not beating yourself up. And this is the foundation of how I coach and what you will not hear from me, and I'm gonna be really clear on this, is you won't get judgment. I don't care if you haven't worked out in five years. I don't care if you haven't worked out a day in your life. I don't care if you've never touched a barbell. Wherever you're starting from is exactly where you're supposed to be. You won't get the hustle harder mentality. I'm not gonna tell you to wake up at 4:00 AM or sacrifice your sanity for your fitness goals. That's not sustainable and that's not how I live my life. You won't get the before and after photos. You won't get the message that your worth is tied up in what you see in the mirror and you won't get perfectionism. It is so damaging. We are looking for progress, not perfection. So if you're new here. Welcome. If you've been here and around for a while and this is, you're like, wow, I never knew the origin. I never knew how you coached. I'm so grateful to have you here this podcast, I started this almost two years ago, and why is it called Miles From Review? Well, it's the miles from your view. I also have an Instagram handle called Miles From Review. I also have a Cat Fit strength handle y two. Instagram handles? Well, I started Cat Fit, that was the business one. When I started out with my business, it was like, you don't talk about yourself. It's just put up your business, advertise your business. I had clients who had said, Hey, I wanna know what you do. How do you train for me? I started getting into more endurance running and I strength train, I run. So I didn't feel it was appropriate to put it on cafe. So I created Miles From a View because it was sharing my life, my miles from my view. This podcast is also sharing not only how I coach, but I also bring experts in. It is. Take what serves you and leave what doesn't podcast. we're cutting through the noise and the BS and really providing tangible information that you can take and use what is gonna help you and just leave whatever doesn't. I truly thank you for being on this journey with me for the last two years. And I'm gonna throw this out there. I am currently accepting new clients. I have two different coaching programs online. I have a wait list for my in person if you're in the Philadelphia area. But online I am still taking on more clients. There are two plans. There's Premier and Essential. Both are great plans and both can help you get to where you want. The primary difference is the Premier is more hands-on coaching. You get live video coaching sessions from me one time per week, and the essentials is your whole workout in the app with app communication. Only does that mean you will never hear from me because you will. You can send me videos on both plans of your form. I highly encourage that you can communicate voice. Text and video. Through the app, you get a completely curated plan for yourself in the app, Plus, there are on demand workouts as well as a community forum in there where I share more information if this sounds like I need, you need this in my life, hop up to the show notes and book a consultation call. I'd be happy to chat with you or just go right to my site and. Fill out the questionnaire we'll get you started. So that's me, that's what I do and that's why I do it. So welcome again, and I'm so happy to have you here.

Kat: 32:09

Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView, powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes, and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into Next. You can connect with me on Instagram at KatFit or share this episode. Road with a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.