You never see me deadlift nowadays, do you?
If you do it’s light and not loaded to challenge my muscles.
Romanian deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, unilateral deadlifts, conventional deadlifts, off the rack walkout straight leg deadlifts, on the bench stiff leg deadlifts: I did them all for many years!
I train clients who are half my age with unstoppable bodies. Deadlifts are part of their routine to build strength and muscle.
I used to do 20 sets of heavy deadlifts, if not more, I pretended I didn’t do as much, you know, to not get criticized for doing what I wanted, not following the protocol everyone else had as guide.
I didn’t follow the strength and muscle building programs of other trainers, I did it my own way.
At times I used programs like MAX-OT and the reduction of my extreme workout volume always led to a sudden increase of strength and muscle size.
How come? Well, I let my body adapt to grow. I remember my younger self who reasoned my body didn’t really need periodization, or rest.
My young mind justified training for hours without taking time off for years.
Since my body didn’t stop me I considered it a right for me to train as much as I wanted and as hard as I wanted, I trusted my body would tell me when I needed to rest or slow down.
Well, when my body was tired my mind turned tougher, dig in, build true discipline, grit, to show myself who’s the master, I identified myself with my mind, I was my mind.
I had a strong body but I did have many strains and tears, they accumulated over the years, and I learned a lot from every setback.
I did not want to stop training, it was my addiction, my drug, my outlet.
I felt it was ok to never rest, you know, since I never took any pain killers and stayed drug-free all my life.
Do you remember when I was sitting on facebook live crying about having to stop training to have hamstring surgery? I had never taken more than one week off for 18 years and I was terrified about what would happen. How would I train if I did get back to it?
I was in despair and felt I had nothing to live for if I had no body to train hard anymore.
What would my fitness life be without deadlifts? There was no other exercise as powerful as deadlifts and squats, I needed these in my life.
Yeah, you can tell, huh! My mind was closed off, I was filled with fears of losing my strong physique I had built since I committed to bodybuilding Feb 20, 1999.
Let’s now come back to today and my work as coach and trainer.
I have noticed 10 things that make women over 40 believe you can’t build your body after 40.
Most of my clients are unaware of my training life evolution, everyone is living with the fitness trainer Pauline Nordin in my 20s or 30s.
Most women who come to my coaching believe that I am doing the same old I’ve always done, or that I don’t even lift anymore, that I just do yoga and walk in the forest.
But if that was the case I would not have the strong muscle body I still have.
It is very important for me that you know my perspective, my way of training life I live today.
I am not comparing myself to other female fitness trainers who are stronger than I am, who have not trained their bodies like a maniac the way I did.
I am here to tell you about my fitness life so you might feel less defeated and discouraged in your own bodybuilding life after 40.
10 Things to know about my training life after 40, I’m 44.
Deadlifts are out for me: the loading curve hits the spots I have injured multiple times. This means I keep hitting my weak spots, I risk tearing again.
When I record workouts for women who can deadlift I only do the move to demonstrate, I do not load it. You must be aware of this so you load your lifts according to your ability, not copy my too light work you see in my videos.
I have made it my expertise to create new ways to override my soft spots and overload my body in other angles, so the toughest overload area hits a stronger muscle or joint area, for instance I purposely flex my hips instead of extending them in moves hitting hamstrings who extend at the hips.
I use timed sets to overload my body that produces greater work compared to going by the good old 6-20 reps style. It is harder work I do now than I ever did when I was young, that is why I build more muscle now than in my life doing 6 reps with max weight.
I train with excellent techniques instead of doing sloppy cheating, I can’t get away with that, training my ego results in strains.
My priority is to stay in training mode, I take care of my recovery like a true professional athlete, not a gym rat.
I listen to my body and practice self care for my muscles and stay consistent with healing therapy for my body. I train hard and rest harder!
I do way less volume per workout, I do more full body workouts with very little volume per muscle group or body area. The main reason is fatigue and lack of enthusiasm in doing more than a few sets per move.
I focus on 1-3 exercises and work each set with full attention, mindfulness and presence. Every second under tension matters, it’s a type of meditation: laser focus.
My reduction of workout frequency has given me more muscle strength and muscle mass than I had in the past. And I stay leaner than in my toughest, hardest training era of my life. The reason is my nutrition discipline is consistent, not fluctuating.
I hope this gives you insights and helps you feel more confident in your own training life.
I welcome you to join my coaching and training community to get more real fitness life coaching instead of living under the cloud and believing you’re inferior, inadequate or too weak.
You’re not, you’re just not in the right fitness training tribe!
Watch my Deadlift tutorial today!
