Age Strong: A Woman’s Guide to Feeling Athletic and Fit After 40

by Rachel Cosgrove

Stay strong and feel great as you move through the decades of your life with Age A Woman’s Guide to Feeling Athletic and Fit After 40 ! Internationally renowned personal trainer Rachel Cosgrove will help you increase metabolism, lose body fat, decrease osteoporosis risk, boost stamina, and increase self-confidence as you move toward and through menopause.

With Age Strong you’ll get pumped about setting goals, eliminating excuses, and meeting the aging process head on. Read about real clients of the author and how they built muscle and confidence through strength training. Get detailed instructions, accompanied by full-color photos, on how to safely perform 73 traditional strength exercises and 41 mobility and warm-up movements that will help strengthen your core, lower body, and upper body and help you develop power.

Follow the step-by-step plan that’s worked for hundreds of women who have maintained their athleticism in their 40s, their 50s, and beyond. Start with the base phase of the program to address common imbalances and learn how to master basic movements. Then, bump up the intensity a bit with the build phase before moving on to the stronger phase , in which you’ll build volume as you increase the number of reps and load for select exercises. The final phase, age strong , shows you how to work up to suggested strength standards for exercises such as push-ups, squats, and deadlifts.

Age Strong empowers you to take control of your body, gain muscle, improve body composition, and learn new skills so you can stay strong and feel capable for life!

Earn continuing education credits/units! A continuing education exam that uses this book is also available. It may be purchased separately or as part of a package that includes both the book and exam.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

Published March 22, 2024

Reviews

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 5 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This is as good as it gets for a book on this subject: thorough, friendly, well illustrated, motivating, long term focus, scalable/growable, and suitable for all fitness levels. I especially appreciated that the author is herself over 40, female, and even had an eating disorder that she triumphed over. It makes me feel that she 'gets' what a woman over 40 goes through in a fitness journey. As well, I've read several books by this publisher and they are always top notch, especially in the presentation, and I trust them.

The book breaks down as follows: Part 1: Strength training in your 40s and beyond (why strength train, the cardio conundrum, lifestyle habits); Part 2: Prepare for positive change (set powerful goals, eliminate your excuses, manage menopause, record your progress); Part 3: The exercises (warm up, core upper body, lower body, power development/finishers/metabolic intervals); Part 4: The age strong program (program principles, base phase, build phase, stronger phase, age strong phase, metabolic interval workouts); epilogue/references.

The book has good discussions on issues of losing muscle as we age as well as building it back. Lifestyle changes, nutrition, and other topics are covered that aid and abet a healthier way of living. The book focuses on strength training but also includes metabolic exercises so alternate days of activity can be followed. Exercises are photographed in a well lit area in full color. Type is large and easy to read and there are tips to ensure you are doing them safely. Each exercise is broken down by an introductory overview, position information, and movement information.

Once the exercises are illustrated, the book outlines a training program consisting of four phases, each 16-20 weeks long and with a different focus. This allows you slowly build up your strength safely and effectively. Each phase has two or three strength training days per week alternated on nonconsecutive days. They are total body workouts and there is a handy chart in the back that details each phase's exercises.

The strength of this book is that it is a full service, full spectrum program and not just a collection of exercises. As such, it is a book with long term goals achieved through short term activities. There are ramp ups and ways to determine where your are in your fitness journey but always with a focus on core and power development.

In all, I was very impressed with the book and have already started the first phase exercises. The only nitpicks I had is that it would have been nice to have small photographs next to the exercise in the training phase chart and that several exercises will require gym equipment (specifically, ropes exercise balls, weighted bags, and pulls. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

looked thru it-am not self directed to do on own

[Sharon]

It seems like good descriptions of the movements in the second half of the book and the end has planned out phases for programs to build and maintain strength.

[Nupur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know that I learned anything new. But I'm trying out the 16 week strength training plan laid out in this book.