Tag: #strength

Journey to Fitness with Melissa Wilson

November 11, 2025 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

#190 Journey to Fitness with Melissa Wilson

In this inspiring episode, Jill and Chris chat with Melissa Wilson, a vibrant grandmother who’s redefining what it means to be fit and strong after 60. Jill met Melissa at the gym and has watched her incredible transformation firsthand — from hesitant beginner to confident, strong, and motivated athlete.

Melissa shares her personal fitness journey, the turning point that motivated her to start, and how her mindset and lifestyle have evolved along the way. She opens up about challenges, surprises, and the role that community, consistency, and courage have played in her success.

Whether she’s tackling a tough challenge like the Murph, perfecting her lifts, or planning her next goal, Melissa shows that it’s never too late to become your strongest self — inside and out.

We discuss:

How Melissa began her fitness journey and what sparked her transformation
The importance of learning proper form and working with supportive coaches and gym friends
What surprised her most about getting stronger after 60
How her confidence, energy, and outlook on life have changed through fitness
The hardest parts of her journey — and how she overcame setbacks and injuries
Her favorite exercises and the ones that used to intimidate her
Insights into her nutrition habits and how her approach to food has evolved
The story behind completing the Murph Challenge and other fitness milestones
How reading, reflection, and fitness complement each other in her life
Her message for anyone who thinks they’re “too old” or “too out of shape” to start

Melissa’s story is a reminder that with consistency, support, and a willingness to learn, it’s possible to build strength, confidence, and joy at any stage of life.

Links:

Instagram: melissa_liftsandreads

Murph Challenge

Our podcast continues to be among the top podcasts for women over 50, especially in the health and fitness categories. See our ranking in the top 2% of all podcasts here.

Age Wise Podcast Partner – Jennifer Fink
(Host of Fading Memories, a caregiver podcast)

Want to age well and support the aging loved ones in your life? Fading Memories is a podcast that offers valuable insights for both! It provides insights and guidance to caregivers on communicating effectively, managing stress, and coping with grief and loss.

Join host Jennifer Fink as she discusses brain health recommendations, effective caregiving techniques and self-care strategies – all crucial for aging gracefully and navigating the challenges of caregiving. Tune in to Fading Memories for practical advice and compassionate support on your journey of aging well.

To listen, visit www.FadingMemoriespodcast.com

Stronger Together: What I’ve Learned from the Becoming Elli Community

October 20, 2025 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

When Chris and I started Becoming Elli, we were searching for answers—and connection. Like many women over 50, I wanted to get stronger, healthier, and feel confident in my body again. But most fitness spaces didn’t seem to understand what that journey looks like for us. So we decided to create one. You can read more about our story and why we started this community here.

What began as a simple idea has blossomed into a vibrant, supportive community. Every day, I’m inspired by the stories you share: women running their first races, lifting heavier weights than they ever imagined possible, and rediscovering joy in movement.

Why We Cheer Each Other On

You know what I love most about this community? Watching how we lift each other up. It’s not about perfection or comparison—it’s about progress and persistence. When someone posts about finishing a challenging workout or making a nourishing food choice, others jump right in with encouragement. That support? It matters. It’s what keeps us all moving forward.

Strength Looks Different Than We Thought

Here’s something Chris and I have learned along the way: strength isn’t just physical—though that’s certainly part of it. Research shows that women who do strength training just two to three times a week can reduce their risk of death from heart disease by 30%, but it’s the emotional, mental, and social strength that often matters just as much. Every time a member reaches out with a kind word or shares a story of resilience, we all grow a little stronger together.

The science backs up what we see in our community every day. Studies have shown that strength training helps women over 50 maintain muscle mass, improve mobility, and increase healthy years of life. But beyond the numbers, we’ve witnessed something even more powerful: women discovering they’re capable of so much more than they thought possible.

Becoming Elli isn’t just a website or a podcast—it’s a movement. It’s living proof that women over 50 can redefine what strength looks like, on our own terms and together.

We’re grateful every single day to be part of this incredible community.

If you’re new here—welcome! Join the conversation, share your story, and discover what it means to become Elli: becoming strong, confident, and empowered at any age.

Ready to join us? Connect with our community on Facebook and start your journey today.

What’s Your Current Workout Routine?

June 17, 2025 / Chris Brown / 1 Comment

I have been mixing up my current workout routine as we have moved from cold weather, to rainy weather and now entering summer hot humid weather.

Besides doing the solo routine I’ve outlined below, I’ve been doing a lot of walking when the weather is nice and indoor exercise classes when it’s raining or too humid.

This is what my current workout routine looks like right now:

Monday/Wednesday/Friday routine

Five to 10 minute warmup exercises – marching in place, tin man toe touches, side knees, skaters, inch worm push ups and modified jumping jacks.

Weighted squats – I use an 18 pound kettlebell (AKA Blue kettlebell) and squat down slowly for a count of four, exhaling on the way up. i currently am doing four sets of 12 squats.

Band Holds – For the band holds, I wrap a black exercise band around the vertical metal bar in my gym. Then hold my arms out straight pulling the band to the front of me. My knees are slightly bent and I focus on keeping my belly button in toward my spine. Hold for 30 seconds on the right, then switch to 30 seconds on the left. I do 3 sets of these.

Bird Dog – Using a mat with my knees on a towel, I raise my right arm parallel to the floor while extending my left leg out straight. My ankle is flexed, reaching for the wall. I hold for a few breaths and switch to the other arm/leg. About 30 seconds worth of bird dogs and then child’s pose for about 10 seconds. Three sets of the bird dog exercises.

I-Y-T-As – These exercises are also on the mat. They are sort of like Supermans, but instead you make your arms look like an I T Y A and hold for a few seconds at each position. I skip the I’s because my neck has been bothering me. Also I raise my feet/legs off the ground while doing the ITYAs. I do 30 seconds of it times three sets.

Leg lifts – I remember being able to do leg lifts like no body’s business, but but now, I’m definitely more challenged. I am currently doing 18-20 leg lifts in one minute. I’m slowly lowering my legs, exhaling on the lifts.

This is what I’ve been doing lately and I’m enjoying the routine. I’m feeling stronger and almost ready to move up a level next week. (Check out that link for 5 ways to measure your progress!)

What is your current workout routine? Let me know in the comments below.

Training Her Way to Health with Jill Johnson

March 11, 2025 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

#174 -Training Her Way to Health with Jill Johnson

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When we saw what Jill Johnson posted on social media at the beginning of this year, we knew we wanted to talk with her!

Three years ago, she was not walking -fast forward to the end of 2024 when she was able to pull a sled with 4 plates equaling 245 pounds for nearly 50 feet across the gym floor!

The video she posted is inspirational too!

She attributes her success to surrounding herself with the right people: a strongman competitor who saw her potential and a coach who knew how to unlock it.

She obviously knows about overcoming challenges, getting strong and being motivated.

We discussed:

What she did to lose 35 pounds and bring her blood pressure back to normal
How hiring a training coach made all the difference
Retraining her right quad from not firing and dealing with “glute amnesia”
Knowing from her job working with aging services that the less muscle mass you have as you age, the more care you will need
How bicycling and high interval training helped boost her energy level.
Developing micro goals and prioritizing her longevity, moving past being judged
Her team of people that broke down the mechanics of a skill to demystify the process
Walking in nature on mulch as opposed to concrete or asphalt to help her joints
How progressions, practice and presentation (how she showed up for the world)
The food choice changes she made and how it has helped her
Sheet pan – roasted balsamic chicken. Taco with zucchini.
Premaking and prepping as many meals as possible and having portable food (ex. hard boiled eggs)

Links:

Facebook Jill Johnson USA

Linked In Jill Johnson USA

Instagram JillJohnsonUSA

Downshiftology food inspiration website

Our podcast continues to be among the top podcasts for women over 50, especially in the health and fitness categories. See our ranking in the top 2% of all podcasts here.

Podcast Partner Spotlight for March 2025:

If you enjoy what we talk about on the Fit Strong Women Over 50 podcast, you may also like Aging With Purpose and Passion.

Are you ready to embrace your next chapter? Aging with Purpose and Passion is a weekly podcast that empowers women over 50 to take on life’s biggest challenges with boldness and resilience, through courageous, transformative stories. Hosted by Psychotherapist and Coach Beverley Glazer, this show dives into topics like loss, abuse, relationships, career transitions, health, and more—offering real insights and practical tools to help you redefine aging, reignite your passion, and embrace your true value with pride. No topic is off-limits. Tune in to start creating the joyful life you deserve to achieve!

Listen here: https://www.agingwithpurposeandpassion.com or on your favorite podcast platform.

Party and Diet with Kerstin Schulze

February 25, 2025 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

#173 Party and Diet with Kerstin Schulze

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In episode #173, Jill and Chris talk with Kerstin Schulze, a powerhouse in both entertainment and wellness.

Originally from Germany, Kerstin’s journey began with a silver medal at the Junior Olympics in Berlin. From there, she pursued her love for performance with formal theater training and a business degree before making her way to Los Angeles.

Kerstin’s acting career is extensive. She’s worked with many well-known actors and directors. To check out her acting life, click the link to find her IMDb page.

She founded Party and Diet 24 years ago. It’s an innovative fitness company that specializes in providing tailored nutritional and exercise programs, now designed specifically for individuals aged 40-75.

We discuss:

The challenges of maintaining vitality, strength, and balance during perimenopause and menopause
Why her website is named Party and Diet
Her suggestions for different types of exercises for women over 50 who are just starting out
Work out with weights two days a week, one day heavy and the other day lighter weights with higher volume
Cross training with yoga, group walks, balance, flexibility, stretching on days you don’t lift weights
The biggest mistake when people start an exercise routine is too far, too fast, too long.
Consistency everyday rather than too much once a week
Recommendations for seated squat, table push ups, using a band and the importance of protecting your back
What is meant by vacuuming your abs
The value of hanging from a monkey bar
Diet: the power of plants, getting enough protein,

Links:

Her Website: PartyandDiet.com
Instagram @PartyandDiet
Arbonne plant based proteins
Video with Exercise Fundamentals focusing on good form for squats, lunges, pushups, vacuum abs
Her IMDb page with video clips and photos

Our podcast continues to be among the top podcasts for women over 50, especially in the health and fitness categories. See our ranking in the top 2% of all podcasts here.

Podcast Partner Spotlight for February 2025:

If you enjoy what we talk about on the Fit Strong Women Over 50 podcast, you may want to checkout the Women Over 70™ – Aging Reimagined podcast.

Women Over 70™ – Aging Reimagined, is dedicated to shining the spotlight on women living vibrantly and to shattering the myth that women become irrelevant as they age. Listen to the powerful stories of women aging. Their stories celebrate women’s enduring courage, compassion and contribution. Listen to this podcast at the Women Over 70 website.

Strength Training Guidelines

July 14, 2022 / Jill McCauslin / 6 Comments

We’ve talked a lot about strength training guidelines for adults on our podcast. I thought I’d provide a quick recap of those guidelines and give you some ideas on how to get in quality strength workouts.

Strength Training Guidelines

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), healthy adults should perform strength training at least twice a week on non-consecutive days. Each session should include 8 to 10 repetitions that stress each of the major muscle groups or 10 to 15 repetitions for those who are older and frail.

If you go with longer repetitions, you’ll use lighter weight.

You can certainly train more than twice a week but you want to make sure you cover all of the major muscle groups at least twice a week. So, perhaps you do upper body and alternate with lower body twice a week. That gives you four days of strength workouts.

Major Muscle Groups

If we’re supposed to train every major muscle group twice a week, we need to know what they are. Plan on training these parts of the body:

Chest
Back
Shoulders
Arms:
- Biceps
- Triceps
Abdomen
Legs:
- Quads
- Hamstrings

Benefits of Strength Training

Why should we strength train at all? Isn’t it sufficient to just walk 10,000 steps every day?

The ACSM describes a variety of benefits of strength training. They are:

Maintain muscle or fight the loss of muscle mass
Prevent osteoporosis
Decrease the risk of heart disease
Decrease the risk of falls or the likelihood of injury if you do fall
Increase quality of life

Examples of Strength Training

You often hear strength training also referred to as resistance training. The goal is to put your muscles under tension using resistance. You can do that with weights like dumb bells and kettle bells, resistance bands, machines at the gym, or body weight exercises.

Examples of typical resistance exercises that can be performed using free-weights, machines, or body weight for the major muscle groups are:

	Free-Weight	Machine-Based	Body Weight
Chest	Supine Bench Press	Seated Chest Press	Push-ups
Back	Bent-over Barbell Rows	Lat Pulldown	Supermans
Shoulders	Dumbbell Lateral Raise	Shoulder Press	Arm Circles
Biceps	Dumbbell Curls	Cable Curls	Side planks
Triceps	Dumbbell Kickbacks	Press downs	Dips
Abdomen	Weighted Crunches	“Abs” Machine Crunches	Prone Planks
Quadriceps	Back Squats	Leg Extension	Body Weight Lunges
Hamstrings	Stiff-leg Deadlifts	Leg Curls	Hip-ups

If you aren’t sure how to do any of these, there are lots of demonstrations available on YouTube and a variety of strength training apps.

Don’t forget that the ACSM also recommends that you get in some cardio workouts during the week. I’ll write that up in a future post.

Ways to Get Started with Strength Training

March 31, 2022 / Jill McCauslin / 2 Comments

One thing I’ve noticed in the Becoming Elli community is that many of us are looking for ways to get started with strength training. Many women who have joined the Becoming Elli Facebook group (it’s a private group and if you haven’t joined, please do so!) want to get started with strength training.

Most of us know how to do cardio exercises. We use the treadmill or the elliptical or we bicycle indoors and out.

If you listen to the Fit Strong Women over 50 Podcast, you know that we talk a lot about the importance of strength training for women as we age.

Why Strength Train?

We lose muscle more quickly than men and that loss begins earlier than we’d like to think about. Losing muscle makes it harder to keep our metabolism going at a good pace. It makes it harder to move. There are lots of reasons why we should be strength training, also called resistance training. We can go into those reasons in a different post.

There are lots of ways to do strength training, whether you belong to the gym or workout at home but we can all use some help in getting started. You can use weights such as dumb bells, kettle bells, and resistance bands. You can also use your own body weight doing things like squats, push ups, and lunges. Knowing what you can do is, of course, not the same as actually doing it.

Ways to Get Started with Strength Training

I’ve come up with a few ways to help get started with strength training.

Set Goals

Set goals with a timeline related to strength training. While long term goals are great, be sure to include some shorter term goals as well.

Perhaps your long term goal is to be able to do ten regular pushups. That’s a great goal but it may take you a while to get there so make some goals to hit on the way. Perhaps it’s to be able to do ten modified pushups. Then you can make a goal of being able to do one regular pushup. Finally, you hit that long term goal of ten regular pushups.

Invest in Yourself

I find spending money on something is a big motivator. If I pay for a training class, I’m much more likely to go. Perhaps you buy some new weight equipment to include in your home gym. Buying a kettlebell is sure a major investment. Or perhaps you pay to access a strength training app. Or you pay for personal training. Whatever it is, I think most of us do more when we’ve made a financial commitment to something.

Sure, people buy treadmills and gym memberships that they don’t use but I think if you combine the desire to get started with strength training with the financial commitment, you’re more likely to work at it.

Tell people what you’re doing

Tell friends and family member. Confide in your co-workers. If you’re open about wanting to get stronger, you’re more likely to get some support. It helps to tell people who also strength train or workout in some way. I remember telling my mother what I was doing and she really only walked. She told me I didn’t need to be doing this, that walking was enough. So telling your friend at your yoga class might be better.

Find support

Do you have friends who are also interested in strength training? If so, try to work out together. If that’s not possible, maybe try comparing workouts and giving each other ideas of things to try. Online communities, such as the private Facebook group for Becoming Elli, can be helpful. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, discussing with like-minded people can help.

If you’ve joined a gym, talk to the staff. There are people there who can show you how to do different exercises or how to use a piece of equipment. Take advantage of that resource.

Try to Improve

Look for ways to improve. I guess this might be related to goals but what I mean is, just be aware of your body and what you’re capable of doing. If last week, you could only carry two plastic bags of groceries, see if you can increase to three this week. If you can do biceps curls with 8 pound dumbbells, see if you can bump it up to 10 pounds.

Give It a Chance

Stay out of your head. Some of us start strength training say we don’t like it. The problem with that is we usually don’t want to do things that we dislike. If you work on having an open mind, you may realize after awhile that you’re actually enjoying yourself. Give it a fair trial. I really work on no longer saying, “I hate this” when doing squats.

Suggestions?

We know that strength training is important for us as we age so it’s important to figure out ways to get going with it.

What suggestions do you have? I would love to hear other ideas. Comment below if you have something to share.

Journey to Fitness with Melissa Wilson

Age Wise Podcast Partner – Jennifer Fink (Host of Fading Memories, a caregiver podcast)

Stronger Together: What I’ve Learned from the Becoming Elli Community

Why We Cheer Each Other On

Strength Looks Different Than We Thought

What’s Your Current Workout Routine?

Training Her Way to Health with Jill Johnson

Party and Diet with Kerstin Schulze

Strength Training Guidelines

Strength Training Guidelines

Major Muscle Groups

Benefits of Strength Training

Examples of Strength Training

Ways to Get Started with Strength Training

Why Strength Train?

Ways to Get Started with Strength Training

Set Goals

Invest in Yourself

Tell people what you’re doing

Find support

Try to Improve

Give It a Chance

Suggestions?

Age Wise Podcast Partner – Jennifer Fink
(Host of Fading Memories, a caregiver podcast)