STRONG DOESN’T HAVE ONE LOOK.

By Chrissy Sundt | The Midlife Movement Method™️

For the past year, I’ve been doing something a little different.

I’ve been going to the gym.

Now, that might sound rather unremarkable coming from someone who has spent more than 25 years working in movement and fitness. But for me, it has been quite a departure.

My world has always revolved around movement. From my early years training as a professional ballet dancer to decades spent teaching Pilates, Barre, yoga and functional fitness, I’ve built my career around understanding how the body moves, how to challenge it and, perhaps most importantly, how to keep it moving beautifully throughout life.

But traditional gym-based weight training? That was a little outside my comfort zone.

So, about a year ago, I decided to change that. I started working regularly with a really lovely personal trainer who has been guiding me through the world of progressive overload, heavier weights, pull-ups and some rather intimidating-looking gym machines. And I’ve been exploring it all!

I’ve learnt new techniques, challenged myself in unfamiliar ways and discovered that there is something wonderfully empowering about being a beginner again, particularly in midlife.

I’ve also become stronger in certain ways. There is a particular satisfaction in lifting something that once felt impossibly heavy or discovering that you can do something today that you couldn’t manage a few months ago.

And, of course, I understand why strength training has become such an important conversation for women navigating perimenopause and menopause.

Maintaining muscle mass and strength as we age is fundamental to our long-term health, physical independence and quality of life. But somewhere between the pull-ups, the dumbbells and the progressive overload, I started asking myself a question.

What actually counts as strength training?

And perhaps more importantly: why are we increasingly being encouraged to think about strength in such a narrow way?

My Meno Moment: Have We Made Strength Training Too Complicated?

If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, particularly in the perimenopause and menopause space, you’ll have noticed something.

The conversation around exercise has become rather dominated by one message: women over 40 need to lift heavy. And before I go any further, I want to be absolutely clear, I am not arguing against lifting heavy weights. Quite the opposite.

I’ve spent the past year deliberately incorporating heavier resistance training into my own routine, and I believe it has been a valuable addition. Progressive resistance training is one of the most effective tools we have for developing and maintaining muscle strength.

As oestrogen levels fluctuate and eventually decline through the menopause transition, preserving muscle, bone health and physical function becomes increasingly important.

But what concerns me is the way this perfectly sensible advice sometimes gets translated into something far more restrictive.

Suddenly, Pilates doesn’t count. Barre doesn’t count. Lighter weights don’t count and unless you’re regularly lifting increasingly heavy dumbbells in a gym, you might be left feeling that you’re somehow failing to do what your midlife body needs.

I find that rather frustrating. Not because I disagree with the importance of strength training, but because I think we’re confusing one very effective method of building strength with the entire concept of strength itself and in doing so, we risk overlooking some incredibly valuable ways of training the body.

So, What Actually Counts as Strength Training?

Let’s start with something surprisingly simple. Our muscles don’t know whether we’re standing in a gym, holding a Pilates ball or working at a Barre. They respond to the demands we place upon them.

When we ask our muscles to work against sufficient resistance, we create the potential for them to adapt. That resistance might come from a heavy dumbbell. It might come from a resistance band. It might come from our own bodyweight.

Or it might involve an exercise performed slowly, with a longer time under tension, or an isometric hold that challenges us to maintain a position against resistance.

These are all ways of challenging the muscular system.

The important distinction is not simply what equipment we’re using, but how much demand we’re placing on the muscles and whether that demand is sufficient to create the adaptation we’re looking for.

And this is where the conversation becomes interesting because different types of resistance training produce different results. Heavier loads are particularly effective for developing maximal strength: our ability to produce force against a substantial resistance. Lighter loads can also stimulate muscle growth when performed with sufficient effort, although they may be less efficient for developing maximal strength.

Isometric exercises can improve strength, particularly at or around the joint angles being trained. Higher-repetition work can develop muscular endurance and carefully programmed bodyweight exercises can become remarkably challenging as we change leverage, range of motion, tempo or complexity.

None of these methods is inherently superior in every situation, they are simply different tools and as someone who has spent a lifetime exploring movement, I find that a far more exciting proposition than being told there is only one way to become strong.

What My Years of Pilates, Barre and Dance Have Taught Me About Strength

When I look back at my years of ballet training, I don’t remember thinking particularly consciously about strength.

I remember thinking about technique.

• Alignment.

• Control.

• Balance.

The extraordinary precision required to execute a movement beautifully but, of course, strength was underpinning all of it.

The ability to hold a position, control a landing, balance on one leg or move through an enormous range of motion required considerable muscular effort and often, that strength was developed without ever picking up a dumbbell.

The same principles have informed much of my work in Pilates and Barre. In a well-designed Barre session, for example, we might use bodyweight resistance, small weights, isometric contractions, changes in tempo and carefully controlled movement to challenge the muscles in different ways.

We might spend time developing single-leg stability, strengthening the muscles around the hips or working through movements that demand considerable control from the core. And anyone who has experienced a particularly challenging Barre sequence will know that lighter weights certainly don’t always mean an easy workout.

But here’s where I think we need to be thoughtful. Feeling your muscles burn or shake is not necessarily the same thing as building maximal strength. Nor does a challenging Pilates or Barre session automatically provide all the resistance stimulus required to optimise muscle strength and growth. That distinction matters.

We need to understand what each modality does particularly well, rather than pretending they are all interchangeable and this is precisely why I have become so interested in combining them. Because what if we stopped asking whether Pilates or Barre can replace traditional strength training? What if we started asking how they could complement it?

The Case for a More Complete Kind of Strength

One of the things I’ve been thinking about increasingly is what I actually want my body to be capable of in the decades ahead.

Of course, I want to maintain muscle.I want strong bones. I want to be able to lift heavy things but I also want to move freely.

I want to get down onto the floor and back up again with ease. I want to maintain my balance, coordination and flexibility. I want to feel confident hiking up a mountain, swimming in the sea, carrying my luggage or dancing for hours at a wedding and I want to keep doing all of those things for as long as possible.

This is where I think our understanding of strength needs to become a little broader because being strong and being physically capable are closely connected, but they aren’t quite the same thing.

Maximal strength is important but so are muscular endurance, balance, mobility, coordination, cardiovascular fitness and the ability to generate power.

These qualities work together to support the way we move through life and while resistance training can contribute to several of them, no single exercise format necessarily develops all of them equally.

For me, that is the real opportunity in midlife fitness: not simply to become stronger in one particular movement or exercise. But to build a body that is resilient, adaptable and capable across a whole range of physical demands.

A body that doesn’t just look strong. I want to help build bodies that allow us to live well.

Why I’m Not Giving Up My Pilates, Barre or Yoga

Here’s something else I’ve realised over the past year. I genuinely enjoy my gym sessions and I’ve learnt a great deal from working with my trainer, and I fully intend to continue exploring heavier resistance training. But I don’t want it to replace the movement practices I’ve loved for most of my life.

I don’t want to stop doing yoga. I don’t want to give up the wonderful combination of strength, coordination and musicality I experience through Barre. And I certainly don’t want to abandon the precision, alignment and body awareness that have been such an important part of my Pilates practice.

These aren’t simply different ways of exercising. They give me different things. Yoga gives me space, breath, mobility and a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with myself.

Barre gives me energy, rhythm, coordination and that delicious feeling of being completely absorbed in movement.

Pilates gives me precision, control and a deeper understanding of how my body works.

And my gym sessions give me the opportunity to challenge my muscles with heavier loads, measure my progress and build strength in ways that complement those other practices. I don’t want to choose between them and I don’t think women in midlife should feel they have to either.

In fact, I think the most intelligent approach is to understand what each method offers and how we can bring them together.

Not randomly. Not by trying to squeeze every possible workout into an already busy week. But with purpose.

The Midlife Movement Portfolio

This thinking has become central to how I’m developing The Midlife Movement Method™️.

I’ve always believed that movement should be intelligent, enjoyable and adaptable but my own experiences over the past year have reinforced something important. We need to move beyond the idea of choosing a single exercise modality and expecting it to deliver everything our bodies need. Instead, I like to think about creating a movement portfolio.

Just as a well-balanced financial portfolio contains different investments serving different purposes, a well-designed movement programme should include different forms of training that contribute to our long-term physical health.

Some sessions should challenge our muscles with meaningful resistance. Some should develop cardiovascular fitness. Others should help us maintain mobility, balance, coordination and control and we need sufficient recovery to allow our bodies to adapt.

Within The Midlife Movement Method, we bring these elements together through different formats.

Our signature STRONG sessions combine Pilates, Barre and functional fitness with resistance training, using weights, bands and other small equipment to challenge the body in a variety of ways.

Our Barre sessions develop muscular endurance, control, balance and coordination, with opportunities to build strength through carefully selected resistance exercises.

Our HIIT sessions introduce a different cardiovascular and muscular challenge, with intensity adjusted to the individual.

Our Restore sessions give us the space to work on mobility, flexibility, breath and recovery.

And throughout all of this, we encourage women to keep walking, cycling, swimming, dancing and enjoying the activities that make movement such a valuable part of life.

Importantly, we don’t assume that simply combining different formats automatically delivers every possible training adaptation. We still need to consider the resistance used, the level of challenge, how we progress and what each woman needs.

The intention is not to do everything. It is to bring together the right things and that, to me, is where intelligent programming becomes so important.

What About Progressive Overload?

This is another term that seems to have become synonymous with gym-based strength training but progressive overload is actually a much broader principle.

Essentially, it means gradually increasing the demands placed on the body so that it continues to adapt and while increasing the weight we’re lifting is one very effective way of doing this, it isn’t the only way.

We can also progressively challenge the body by increasing repetitions, adjusting resistance, changing leverage, increasing range of motion or progressing to more demanding exercise variations.

The key is that the exercise must continue to provide an appropriate challenge.

For example, a bodyweight squat might initially be challenging for someone returning to exercise as she becomes stronger, she might progress to a deeper squat, a split squat or a version incorporating external resistance. Eventually, heavier loading may be needed to continue developing certain aspects of strength.

This is why I believe we need to move away from thinking about exercise formats as fixed categories.

A Pilates-inspired movement can be programmed with meaningful resistance. A Barre sequence can incorporate progressive strength work and a traditional gym exercise can benefit enormously from the precision, alignment and control that Pilates teaches us.

The boundaries between these disciplines are often far less rigid than the fitness industry would have us believe and I think that’s a very good thing.

But Let’s Not Forget the Importance of Enjoyment

There is one final element of this conversation that I think is too often overlooked and that is enjoyment. Because we can spend an enormous amount of time debating the theoretically perfect exercise programme.

We can analyse sets, repetitions, loading strategies and training frequency. We can construct increasingly sophisticated plans designed to optimise every possible physiological adaptation but none of that matters very much if we don’t actually want to do the programme. For women navigating perimenopause and menopause, this feels particularly relevant.

Many of us are juggling demanding careers, families, disrupted sleep, changing energy levels and a whole host of competing responsibilities. Adding another rigid set of exercise rules to an already crowded life isn’t necessarily helpful.

I’ve spent decades teaching women, and one thing I know with absolute certainty is that the movement people enjoy is the movement they’re more likely to return to.

Of course, enjoyment doesn’t remove the need for appropriate training. Sometimes we need to challenge ourselves. Sometimes we need to try something unfamiliar. My own adventures in the gym are a perfect example.

But I believe there is a balance to be found between doing what we enjoy and doing what our bodies need and ideally, we can find ways to make those two things overlap because consistency, not occasional perfection, is what allows us to build strength over time.

Train the Woman, Not the Trend

Perhaps this is the real lesson I’ve taken from my year in the gym. I’ve discovered new ways to challenge myself and I’ve become stronger. I’ve learnt from an expert in a discipline that wasn’t entirely familiar to me and I’ve been reminded how empowering it can be to step outside our comfort zones, particularly as we get older. But I haven’t come away believing that everything I knew about movement before was somehow less valuable. Quite the opposite.

It’s helped me appreciate how much these different approaches have to offer when we understand how to combine them and it’s reinforced a philosophy that sits at the heart of The Midlife Movement Method: train the woman, not the trend.

Because the best programme isn’t necessarily the one featuring the heaviest weights, the most complicated exercises or the latest fitness obsession. It’s the one that provides the right challenges, in the right combination, for the woman doing it.

A woman with her own experience, preferences, physical capabilities and ambitions. A woman whose needs may change from one day to the next. A woman who wants to feel stronger, healthier and more confident in her body, without feeling that she has to abandon everything she already loves about movement. And perhaps most importantly, a woman who understands that training isn’t simply about what she can achieve in the gym today.

It’s about what her body will allow her to do in ten, twenty or thirty years because that, surely, is what we’re really training for. Not just stronger muscles but stronger, more capable lives and there is more than one way to build them.

A Final Thought

I think we sometimes forget that exercise science is there to help us make better decisions, not to turn movement into an increasingly complicated set of rules.

The evidence supporting resistance training is compelling. We should absolutely be encouraging women to build and maintain muscle throughout midlife and beyond and for many women, incorporating progressively heavier resistance will be an important part of that process.

But we can acknowledge this without dismissing the enormous value of Pilates, Barre, yoga and other movement practices. We can embrace the benefits of lifting weights while recognising that strength is only one part of physical capability and we can encourage women to explore new ways of moving without making them feel that everything they’ve enjoyed until now has somehow been a waste of time.

As for me?

I’ll be continuing my adventures with the pull-up bar and those slightly intimidating gym machines but you’ll still find me at the Barre, on my Pilates mat and rolling out my yoga mat whenever I can. Because at this stage of my life, I’m not interested in choosing between strength and grace. I want both.

And I want to help other women discover that they can have both, too.

With love,

Chrissy x

Founder, The Midlife Movement Method™️