April 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Have you ever caught yourself saying "I'm too old for that" when it comes to fitness? Laura Dow, fitness expert and author of "Mind Your Movement," has heard these self-limiting beliefs from countless midlife clients—and she's on a mission to change the conversation around aging and physical activity.
In this enlightening discussion, Laura unpacks the subtle yet powerful ways ageism infiltrates fitness culture, from class names like "Chair Yoga for Seniors" to our own negative self-talk about what our bodies can and cannot do. With over 20 years of experience working specifically with midlife and older adults, she offers a refreshing perspective: focus on ability, not age.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER:
✔ How to embrace midlife with confidence and vitality,
✔ The unexpected ways strength training transformed not just your body, but your entire outlook on aging.
✔ Why it’s never too late to start something new—and how to push past the fear of trying.
✔ Practical ways to challenge the limiting beliefs society places on women over 40.
🎯 OMG Moment: The way you talk to yourself about aging shapes how you experience it. Shift your mindset, and you shift your reality.
Take Action
Want to feel stronger and more confident in midlife? Connect with Laura at stifftofit.com and get her book at cherylpfischer.com/read.
Find Laura on YouTube and LinkedIn as well.
Why This Episode Matters
Aging doesn’t have to mean decline—it can mean growth, strength, and reinvention. Laura’s journey is proof that midlife can be your most powerful season yet.
🎧 Hit follow now and join me next week as we dive into another game-changing conversation on sports and mindset!
Find all podcast and coaching resources at cherylpfischer.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Cheryl Fischer (00:02):
When the subject of fitness and sports comes up,
I always kind of chuckle tomyself, because I will confess
to you that I did not play anysports.
I was on the flagline in highschool.
I did try taekwondo when mykids were younger and they were
(00:23):
doing it, but I did not grow upplaying sports and I did not
have a self image that told methat I could, if that makes
sense.
So I had to work on somemindset there, and you'll hear
me talk about that in otherepisodes, for sure.
But, that being said, I feel sostrongly about the fact that we
(00:47):
need to keep ourselves as fitand healthy as possible in
midlife and, of course, beyond.
It doesn't just stop here.
So this is something that Ireally, really am excited to
talk to our guest about today.
So let's go.
Welcome to Mind your Midlife,your go-to resource for
(01:10):
confidence and success, onethought at a time, unlike most
advice out there, we believethat simply telling you to
believe in yourself or changeyour habits isn't enough to wake
up excited about life or feeltruly confident in your body.
Each week, you'll gainactionable strategies and oh my
(01:30):
goodness powerful insights tostop feeling stuck and start
loving your midlife.
This is the Mind your MidlifePodcast.
You heard me say that I neverplayed sports.
I'm not a sporty person.
I am learning golf now.
Of course that's walking I am.
Also I have been doing pure barfor five years and it has
(01:55):
absolutely transformed mystrength and my core, which is
huge for me, and so I'm sothankful for that.
But I really never.
I never have loved exercise.
One of the reasons that classeswork for me and this is the
same reason that maybe a classor a personal trainer would work
for you is that once I'mcommitted, I've signed up, I'm
(02:18):
within the window.
I can't cancel without somesort of penalty, then then I'm
going to go, if that makes senseand maybe maybe you know
exactly what I mean If I wouldjust be going whenever I wanted
to go, like my husband does.
He likes to go, he wants to go.
That's not me, but what we'regoing to talk about today is
(02:40):
going to show us I think, maybejust underscore for us how
important it is to do something,and you'll hear my guest, laura
Dow, say maybe it's somethingvery simple and easy.
Ideally, it's something youenjoy, it's something and we
need to get rid of the headtrash about it, to get rid of
(03:07):
the head trash about it.
So we're here to talk aboutfitness in midlife and how that
is related to all the self-talkstuff that might be going on in
our head from messages of ageismthat we might have taken in
about what we should orshouldn't be doing at these ages
that we're in now, or what weshould or shouldn't be able to
do, or we're telling ourselveswe're too old for something all
that kind of mess.
(03:28):
We're going to address thattoday if that's something you're
doing to yourself.
So Laura Dow is the creator andowner of Stiff to Fit, which is
a fitness, yoga and wellnessbusiness that works with older
adults to help them maintaintheir movement.
She also is the author of thebook Mind your Movement, and
(03:50):
this is Mind your Midlife.
So, yeah, awesome, awesometitle, and I will definitely
have a link to her book in theshow notes for you as well.
She loves to exercise, but shealso loves to read, cook, travel
, enjoy some hot green tea, andshe lives near Washington DC.
So welcome Laura.
Laura Dow (04:17):
Thank you, Cheryl.
I'm very pleased to be here onthis call with you.
Cheryl Fischer (04:21):
Yes, I'm looking forward to this conversation
for sure.
So let's just start this way.
You work with midlife and olderwomen in the area of fitness,
so how did you end up doing?
Laura Dow (04:34):
that.
So I had a long career as aclassical musician when I was
younger and when I moved out toCalifornia in the early 2000s I
hoped to replicate that careerand wasn't able to for a variety
of reasons.
And at the same time I had beenin my own health and wellness
journey and had lost asignificant amount of weight.
(04:56):
So I was still working out anddoing all the things that I had
done previously.
And then I thought you know,I'm spending so much time in the
gym, somebody should pay me forall this time that I spend in
the gym.
And it happened surreptitiously.
But I got a part time job in awoman's only health club near
where I lived in California andI love talking to the ladies
(05:16):
about their own health andwellness journey.
And from that the ownersnoticed their two female owners
noticed that and said Laura, wewant you to do personal training
.
And I was like I'm not apersonal trainer, I don't know
how to do this and they said goget certified, we'll pay for it
and then we'll, we will promoteyou.
And that actually startedeverything.
(05:37):
And the ladies that were inthat club were predominantly
middle-aged and older women andthey were thrilled to have
somebody that looked like themor that was their age or that
had their life experience orwhatever the commonality was.
And from there, after that clubclosed, unfortunately.
I adored that club.
It was a great experience.
(05:58):
I started working in regularcommercial big box gyms and
women would find me you know,older women would find me and
they would be very happy to knowthat there was somebody that
was, you know, closer to theirdemographic and their mindset
and their lifestyle.
So it happened from thebeginning.
Cheryl Fischer (06:16):
You know what I love that and it it makes a
difference.
I actually do pure bar as oneof my main workouts and, and
because of where I happen tolive, I end up mostly in classes
with 20 somethings, maybe early30 somethings, and listeners.
You may or may not know, I amnot that age, I'm in my 50s and
(06:38):
I can hang in there with them,but I do love it when there are
people around my age.
It really it makes us feel Idon't know more accepted or
belonging or something I think.
Laura Dow (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, I just I do think that it's a commonality
.
We've gone through maybe thesame type of upbringing or the
same kind of life experienceswith the music or the shows, or
just the values of that timeperiod, cause, you know, every
generation's a little different.
So I've loved working witholder women.
It's been a real passion for meand I, as I said, just kind of
(07:10):
fell into it at the beginning,but it's worked out very well
for me and hopefully it's workedout great for my clients too.
Cheryl Fischer (07:16):
Yeah, I'm sure it has.
And on that topic, as we'retalking about liking to be with
older women and helping olderwomen, about liking to be with
older women and helping olderwomen, what we want to talk
about today is focused aroundreally ageism in this whole
realm of fitness and sports.
So when we even say the wordageism, what do we mean by that?
Laura Dow (07:36):
Yeah, ageism is discrimination based on age.
Now we look at ageism asdiscrimination against older
folks, but it can be againstyounger people as well and there
are some pretty good examplesof both sides of it.
But because of the demographicthat I work with and I'm also
not in my 20s or my 30s I'molder than you.
(07:57):
So for the folks who can't seeus, I represent the demographic
of an active, older woman.
I represent the demographic ofan active, older woman.
I look at ageism.
The insidious part of ageism isthe negative stereotypes that go
along with being older, andthis is particularly relevant in
the realm of fitness orexercise or movement and for
(08:19):
women, because women that aretypically my age and older did
not have access to team sportsgrowing up.
So Title IX came into effect in1972.
And there were court challengesto that, especially in the
public school systems.
They were receiving federalmoney.
There were a lot of legalchallenges to that so that when
(08:40):
I got into high school andbeyond, there still weren't
really a lot of teams for women.
They were just starting tohappen, even though I was
younger when Title IX was passed.
So I still run into women whohave never weight trained.
They've never picked up aweight.
I've run into women that Itrained that have never been in
a commercial big box gym, thatnever played a team sport.
(09:02):
I mean, this is actually verycommon in the demographic and
they do run into ageism.
Shall I give you an example?
Please do, absolutely Okay.
So I'm on a task force rightnow.
This subject is near and dearto my heart that's dealing with
ageism in fitness.
So we're in the middle ofwriting a white paper for the
industry and we've done a lot ofresearch, and so one of the
(09:24):
things that we've found is thatthe it's interesting how group
fitness instructors title theirclass names for older adults.
So you will have something likethis, and this is very this
seems very mild.
This doesn't seem like it's aproblem at all.
They'll have chair yoga forseniors.
Now, I'm a registered yogateacher and I have some real
(09:45):
opinions about that, so let meshare with you, if I may, a
couple of things, because thatsounds pretty innocuous, right?
What's wrong with chair yogafor seniors?
So I'm going to ask you, andI'll ask the audience, who are
seniors?
Are seniors 60 and up?
Are seniors 65 and up?
Do you know that we have 58million people 65 years and
(10:06):
older that all the way up past100?
So there's 58 million people inthis demographic if we call 65
and older.
Older.
So like a 65 year old is goingto have a lot of different
ability than a 90 year oldpotentially.
And somebody who's beensedentary all their life at 70
may be not in such good shapeand not function well, versus
(10:28):
someone who's 80 and has had ayoga practice for their entire
life or for decades of theirlife.
So chair yoga for seniors.
So I'm not sure who that's for.
Then the title of it it tellsyou that it's a chair yoga, so
it's going to be seated.
Well, that's not bad.
If I have a leg injury and Ican't stand and I'm 40 years old
, I might want to take thatclass.
(10:48):
Or if I have vertigo from maybea car accident or whatever, I
may want to take that class.
So if I'm a younger demographic, should I not take that class
because it's labeled for seniors?
So our issue with class titlesis that it doesn't tell you the
level of ability that you needto take the class safely.
So our focus in this task forceand I fully agree with this is
(11:11):
that focus on your ability, notyour age yes, the number that
you are doesn't matter.
It matters, like what's yourcurrent functioning and what
more do you want to do, or howdo you want to live your life,
and does your functioning matchhow you want to live your life?
Cheryl Fischer (11:27):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
And you know what?
I don't think I'm sure I'veseen a class titled that.
I know I've seen a video titledthat because I got one for my
mom when she was having healthissues and she needed to do
something like in a chair, asyou're saying.
Sometimes it makes sense, but Inever thought about the fact
(11:50):
that.
Yeah, who are we saying this isfor and why are we saying that?
Laura Dow (11:55):
Yeah, so I can get on my soapbox very easily about
this.
Because when you say chair yogafor seniors, if I went out on
the street and did a littlein-person interview, I think
most people would come up withnegative comments about what
chair yoga for seniors is.
They might say, oh it's gentle,oh it's easy.
Oh it's easy, oh, it's for oldpeople, which, by the way,
there's no old people, there'solder people but not old people,
(12:19):
just like there's not youngpeople, there's younger people.
So I think the whole ageismissue is for us to get much more
nuanced about how we refer tohuman life, the continuum of
human life, that there's notyoung people and old people.
There's tons of folks along thecontinuum and it's all relative
(12:40):
.
If I'm 64, which I am 64, thensomeone who's 65 is older,
they're not old, and someonewho's 54 is younger but they're
not young.
Does that make sense, thedistinction that I'm trying to
make?
It?
Cheryl Fischer (12:54):
absolutely does, and someone who is 64 could be
as active as someone who's intheir 30s.
Yet that 54-year-old could bereally incapacitated.
Who knows?
Laura Dow (13:08):
Yeah, exactly, that's a great point.
One of the things that we domention in this white paper is
that you absolutely cannot tellwhat somebody's history of
exercise is, which is reallyimportant to how they may be
functioning at this point, whattheir history of exercise is or
what their ability is based on.
Knowing what the age is, whatthe number is, right.
So the insidious part of theageism I mean there's blatant
(13:31):
ageism where you're not given ajob because you're your ex, you
know, you're over the hill,which is a terrible phrase.
I mean there's a whole range ofphrases that you don't want to
use anymore, that we used to usequite commonly, of someone
(13:53):
based on their age for anyreason.
That's ageism and that's kindof crazy, because I hadn't
thought of it like that.
You know, prior to being 64,like maybe five to 10 years ago,
I this was not on my radar, butas I age and as I continue to
help my clients stay active andstay independent and stay
functioning, it kind of just,you know, grates my cheese a
little bit when we have fitnessclasses that are not you don't
(14:15):
know going in what level ofability you're supposed to have,
and we do have people cominginto fitness into, like
retirement communities now thatare 70, that have worked out in
commercial big box gyms foryears, or they've run 10Ks for
years, or they've skied in theAlps for years.
I mean they've been active, alot more active than previous
(14:35):
demographics.
So we need to look at somethingkeep them functioning at the
level to which they'reaccustomed, if there are no
prevalent medical or healthissues that get in the way.
Yeah, so I'm a very bigadvocate of let's look at our
language, let's look at theseclass, let's look at you know my
clients will sometimes do thesame thing.
(14:57):
They won't dumb themselves down, but they'll undercut
themselves about what's possiblefor them.
You know this is not the pinkdumbbell.
I'm not a pink dumbbell trainer, and what I mean by that is
that sometimes in retirementcommunities in particular, which
I've worked in, you get two andthree pound dumbbells.
Now, if you have an injury oryou have some reason why you
(15:20):
can't lift more, that's fine.
But we know that the human bodyadapts to the exercise that's
being put on it over time.
So at some point in time, ifyou're still using three pound
dumbbells, you know a year fromnow, something's very wrong,
unless you have a health issuethat prevents you from moving up
, because your body's gottenused to it in a couple of months
(15:40):
.
So we need to continue tochallenge the human body within
reason and safely, and that'skind of what I'm all about.
Cheryl Fischer (15:47):
Yes, yes, yes, I really agree with that and in
my personal experience, the onlytypes of workouts or exercise
that have ever made a differencefor me have been weight related
either body weight or weightweight related.
And you do have to keepincreasing.
100% agree, absolutely agree.
(16:08):
I want to take this kind of intwo different directions, so I'm
going to pick one and thenwe'll see how we get back to the
other one.
So we've been talking aboutdiffering abilities at different
ages and how it doesn't reallygo with the age, and when I was
(16:29):
getting ready to chat with you,I went to my pod squad Facebook
group our little group of podfans and asked them if they
would have any questions for you, and Sarah in the group said
well, I don't know how toreconcile what we should be
doing at this age whatever age50, let's pick versus what we
(16:54):
want to do or like to do.
And to me, that question wasperfect for this discussion,
because what is this?
What we should be doing, right?
Laura Dow (17:04):
Yeah, it's a great question because that's a very,
again, common question across.
You know people who start tobecome more active with exercise
.
They all want to know.
Well, there's too muchinformation.
I don't know where to begin.
I don't know how to begin.
So, yes, let me address that.
So, first of all, I don'tbelieve in the word should.
I know that we haverecommendations about exercising
(17:26):
and I think that if you look atsome of the organizations that
promote their recommendations,which are reasonable
recommendations, you'll go downa rabbit hole about.
I can't possibly fit in 150minutes a week of exercise,
which is one of the standardrecommendations.
If you're doing nothing, 150minutes seems like it's four
days of exercising.
It just seems overwhelming.
(17:47):
And, let's face it, most of ushave a very full life already
with whatever it is that we'redoing, and carving out that time
to create more space forexercising can be very difficult
.
So I kind of throw should outthe door.
If you're an elite levelathlete or you're preparing for
an athletic event, then thereare some shoulds maybe in that
(18:08):
scenario or in that equation.
But I'm not going to worryabout that right now.
I want to deal with Sarah's.
You know, the more basic issue,which is how do you get started
?
Like, what do you do to getstarted?
I would say start where you'reat.
So what does that mean?
That means, well, is she doingany exercising now?
And if she's doing exercisingnow, what is she doing?
Is it working out okay?
(18:28):
What are her goals?
Because there's movement formovement's sake, which is
important, like daily movementis important.
So a 10-minute walk, that couldbe daily movement.
Cooking in a kitchen for acouple of hours, that could be
daily movement.
Playing with grandchildren fora while we know how vigorous
that can get that's dailymovement.
(18:49):
Formal movement is another partof the equation.
So does Sarah do a barre class?
Does Sarah take a yoga class?
Does she have a weight trainingthing that she does?
Does she go for a walk with afriend after dinner for 30
minutes?
After that, I would say whatdoes Sarah like to do?
So the part about liking to dosomething it's important, as you
(19:13):
begin to think about moremovement, that it's pleasurable
in some degree, some way, shapeor form, or else you're not
going to do it.
If it's really miserable, whywere we spending the time or the
money to do it?
So it's got to have some kindof pleasure to it For me as a
fitness professional, I havepleasure in moving my body.
That feels good.
I have pleasure in being strong, so that feels good.
(19:35):
But people are not me.
That's why people like me exist, right, yes.
So I think it's really importantto find something that you
enjoy doing.
Now, if you hate exercisealtogether, which a lot of my
clients do, then find a workoutbuddy, somebody that you enjoy
their company.
You've got to find a hook ofsome sort or other, right?
(19:56):
So if the exercising itselfdoesn't do it for you, but you
know you should be doing it,figure out a scenario that is
going to be tolerable for you.
So, maybe looking forward to awalk with a friend, maybe you
have a dog, you have to walk thedog.
Maybe you have a dance classthat you really enjoy or you
dance in your kitchen, that'sfine.
So it's the working withyourself that's really critical,
(20:21):
and forgetting about what worksfor you or what works for me,
that might not work for Sarahand probably won't work for
Sarah.
So she's got to kind of use alittle bit of brain cells to
figure out, well, who's Sarahand what is Sarah like?
Cheryl Fischer (20:34):
Right, and it makes me think about a quote a
confused mind says no meaning.
If we throw too muchinformation at people, you can't
make a decision, so we don't doanything.
And maybe that's what peopleget stuck in with this.
I, maybe I'll do this, maybeI'll do that.
I don't know which one's better.
Yeah, yeah.
Laura Dow (20:54):
Yeah, I would say that any movement is better than
no movement.
So we had talked about.
You know what's one of the toptips that you can give?
Well, more movement is betterthan no movement within reason.
And yes, of course, you want tobe a good student or you want
to tick the box off you.
Okay, I got movement today.
So what are the things to lookfor?
(21:15):
Rhythmic movement.
So we call that cardio oraerobic exercise, it used to be
called.
So walking is one of theeasiest ways to get rhythmic
movement.
Biking is rhythmic movement.
Swimming is rhythmic movement.
Dancing is rhythmic movement.
So that's all of those things,and we can come up with some
(21:39):
more.
Those are great.
Okay, to do those more days ofthe week than not would be a
really good goal.
If you're not exercising at all, okay, 10 minutes, don't worry
about the.
You know whatever theorganization says.
And then weight training isreally critical, like being able
to manage your body weightthrough different positions with
good form, good posture, youknow, not hurting yourself.
So some kind of weight trainingroutine would be really helpful
as well, and that could be aslittle as 10 minutes every other
(22:01):
day.
It doesn't have to.
You don't have to go to a gym.
You don't have to spend themoney.
You don't have to, you know,worry about clothes or other
people.
You just you can do stuff athome.
Body weight stuff at home worksreally well and during pandemic
we didn't have health clubsanyway.
So, a lot of us did work out athome.
You can get a video, you canhave a membership to somebody's
channel and do weight trainingat home.
(22:23):
Then we want something to dowith your core, which the bar,
I'm sure helps you a lot withcore, because you've got to have
really good muscle control, soyou're getting a lot of good
stuff I'm sure helps you a lotwith core because you've got to
have really good muscle control,so you're getting a lot of good
stuff right in your barre class.
And then some stretch andmobility.
So some people take yoga class.
That would work.
But just as we get older, one ofthe things that we do need to
do is we need to prepare thebody better for working out.
(22:45):
So when we were 20, maybe wecould jump right in and just go
running.
We didn't have to do any kindof nothing, we didn't have to
warm up at all.
But when we're 50, 60, 70, 80,those joints have seen a lot of
life, and so you need to workthose joints through their range
of motion, which, if thatsounds like gobbledygook, all
that means is just someunweighted movements with your
(23:06):
arms, with your legs.
It's very simple.
You need about five to 10minutes of that, and then you're
pretty much good to go.
Cheryl Fischer (23:14):
That's a great overview and if you're listening
to this right now, maybe yousave this episode or you rewind
back and jot down what Laurajust said.
That was a great overview,because I feel like, okay, I'm
thinking about sort of theseboxes you gave us, which ones am
I checking?
I need to do better with mystretching.
I know that and I do notice itseems a little more challenging
(23:39):
to be flexible now.
I do notice that.
So I know what you're saying.
We need a little bit more maybe.
But now that I just said thatthe other direction I want to
take this conversation isself-talk, and maybe we need to
be careful with the things wesay because, as I'm saying it's
harder now, I'm thinking tomyself well, should I be saying
(23:59):
it's harder now?
So I know you work with a lotof your clients on this and
we're sort of being bombarded,as we were talking about earlier
, with these messages that nowwe're old or we can't do this or
that, and it's young people wesee being fit.
There's just a mix ofeverything.
(24:19):
So how does self-talk andmindset come into it for you?
Laura Dow (24:24):
Well, I could do like a week and a half on this,
because self-talk is just socritical.
I mentioned at the beginning,when you asked about ageism I
use the word insidious and thatwas about the negative
stereotypes that we use topigeonhole people based on the
number that they are, theirchronological age, rather than
what their ability is or whattheir history of movement is.
(24:45):
So the same thing is true withself-talk, and it's probably
even worse because at this pointwe've lived with ourselves for
however many decades, andsometimes we're not even aware
of the messages we're sendingourselves, and the messages that
we send ourselves are oftenbased on the messages we're
receiving.
So it's this big, can be thisbig negative feedback loop in a
(25:06):
really impactful way.
That's not good eventually.
So self-talk, I think, becomingmore aware and slowing down,
which is a problem.
In Washington DC, which iswhere I'm located, I have a lot
of clients that have very highlevel jobs and that are very
accomplished and that are go, go, go, and their jobs require a
lot of intellectual ability, sotheir brains are always on and
(25:29):
this this having having the timeand the space to just sit and
take a breath and just pause andreflect is basically
non-existent with a lot of theclients that I work with.
So getting them to slow downand just well, what do you feel
in your body?
Okay, and it's a fairly easything to go from what are you
feeling in your body to what isyour mind saying about this.
(25:51):
You know, what, what, what kindof mess?
What are you saying inside?
Sometimes they actually say itout loud.
If they say it out loud, I candeal with it.
It's like, okay, you just saidthat you didn't think you do.
You related this exercisesomehow to you're too old for
this or you can't do thisbecause of your age, like what's
that all about?
I mean, you just did a 10 poundbicep curl.
(26:12):
You know clearly you can do it,so you just disproved yourself.
Are you aware of that?
So I try to point out thedisconnect when it comes out of
their mouth.
We need to have a conversationand I try to kindly, because I
don't think people not to be upin their face.
I don't think that thatapproach really works.
But kindly say, are yourealizing that you just said one
thing but your body didsomething different that was in
(26:35):
direct contradiction to what yousaid.
You know there's a disconnect,so maybe you really are more
capable than what you think.
And again, people hire trainersbecause the trainer will
generally have an ability to seewhat's possible for that client
.
So it's my job to challenge.
If you were my client, it wouldbe my job to assess you.
(26:56):
Where are you at?
What's going on, what'saffecting your exercising, what
are your goals?
And then it's my job to helpyou on that journey, to get your
goals and to be able to walkthat fine line of challenging
you enough, challenging yourbody enough to make gains, but
not challenging you so much thatyou have an injury.
You're unsafe and it's hardsometimes, especially with new
(27:20):
people that you don't have along-term relationship with.
But, yeah, self-talk andself-image and the whole, you
know, whatever your internaldialogue is, I would highly
recommend that people just takea breath and look at what
they're saying to themselves,particularly when they're
getting frustrated or stressed.
Cheryl Fischer (27:37):
Yeah, I like sort of the juxtaposition if I
may use a big word, I think I'musing it right of this where
you're helping them exercise andI think maybe we all need to
hear that is it's not a big raceto do the most exercise in the
(28:04):
most little, the littlest time.
We need to pay attention towhat's going on in our bodies,
of course, so we don't getinjured, but also all the the
head stuff, yeah.
Laura Dow (28:15):
Yeah, I think the two things come to mind when you're
, when you rephrase that Thankyou.
One is this is a famous storyin my story, my repertoire of
client stories I have a client,a judge in DC, who likes to have
lists and check off the list,check off the box on the list,
and so I'll make up her name.
I would say to her okay,michelle, okay, so you just
(28:41):
checked off the box of yourexercising.
I said, but let's back up herefor a second.
It's not about checking the boxoff, it's about were you paying
attention to how your body wasmoving?
Were you breathing?
Were you aware of what you werefeeling?
Were you thinking, gosh, I'm sostrong, I can do this.
I mean, it's not just do, do,do, do, do.
It's also let's have aconnection here of the brain and
(29:04):
the body, the mind and the bodytogether.
And I've been after her for awhile.
She's a long-term client.
I've been after her for a whileand now she laughs when I talk
about the list.
She knows exactly where I'mgoing, but more often than not
she's much more present to whatshe's doing.
So the second part of yourreframe that came to mind was
(29:24):
that, in my background as a yogateacher.
We spend a lot of time about thebreath and about being present
to how we're feeling and what,not only emotionally, mentally,
but physically.
That's really the starting point, and the breath is the starting
point in yoga, at least the wayI was trained and so that's
particularly difficult foranybody who lives in an urban
environment, who, it's like on,you have to be on all the time
(29:48):
just to be able to take a breathand to just kind of slow down
and just kind of like stop for asecond and pause and be still.
I mean, that's really difficultfor a lot of people.
So I come to training with someextra tools in my toolbox.
I was never an athlete myself,as I mentioned about Title IX,
so I did not.
Typically a lot of trainerscome with a big athletic
(30:10):
background or they've playedsports or whatever the scenario
is, and I didn't have any ofthat.
I had the discipline of musicas my background when I came,
and also social work when I cameinto the field.
So yoga has helped meenormously with helping clients
to, you know, kind of slow downand pay attention.
Cheryl Fischer (30:29):
Interesting, interesting.
And it's funny because on theday we're taping this, I just
released a podcast episode aboutthe power of music and how good
it is for your brain and yourbody.
So isn't that funny that it'sall connected.
Laura Dow (30:44):
It is all connected for sure.
Cheryl Fischer (30:46):
I think this has been absolutely packed full of
great information and I'm goingto ask you in a minute to give
us like our big thing toremember.
But first, before you help uspull all that together, because
I might need help, tell me where, if someone's listening and
they want to know more about youor connect with you in some way
(31:08):
, where can they do that?
Laura Dow (31:10):
Sure, so my company is called Stiff2Fit
S-T-I-F-F-T-O-F-I-Tcom, andthat's my website.
You can find me there.
There's a contact form if you'dlike to reach out.
If you're in the DC area, youcan just Google me and you can
probably find me online.
I'm also on LinkedIn.
I'm very responsive to LinkedInrequests.
(31:32):
So I'm Laura Dow and you'll seemy picture.
I'm if you see the lady in thekayak, that's me.
I love it, and then I'm also onYouTube.
So if you're looking for someactual examples of some
exercises that I recommend, I dohave a short yoga practice.
That's chair yoga, but it'schair yoga.
It's chair yoga for anybody.
(31:52):
It's chair yoga for people whoneed chair.
I'm not against chair yoga, sodon't send me hate mail.
I like chair yoga.
It has its place in theuniverse.
Don't send me hate mail.
I like chair yoga.
It has its place in theuniverse.
What I'm against is labeling itbased on age rather than based
on what does a person need.
You know, somebody who's 20might need to be sitting in a
chair for lots of differentreasons, but I am on YouTube
(32:14):
under Stiff to Fit and I havethe chair yoga and I have a
standing yoga practice, as wellas a couple of videos on some
mobility practices.
Cheryl Fischer (32:22):
Oh fantastic.
Yeah, mobility I'm going tohave to go and look at, because
mobility, I can tell, is goingto be the thing I need to focus
on for sure.
Laura Dow (32:30):
And I also I want to mention my book, of course,
because that was a big deal forme in 2024.
Cheryl Fischer (32:36):
Yes, tell us just briefly a little bit more,
yeah.
Laura Dow (32:39):
Sure.
So I've written a book calledmind, your movement.
It's six essential physical andmental tools to stay active as
you age.
It's on Amazon and Kindle andon paperback, and it basically I
wanted I'm thinking in terms ofmy legacy and I wanted to take
the 20 years plus of being inthe fitness and yoga industry
and encapsulate it into somecommon sense information that
(33:02):
anybody reading the book couldpick at least one thing that's
immediately actionable from thebook.
I have client vignettes thatare based on true client stories
.
Their identities arecamouflaged so that you can see
that there are real people withreal problems and how we dealt
with it, and the book is kind ofsplit up between some physical
tools and mental tools.
(33:23):
So some of the self imagethings I talk about, self talk,
but also how to get your mind onboard so that your mind is
supporting your body and thatyour body is responding to your
mind, so that you're not at warwith yourself.
Cheryl Fischer (33:35):
You know what I I'm so glad that we brought that
into the discussion, Becausewhen I saw originally when we
met that into the discussion,because when I saw originally
when we met that the title ofyour book was Mind your Movement
, I said, well, that's a goodfit for Mind, your Midlife
podcast, isn't it AbsolutelyExcellent?
Well, as we're trying to wrapall this together, what would
you say?
(33:55):
I always call it the OMG moment.
What would you say is the thingthat people need to remember
from this episode?
Laura Dow (34:03):
I would say a couple of tidbits of common sense
information.
First of all, more movement isbetter than no movement.
So if you're laying on thecouch for hours, get off the
couch every hour and do asomething, whether that's you
know, dance around your kitchenfor two minutes, whether it's
you know.
People poo-poo very smallefforts.
They say, oh, that's not goingto make any difference.
(34:23):
And I'm here to tell you thatif you do small things
consistently, they morph intobig things over time.
So and that's one of the themesof the book is that if you have
to be, take a small step thatyou can do and it doesn't matter
if it's you know, don't compareyourself to other people, it
(34:48):
doesn't matter.
Take something you can do now,today, and then do that
consistently every day or everyother day, whatever your
consistent is, and then do thatfor weeks and months and you
will start to see change.
That's part of change is to dosomething different.
So more movement is better thanno movement within reason.
Start now is another commonsense idea.
And try to do things that youfeel like you're going to be
successful at.
(35:08):
That's really important too.
This gets into that self-imagething.
I have clients again.
I live in DC.
It's kind of a crazy placewhere people who have been on
the couch for months because ofpandemic or they lost their job
or whatever the scenario may be,they had an illness they then
decide, okay, I've had enough ofthis, I've been on the couch
for a year, I want to go run a5k.
(35:29):
Well, please don't don't gofrom zero to 5k in the space of
a month like, like, let's havesome realistic, you know,
thoughts here.
Let's have a plan which iswhere trainers come in or a
physical therapist or whoeveryour fitness.
You know people may be that youcan reach out to.
I can design a very nice planfor you.
You know, couch to 5k you canGoogle that online.
(35:51):
But you know it's very doable.
But it has to be doneintelligently or you put
yourself at risk for injury andyou also may not like the
process very much at all.
So that celebration part ofthat success part, I think is
really key to helping peoplestay consistent.
Cheryl Fischer (36:07):
Yes, I fully agree, and those are things that
maybe people can easilyremember too, which is really
important.
We are all surrounded byinformation all the time, so we
need things that stick in ourhead.
Oh, I remember when Laura saidthat more movement is better
than nothing, so let me just getup off the couch at the end of
this show, or whatever.
Yes, fully agree.
Well, laura, this has been afascinating discussion.
(36:30):
Thank you so much for joiningme Well.
Laura Dow (36:33):
thank you very much for having me.
I've thoroughly enjoyed ourconversation.
Cheryl Fischer (36:37):
There was so much to take away from that
discussion.
I feel like I understand alittle bit better what to watch
for in messages I'm getting fromthe media social media, other
people about fitness at variousages, and messages I'm getting
(37:00):
from myself about fitness atvarious ages, and I'm just going
to kind of let that simmer andchew on that for a little bit,
because it's powerful what we'retelling ourselves, no matter
whether it came from inside orit came from outside.
It's powerful, and I appreciateLaura's message on that and
(37:21):
also the list of the differenttypes of activities that would
be good for us to be doing.
Oh, my goodness, fantastic.
Save this episode, share itwith your friends.
I think we can all getsomething out of it.
Go to CherylPFishercom slash,read and grab Laura's book, or
at least take a look at it, andthen, if you want to come, hang
(37:42):
in the pod squad with us.
You will see the link for thatFacebook group in the show notes
as well.
Mind your midlife pod squad andmake sure you have hit the
follow button, because we'regoing to continue this theme
sort of next week.
We're going to talk aboutmindset when it comes to sports
and activities and basically digdeeper into this idea of are we
(38:09):
getting frustrated when we'retrying to learn something new?
What do we do about that?
How do we become resilient?
Related to that, so I can'twait for you to join me.
Oh, my goodness.
Let's keep creating confidenceand success, one thought at a
time.
When the subject of fitness and sports comes up,
I always kind of chuckle tomyself, because I will confess
to you that I did not play anysports.
I was on the flagline in highschool.
I did try taekwondo when mykids were younger and they were
(00:23):
doing it, but I did not grow upplaying sports and I did not
have a self image that told methat I could, if that makes
sense.
So I had to work on somemindset there, and you'll hear
me talk about that in otherepisodes, for sure.
But, that being said, I feel sostrongly about the fact that we
(00:47):
need to keep ourselves as fitand healthy as possible in
midlife and, of course, beyond.
It doesn't just stop here.
So this is something that Ireally, really am excited to
talk to our guest about today.
So let's go.
Welcome to Mind your Midlife,your go-to resource for
(01:10):
confidence and success, onethought at a time, unlike most
advice out there, we believethat simply telling you to
believe in yourself or changeyour habits isn't enough to wake
up excited about life or feeltruly confident in your body.
Each week, you'll gainactionable strategies and oh my
(01:30):
goodness powerful insights tostop feeling stuck and start
loving your midlife.
This is the Mind your MidlifePodcast.
You heard me say that I neverplayed sports.
I'm not a sporty person.
I am learning golf now.
Of course that's walking I am.
Also I have been doing pure barfor five years and it has
(01:55):
absolutely transformed mystrength and my core, which is
huge for me, and so I'm sothankful for that.
But I really never.
I never have loved exercise.
One of the reasons that classeswork for me and this is the
same reason that maybe a classor a personal trainer would work
for you is that once I'mcommitted, I've signed up, I'm
(02:18):
within the window.
I can't cancel without somesort of penalty, then then I'm
going to go, if that makes senseand maybe maybe you know
exactly what I mean If I wouldjust be going whenever I wanted
to go, like my husband does.
He likes to go, he wants to go.
That's not me, but what we'regoing to talk about today is
(02:40):
going to show us I think, maybejust underscore for us how
important it is to do something,and you'll hear my guest, laura
Dow, say maybe it's somethingvery simple and easy.
Ideally, it's something youenjoy, it's something and we
need to get rid of the headtrash about it, to get rid of
(03:07):
the head trash about it.
So we're here to talk aboutfitness in midlife and how that
is related to all the self-talkstuff that might be going on in
our head from messages of ageismthat we might have taken in
about what we should orshouldn't be doing at these ages
that we're in now, or what weshould or shouldn't be able to
do, or we're telling ourselveswe're too old for something all
that kind of mess.
(03:28):
We're going to address thattoday if that's something you're
doing to yourself.
So Laura Dow is the creator andowner of Stiff to Fit, which is
a fitness, yoga and wellnessbusiness that works with older
adults to help them maintaintheir movement.
She also is the author of thebook Mind your Movement, and
(03:50):
this is Mind your Midlife.
So, yeah, awesome, awesometitle, and I will definitely
have a link to her book in theshow notes for you as well.
She loves to exercise, but shealso loves to read, cook, travel
, enjoy some hot green tea, andshe lives near Washington DC.
So welcome Laura.
Laura Dow (04:17):
Thank you, Cheryl.
I'm very pleased to be here onthis call with you.
Cheryl Fischer (04:21):
Yes, I'm looking forward to this conversation
for sure.
So let's just start this way.
You work with midlife and olderwomen in the area of fitness,
so how did you end up doing?
Laura Dow (04:34):
that.
So I had a long career as aclassical musician when I was
younger and when I moved out toCalifornia in the early 2000s I
hoped to replicate that careerand wasn't able to for a variety
of reasons.
And at the same time I had beenin my own health and wellness
journey and had lost asignificant amount of weight.
(04:56):
So I was still working out anddoing all the things that I had
done previously.
And then I thought you know,I'm spending so much time in the
gym, somebody should pay me forall this time that I spend in
the gym.
And it happened surreptitiously.
But I got a part time job in awoman's only health club near
where I lived in California andI love talking to the ladies
(05:16):
about their own health andwellness journey.
And from that the ownersnoticed their two female owners
noticed that and said Laura, wewant you to do personal training
.
And I was like I'm not apersonal trainer, I don't know
how to do this and they said goget certified, we'll pay for it
and then we'll, we will promoteyou.
And that actually startedeverything.
(05:37):
And the ladies that were inthat club were predominantly
middle-aged and older women andthey were thrilled to have
somebody that looked like themor that was their age or that
had their life experience orwhatever the commonality was.
And from there, after that clubclosed, unfortunately.
I adored that club.
It was a great experience.
(05:58):
I started working in regularcommercial big box gyms and
women would find me you know,older women would find me and
they would be very happy to knowthat there was somebody that
was, you know, closer to theirdemographic and their mindset
and their lifestyle.
So it happened from thebeginning.
Cheryl Fischer (06:16):
You know what I love that and it it makes a
difference.
I actually do pure bar as oneof my main workouts and, and
because of where I happen tolive, I end up mostly in classes
with 20 somethings, maybe early30 somethings, and listeners.
You may or may not know, I amnot that age, I'm in my 50s and
(06:38):
I can hang in there with them,but I do love it when there are
people around my age.
It really it makes us feel Idon't know more accepted or
belonging or something I think.
Laura Dow (06:49):
Yeah, yeah, I just I do think that it's a commonality
.
We've gone through maybe thesame type of upbringing or the
same kind of life experienceswith the music or the shows, or
just the values of that timeperiod, cause, you know, every
generation's a little different.
So I've loved working witholder women.
It's been a real passion for meand I, as I said, just kind of
(07:10):
fell into it at the beginning,but it's worked out very well
for me and hopefully it's workedout great for my clients too.
Cheryl Fischer (07:16):
Yeah, I'm sure it has.
And on that topic, as we'retalking about liking to be with
older women and helping olderwomen, about liking to be with
older women and helping olderwomen, what we want to talk
about today is focused aroundreally ageism in this whole
realm of fitness and sports.
So when we even say the wordageism, what do we mean by that?
Laura Dow (07:36):
Yeah, ageism is discrimination based on age.
Now we look at ageism asdiscrimination against older
folks, but it can be againstyounger people as well and there
are some pretty good examplesof both sides of it.
But because of the demographicthat I work with and I'm also
not in my 20s or my 30s I'molder than you.
(07:57):
So for the folks who can't seeus, I represent the demographic
of an active, older woman.
I represent the demographic ofan active, older woman.
I look at ageism.
The insidious part of ageism isthe negative stereotypes that go
along with being older, andthis is particularly relevant in
the realm of fitness orexercise or movement and for
(08:19):
women, because women that aretypically my age and older did
not have access to team sportsgrowing up.
So Title IX came into effect in1972.
And there were court challengesto that, especially in the
public school systems.
They were receiving federalmoney.
There were a lot of legalchallenges to that so that when
(08:40):
I got into high school andbeyond, there still weren't
really a lot of teams for women.
They were just starting tohappen, even though I was
younger when Title IX was passed.
So I still run into women whohave never weight trained.
They've never picked up aweight.
I've run into women that Itrained that have never been in
a commercial big box gym, thatnever played a team sport.
(09:02):
I mean, this is actually verycommon in the demographic and
they do run into ageism.
Shall I give you an example?
Please do, absolutely Okay.
So I'm on a task force rightnow.
This subject is near and dearto my heart that's dealing with
ageism in fitness.
So we're in the middle ofwriting a white paper for the
industry and we've done a lot ofresearch, and so one of the
(09:24):
things that we've found is thatthe it's interesting how group
fitness instructors title theirclass names for older adults.
So you will have something likethis, and this is very this
seems very mild.
This doesn't seem like it's aproblem at all.
They'll have chair yoga forseniors.
Now, I'm a registered yogateacher and I have some real
(09:45):
opinions about that, so let meshare with you, if I may, a
couple of things, because thatsounds pretty innocuous, right?
What's wrong with chair yogafor seniors?
So I'm going to ask you, andI'll ask the audience, who are
seniors?
Are seniors 60 and up?
Are seniors 65 and up?
Do you know that we have 58million people 65 years and
(10:06):
older that all the way up past100?
So there's 58 million people inthis demographic if we call 65
and older.
Older.
So like a 65 year old is goingto have a lot of different
ability than a 90 year oldpotentially.
And somebody who's beensedentary all their life at 70
may be not in such good shapeand not function well, versus
(10:28):
someone who's 80 and has had ayoga practice for their entire
life or for decades of theirlife.
So chair yoga for seniors.
So I'm not sure who that's for.
Then the title of it it tellsyou that it's a chair yoga, so
it's going to be seated.
Well, that's not bad.
If I have a leg injury and Ican't stand and I'm 40 years old
, I might want to take thatclass.
(10:48):
Or if I have vertigo from maybea car accident or whatever, I
may want to take that class.
So if I'm a younger demographic, should I not take that class
because it's labeled for seniors?
So our issue with class titlesis that it doesn't tell you the
level of ability that you needto take the class safely.
So our focus in this task forceand I fully agree with this is
(11:11):
that focus on your ability, notyour age yes, the number that
you are doesn't matter.
It matters, like what's yourcurrent functioning and what
more do you want to do, or howdo you want to live your life,
and does your functioning matchhow you want to live your life?
Cheryl Fischer (11:27):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
And you know what?
I don't think I'm sure I'veseen a class titled that.
I know I've seen a video titledthat because I got one for my
mom when she was having healthissues and she needed to do
something like in a chair, asyou're saying.
Sometimes it makes sense, but Inever thought about the fact
(11:50):
that.
Yeah, who are we saying this isfor and why are we saying that?
Laura Dow (11:55):
Yeah, so I can get on my soapbox very easily about
this.
Because when you say chair yogafor seniors, if I went out on
the street and did a littlein-person interview, I think
most people would come up withnegative comments about what
chair yoga for seniors is.
They might say, oh it's gentle,oh it's easy.
Oh it's easy, oh, it's for oldpeople, which, by the way,
there's no old people, there'solder people but not old people,
(12:19):
just like there's not youngpeople, there's younger people.
So I think the whole ageismissue is for us to get much more
nuanced about how we refer tohuman life, the continuum of
human life, that there's notyoung people and old people.
There's tons of folks along thecontinuum and it's all relative
(12:40):
.
If I'm 64, which I am 64, thensomeone who's 65 is older,
they're not old, and someonewho's 54 is younger but they're
not young.
Does that make sense, thedistinction that I'm trying to
make?
It?
Cheryl Fischer (12:54):
absolutely does, and someone who is 64 could be
as active as someone who's intheir 30s.
Yet that 54-year-old could bereally incapacitated.
Who knows?
Laura Dow (13:08):
Yeah, exactly, that's a great point.
One of the things that we domention in this white paper is
that you absolutely cannot tellwhat somebody's history of
exercise is, which is reallyimportant to how they may be
functioning at this point, whattheir history of exercise is or
what their ability is based on.
Knowing what the age is, whatthe number is, right.
So the insidious part of theageism I mean there's blatant
(13:31):
ageism where you're not given ajob because you're your ex, you
know, you're over the hill,which is a terrible phrase.
I mean there's a whole range ofphrases that you don't want to
use anymore, that we used to usequite commonly, of someone
(13:53):
based on their age for anyreason.
That's ageism and that's kindof crazy, because I hadn't
thought of it like that.
You know, prior to being 64,like maybe five to 10 years ago,
I this was not on my radar, butas I age and as I continue to
help my clients stay active andstay independent and stay
functioning, it kind of just,you know, grates my cheese a
little bit when we have fitnessclasses that are not you don't
(14:15):
know going in what level ofability you're supposed to have,
and we do have people cominginto fitness into, like
retirement communities now thatare 70, that have worked out in
commercial big box gyms foryears, or they've run 10Ks for
years, or they've skied in theAlps for years.
I mean they've been active, alot more active than previous
(14:35):
demographics.
So we need to look at somethingkeep them functioning at the
level to which they'reaccustomed, if there are no
prevalent medical or healthissues that get in the way.
Yeah, so I'm a very bigadvocate of let's look at our
language, let's look at theseclass, let's look at you know my
clients will sometimes do thesame thing.
(14:57):
They won't dumb themselves down, but they'll undercut
themselves about what's possiblefor them.
You know this is not the pinkdumbbell.
I'm not a pink dumbbell trainer, and what I mean by that is
that sometimes in retirementcommunities in particular, which
I've worked in, you get two andthree pound dumbbells.
Now, if you have an injury oryou have some reason why you
(15:20):
can't lift more, that's fine.
But we know that the human bodyadapts to the exercise that's
being put on it over time.
So at some point in time, ifyou're still using three pound
dumbbells, you know a year fromnow, something's very wrong,
unless you have a health issuethat prevents you from moving up
, because your body's gottenused to it in a couple of months
(15:40):
.
So we need to continue tochallenge the human body within
reason and safely, and that'skind of what I'm all about.
Cheryl Fischer (15:47):
Yes, yes, yes, I really agree with that and in
my personal experience, the onlytypes of workouts or exercise
that have ever made a differencefor me have been weight related
either body weight or weightweight related.
And you do have to keepincreasing.
100% agree, absolutely agree.
(16:08):
I want to take this kind of intwo different directions, so I'm
going to pick one and thenwe'll see how we get back to the
other one.
So we've been talking aboutdiffering abilities at different
ages and how it doesn't reallygo with the age, and when I was
(16:29):
getting ready to chat with you,I went to my pod squad Facebook
group our little group of podfans and asked them if they
would have any questions for you, and Sarah in the group said
well, I don't know how toreconcile what we should be
doing at this age whatever age50, let's pick versus what we
(16:54):
want to do or like to do.
And to me, that question wasperfect for this discussion,
because what is this?
What we should be doing, right?
Laura Dow (17:04):
Yeah, it's a great question because that's a very,
again, common question across.
You know people who start tobecome more active with exercise
.
They all want to know.
Well, there's too muchinformation.
I don't know where to begin.
I don't know how to begin.
So, yes, let me address that.
So, first of all, I don'tbelieve in the word should.
I know that we haverecommendations about exercising
(17:26):
and I think that if you look atsome of the organizations that
promote their recommendations,which are reasonable
recommendations, you'll go downa rabbit hole about.
I can't possibly fit in 150minutes a week of exercise,
which is one of the standardrecommendations.
If you're doing nothing, 150minutes seems like it's four
days of exercising.
It just seems overwhelming.
(17:47):
And, let's face it, most of ushave a very full life already
with whatever it is that we'redoing, and carving out that time
to create more space forexercising can be very difficult
.
So I kind of throw should outthe door.
If you're an elite levelathlete or you're preparing for
an athletic event, then thereare some shoulds maybe in that
(18:08):
scenario or in that equation.
But I'm not going to worryabout that right now.
I want to deal with Sarah's.
You know, the more basic issue,which is how do you get started
?
Like, what do you do to getstarted?
I would say start where you'reat.
So what does that mean?
That means, well, is she doingany exercising now?
And if she's doing exercisingnow, what is she doing?
Is it working out okay?
(18:28):
What are her goals?
Because there's movement formovement's sake, which is
important, like daily movementis important.
So a 10-minute walk, that couldbe daily movement.
Cooking in a kitchen for acouple of hours, that could be
daily movement.
Playing with grandchildren fora while we know how vigorous
that can get that's dailymovement.
(18:49):
Formal movement is another partof the equation.
So does Sarah do a barre class?
Does Sarah take a yoga class?
Does she have a weight trainingthing that she does?
Does she go for a walk with afriend after dinner for 30
minutes?
After that, I would say whatdoes Sarah like to do?
So the part about liking to dosomething it's important, as you
(19:13):
begin to think about moremovement, that it's pleasurable
in some degree, some way, shapeor form, or else you're not
going to do it.
If it's really miserable, whywere we spending the time or the
money to do it?
So it's got to have some kindof pleasure to it For me as a
fitness professional, I havepleasure in moving my body.
That feels good.
I have pleasure in being strong, so that feels good.
(19:35):
But people are not me.
That's why people like me exist, right, yes.
So I think it's really importantto find something that you
enjoy doing.
Now, if you hate exercisealtogether, which a lot of my
clients do, then find a workoutbuddy, somebody that you enjoy
their company.
You've got to find a hook ofsome sort or other, right?
(19:56):
So if the exercising itselfdoesn't do it for you, but you
know you should be doing it,figure out a scenario that is
going to be tolerable for you.
So, maybe looking forward to awalk with a friend, maybe you
have a dog, you have to walk thedog.
Maybe you have a dance classthat you really enjoy or you
dance in your kitchen, that'sfine.
So it's the working withyourself that's really critical,
(20:21):
and forgetting about what worksfor you or what works for me,
that might not work for Sarahand probably won't work for
Sarah.
So she's got to kind of use alittle bit of brain cells to
figure out, well, who's Sarahand what is Sarah like?
Cheryl Fischer (20:34):
Right, and it makes me think about a quote a
confused mind says no meaning.
If we throw too muchinformation at people, you can't
make a decision, so we don't doanything.
And maybe that's what peopleget stuck in with this.
I, maybe I'll do this, maybeI'll do that.
I don't know which one's better.
Yeah, yeah.
Laura Dow (20:54):
Yeah, I would say that any movement is better than
no movement.
So we had talked about.
You know what's one of the toptips that you can give?
Well, more movement is betterthan no movement within reason.
And yes, of course, you want tobe a good student or you want
to tick the box off you.
Okay, I got movement today.
So what are the things to lookfor?
(21:15):
Rhythmic movement.
So we call that cardio oraerobic exercise, it used to be
called.
So walking is one of theeasiest ways to get rhythmic
movement.
Biking is rhythmic movement.
Swimming is rhythmic movement.
Dancing is rhythmic movement.
So that's all of those things,and we can come up with some
(21:39):
more.
Those are great.
Okay, to do those more days ofthe week than not would be a
really good goal.
If you're not exercising at all, okay, 10 minutes, don't worry
about the.
You know whatever theorganization says.
And then weight training isreally critical, like being able
to manage your body weightthrough different positions with
good form, good posture, youknow, not hurting yourself.
So some kind of weight trainingroutine would be really helpful
as well, and that could be aslittle as 10 minutes every other
(22:01):
day.
It doesn't have to.
You don't have to go to a gym.
You don't have to spend themoney.
You don't have to, you know,worry about clothes or other
people.
You just you can do stuff athome.
Body weight stuff at home worksreally well and during pandemic
we didn't have health clubsanyway.
So, a lot of us did work out athome.
You can get a video, you canhave a membership to somebody's
channel and do weight trainingat home.
(22:23):
Then we want something to dowith your core, which the bar,
I'm sure helps you a lot withcore, because you've got to have
really good muscle control, soyou're getting a lot of good
stuff I'm sure helps you a lotwith core because you've got to
have really good muscle control,so you're getting a lot of good
stuff right in your barre class.
And then some stretch andmobility.
So some people take yoga class.
That would work.
But just as we get older, one ofthe things that we do need to
do is we need to prepare thebody better for working out.
(22:45):
So when we were 20, maybe wecould jump right in and just go
running.
We didn't have to do any kindof nothing, we didn't have to
warm up at all.
But when we're 50, 60, 70, 80,those joints have seen a lot of
life, and so you need to workthose joints through their range
of motion, which, if thatsounds like gobbledygook, all
that means is just someunweighted movements with your
(23:06):
arms, with your legs.
It's very simple.
You need about five to 10minutes of that, and then you're
pretty much good to go.
Cheryl Fischer (23:14):
That's a great overview and if you're listening
to this right now, maybe yousave this episode or you rewind
back and jot down what Laurajust said.
That was a great overview,because I feel like, okay, I'm
thinking about sort of theseboxes you gave us, which ones am
I checking?
I need to do better with mystretching.
I know that and I do notice itseems a little more challenging
(23:39):
to be flexible now.
I do notice that.
So I know what you're saying.
We need a little bit more maybe.
But now that I just said thatthe other direction I want to
take this conversation isself-talk, and maybe we need to
be careful with the things wesay because, as I'm saying it's
harder now, I'm thinking tomyself well, should I be saying
(23:59):
it's harder now?
So I know you work with a lotof your clients on this and
we're sort of being bombarded,as we were talking about earlier
, with these messages that nowwe're old or we can't do this or
that, and it's young people wesee being fit.
There's just a mix ofeverything.
(24:19):
So how does self-talk andmindset come into it for you?
Laura Dow (24:24):
Well, I could do like a week and a half on this,
because self-talk is just socritical.
I mentioned at the beginning,when you asked about ageism I
use the word insidious and thatwas about the negative
stereotypes that we use topigeonhole people based on the
number that they are, theirchronological age, rather than
what their ability is or whattheir history of movement is.
(24:45):
So the same thing is true withself-talk, and it's probably
even worse because at this pointwe've lived with ourselves for
however many decades, andsometimes we're not even aware
of the messages we're sendingourselves, and the messages that
we send ourselves are oftenbased on the messages we're
receiving.
So it's this big, can be thisbig negative feedback loop in a
(25:06):
really impactful way.
That's not good eventually.
So self-talk, I think, becomingmore aware and slowing down,
which is a problem.
In Washington DC, which iswhere I'm located, I have a lot
of clients that have very highlevel jobs and that are very
accomplished and that are go, go, go, and their jobs require a
lot of intellectual ability, sotheir brains are always on and
(25:29):
this this having having the timeand the space to just sit and
take a breath and just pause andreflect is basically
non-existent with a lot of theclients that I work with.
So getting them to slow downand just well, what do you feel
in your body?
Okay, and it's a fairly easything to go from what are you
feeling in your body to what isyour mind saying about this.
(25:51):
You know, what, what, what kindof mess?
What are you saying inside?
Sometimes they actually say itout loud.
If they say it out loud, I candeal with it.
It's like, okay, you just saidthat you didn't think you do.
You related this exercisesomehow to you're too old for
this or you can't do thisbecause of your age, like what's
that all about?
I mean, you just did a 10 poundbicep curl.
(26:12):
You know clearly you can do it,so you just disproved yourself.
Are you aware of that?
So I try to point out thedisconnect when it comes out of
their mouth.
We need to have a conversationand I try to kindly, because I
don't think people not to be upin their face.
I don't think that thatapproach really works.
But kindly say, are yourealizing that you just said one
thing but your body didsomething different that was in
(26:35):
direct contradiction to what yousaid.
You know there's a disconnect,so maybe you really are more
capable than what you think.
And again, people hire trainersbecause the trainer will
generally have an ability to seewhat's possible for that client
.
So it's my job to challenge.
If you were my client, it wouldbe my job to assess you.
(26:56):
Where are you at?
What's going on, what'saffecting your exercising, what
are your goals?
And then it's my job to helpyou on that journey, to get your
goals and to be able to walkthat fine line of challenging
you enough, challenging yourbody enough to make gains, but
not challenging you so much thatyou have an injury.
You're unsafe and it's hardsometimes, especially with new
(27:20):
people that you don't have along-term relationship with.
But, yeah, self-talk andself-image and the whole, you
know, whatever your internaldialogue is, I would highly
recommend that people just takea breath and look at what
they're saying to themselves,particularly when they're
getting frustrated or stressed.
Cheryl Fischer (27:37):
Yeah, I like sort of the juxtaposition if I
may use a big word, I think I'musing it right of this where
you're helping them exercise andI think maybe we all need to
hear that is it's not a big raceto do the most exercise in the
(28:04):
most little, the littlest time.
We need to pay attention towhat's going on in our bodies,
of course, so we don't getinjured, but also all the the
head stuff, yeah.
Laura Dow (28:15):
Yeah, I think the two things come to mind when you're
, when you rephrase that Thankyou.
One is this is a famous storyin my story, my repertoire of
client stories I have a client,a judge in DC, who likes to have
lists and check off the list,check off the box on the list,
and so I'll make up her name.
I would say to her okay,michelle, okay, so you just
(28:41):
checked off the box of yourexercising.
I said, but let's back up herefor a second.
It's not about checking the boxoff, it's about were you paying
attention to how your body wasmoving?
Were you breathing?
Were you aware of what you werefeeling?
Were you thinking, gosh, I'm sostrong, I can do this.
I mean, it's not just do, do,do, do, do.
It's also let's have aconnection here of the brain and
(29:04):
the body, the mind and the bodytogether.
And I've been after her for awhile.
She's a long-term client.
I've been after her for a whileand now she laughs when I talk
about the list.
She knows exactly where I'mgoing, but more often than not
she's much more present to whatshe's doing.
So the second part of yourreframe that came to mind was
(29:24):
that, in my background as a yogateacher.
We spend a lot of time about thebreath and about being present
to how we're feeling and what,not only emotionally, mentally,
but physically.
That's really the starting point, and the breath is the starting
point in yoga, at least the wayI was trained and so that's
particularly difficult foranybody who lives in an urban
environment, who, it's like on,you have to be on all the time
(29:48):
just to be able to take a breathand to just kind of slow down
and just kind of like stop for asecond and pause and be still.
I mean, that's really difficultfor a lot of people.
So I come to training with someextra tools in my toolbox.
I was never an athlete myself,as I mentioned about Title IX,
so I did not.
Typically a lot of trainerscome with a big athletic
(30:10):
background or they've playedsports or whatever the scenario
is, and I didn't have any ofthat.
I had the discipline of musicas my background when I came,
and also social work when I cameinto the field.
So yoga has helped meenormously with helping clients
to, you know, kind of slow downand pay attention.
Cheryl Fischer (30:29):
Interesting, interesting.
And it's funny because on theday we're taping this, I just
released a podcast episode aboutthe power of music and how good
it is for your brain and yourbody.
So isn't that funny that it'sall connected.
Laura Dow (30:44):
It is all connected for sure.
Cheryl Fischer (30:46):
I think this has been absolutely packed full of
great information and I'm goingto ask you in a minute to give
us like our big thing toremember.
But first, before you help uspull all that together, because
I might need help, tell me where, if someone's listening and
they want to know more about youor connect with you in some way
(31:08):
, where can they do that?
Laura Dow (31:10):
Sure, so my company is called Stiff2Fit
S-T-I-F-F-T-O-F-I-Tcom, andthat's my website.
You can find me there.
There's a contact form if you'dlike to reach out.
If you're in the DC area, youcan just Google me and you can
probably find me online.
I'm also on LinkedIn.
I'm very responsive to LinkedInrequests.
(31:32):
So I'm Laura Dow and you'll seemy picture.
I'm if you see the lady in thekayak, that's me.
I love it, and then I'm also onYouTube.
So if you're looking for someactual examples of some
exercises that I recommend, I dohave a short yoga practice.
That's chair yoga, but it'schair yoga.
It's chair yoga for anybody.
(31:52):
It's chair yoga for people whoneed chair.
I'm not against chair yoga, sodon't send me hate mail.
I like chair yoga.
It has its place in theuniverse.
Don't send me hate mail.
I like chair yoga.
It has its place in theuniverse.
What I'm against is labeling itbased on age rather than based
on what does a person need.
You know, somebody who's 20might need to be sitting in a
chair for lots of differentreasons, but I am on YouTube
(32:14):
under Stiff to Fit and I havethe chair yoga and I have a
standing yoga practice, as wellas a couple of videos on some
mobility practices.
Cheryl Fischer (32:22):
Oh fantastic.
Yeah, mobility I'm going tohave to go and look at, because
mobility, I can tell, is goingto be the thing I need to focus
on for sure.
Laura Dow (32:30):
And I also I want to mention my book, of course,
because that was a big deal forme in 2024.
Cheryl Fischer (32:36):
Yes, tell us just briefly a little bit more,
yeah.
Laura Dow (32:39):
Sure.
So I've written a book calledmind, your movement.
It's six essential physical andmental tools to stay active as
you age.
It's on Amazon and Kindle andon paperback, and it basically I
wanted I'm thinking in terms ofmy legacy and I wanted to take
the 20 years plus of being inthe fitness and yoga industry
and encapsulate it into somecommon sense information that
(33:02):
anybody reading the book couldpick at least one thing that's
immediately actionable from thebook.
I have client vignettes thatare based on true client stories
.
Their identities arecamouflaged so that you can see
that there are real people withreal problems and how we dealt
with it, and the book is kind ofsplit up between some physical
tools and mental tools.
(33:23):
So some of the self imagethings I talk about, self talk,
but also how to get your mind onboard so that your mind is
supporting your body and thatyour body is responding to your
mind, so that you're not at warwith yourself.
Cheryl Fischer (33:35):
You know what I I'm so glad that we brought that
into the discussion, Becausewhen I saw originally when we
met that into the discussion,because when I saw originally
when we met that the title ofyour book was Mind your Movement
, I said, well, that's a goodfit for Mind, your Midlife
podcast, isn't it AbsolutelyExcellent?
Well, as we're trying to wrapall this together, what would
you say?
(33:55):
I always call it the OMG moment.
What would you say is the thingthat people need to remember
from this episode?
Laura Dow (34:03):
I would say a couple of tidbits of common sense
information.
First of all, more movement isbetter than no movement.
So if you're laying on thecouch for hours, get off the
couch every hour and do asomething, whether that's you
know, dance around your kitchenfor two minutes, whether it's
you know.
People poo-poo very smallefforts.
They say, oh, that's not goingto make any difference.
(34:23):
And I'm here to tell you thatif you do small things
consistently, they morph intobig things over time.
So and that's one of the themesof the book is that if you have
to be, take a small step thatyou can do and it doesn't matter
if it's you know, don't compareyourself to other people, it
(34:48):
doesn't matter.
Take something you can do now,today, and then do that
consistently every day or everyother day, whatever your
consistent is, and then do thatfor weeks and months and you
will start to see change.
That's part of change is to dosomething different.
So more movement is better thanno movement within reason.
Start now is another commonsense idea.
And try to do things that youfeel like you're going to be
successful at.
(35:08):
That's really important too.
This gets into that self-imagething.
I have clients again.
I live in DC.
It's kind of a crazy placewhere people who have been on
the couch for months because ofpandemic or they lost their job
or whatever the scenario may be,they had an illness they then
decide, okay, I've had enough ofthis, I've been on the couch
for a year, I want to go run a5k.
(35:29):
Well, please don't don't gofrom zero to 5k in the space of
a month like, like, let's havesome realistic, you know,
thoughts here.
Let's have a plan which iswhere trainers come in or a
physical therapist or whoeveryour fitness.
You know people may be that youcan reach out to.
I can design a very nice planfor you.
You know, couch to 5k you canGoogle that online.
(35:51):
But you know it's very doable.
But it has to be doneintelligently or you put
yourself at risk for injury andyou also may not like the
process very much at all.
So that celebration part ofthat success part, I think is
really key to helping peoplestay consistent.
Cheryl Fischer (36:07):
Yes, I fully agree, and those are things that
maybe people can easilyremember too, which is really
important.
We are all surrounded byinformation all the time, so we
need things that stick in ourhead.
Oh, I remember when Laura saidthat more movement is better
than nothing, so let me just getup off the couch at the end of
this show, or whatever.
Yes, fully agree.
Well, laura, this has been afascinating discussion.
(36:30):
Thank you so much for joiningme Well.
Laura Dow (36:33):
thank you very much for having me.
I've thoroughly enjoyed ourconversation.
Cheryl Fischer (36:37):
There was so much to take away from that
discussion.
I feel like I understand alittle bit better what to watch
for in messages I'm getting fromthe media social media, other
people about fitness at variousages, and messages I'm getting
(37:00):
from myself about fitness atvarious ages, and I'm just going
to kind of let that simmer andchew on that for a little bit,
because it's powerful what we'retelling ourselves, no matter
whether it came from inside orit came from outside.
It's powerful, and I appreciateLaura's message on that and
(37:21):
also the list of the differenttypes of activities that would
be good for us to be doing.
Oh, my goodness, fantastic.
Save this episode, share itwith your friends.
I think we can all getsomething out of it.
Go to CherylPFishercom slash,read and grab Laura's book, or
at least take a look at it, andthen, if you want to come, hang
(37:42):
in the pod squad with us.
You will see the link for thatFacebook group in the show notes
as well.
Mind your midlife pod squad andmake sure you have hit the
follow button, because we'regoing to continue this theme
sort of next week.
We're going to talk aboutmindset when it comes to sports
and activities and basically digdeeper into this idea of are we
(38:09):
getting frustrated when we'retrying to learn something new?
What do we do about that?
How do we become resilient?
Related to that, so I can'twait for you to join me.
Oh, my goodness.
Let's keep creating confidenceand success, one thought at a
time.
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