Strength At Any Age With Dani Shugart

Before I jump into the intro for this episode, I wanted to share something that's been brewing within me for a while. When I began podcasting, I wanted to focus on talk therapy topics and issues yet I'm also really passionate about another topic.  And that is helping women live their best lives as they move into midlife. You may or may not know that when I hit 40, that's when I made the decision to start living my life differently. So for the past 7 years I've worked to live more authentically and congruentally. And now I want to start bringing this information to the podcast! I'm lining up guests that will not only inspire you to see mid life differently but will also bring you the know how to do so. I'm unsure yet if i will start a whole new podcast or rebrand this one. Podcasts are a lot of work and it's just me right now behind the scenes (well except for my audio engineer and editor, Laura and my website developer, Michael) so creating and producing 2 separate podcasts feels overwhelming yet also at the same time it feels possible. Right now I'm just hanging out in the land of possibilities. I hope you stay tuned to see and hear the upcoming shifts in my podcast world! Here's my first shift and I'm so excited to share this week's interview with you all. It's the FIRST MidLife Magic podcast episode! I titled it Strength At Any Age With Dani Shugart for a few reasons: Number one, I truly believe that you can acquire strength at any age. While in this episode we are talking about strength gained in the weight room, we also talk about how finding the weight room has given us both self confidence and physical and mental strength, two things my guest and I both were looking for in our younger years. And finding the weights helped us tremendously in these areas. Number two, research has shown us that there are incredible benefits of building muscle  such as improving balance, reducing the likelihood of falls, improving blood-sugar control, and improving sleep and mental health.  The average person starts losing muscle as early as age 25. And From 40 to 70 years old, muscle loss averages 8 percent per decade and then accelerates to 15 percent after age 70. Our eventual physical decline is inevitable, but the more muscle we have when our bodies start rapidly breaking down, the longer we can last with our physical function. I often get asked why I'm so crazy about telling people to hit the weight room. It's not because i want to look good naked, that's a byproduct of wanting to increase my confidence and put off my physical decline as long as possible! I want longevity and quality of life!!  And when I decided I wanted to talk about this on my first episode of Midlife Magic, I headed straight to my friend Dani Shugart.  Dani Shugart is an editor for T-Nation.com, a lifetime natural lifter, and co-host of the Fit Pants podcast.  Dani shares her story on finding the weight room, how progress in the weight room has built her confidence, why consistency and accountability are keys to reaching your goals, how to get into fitness if you're brand new as well as how to get back into fitness if you've fallen out. Plus we talk about tips for growing muscle in midlife, why assessing your efforts for effectiveness is important, and reassessing your efforts if it's not getting you to your goals. Listen to the Fit Pants podcast here. Connect with Dani on Instagram.  We hope you enjoy this episode! This episode is brought to you by my favorite activewear line, Zyia Active.  Want high quality activewear that doesn't break your bank account? I sure did and went looking for leggings, joggers, sports bras and tops that fit my budget and were supportive, soft, wrinkle resistant and would match just about anything I already had in my closet. And now Zyia Active makes up about 80% of my wardrobe. Want to learn more? Head to lisamustard.com/active-wear. Don't think this is just for women, they have mens' and kids' clothes too. Our family is loving the quality and I love the price tags! So head over to my site to check it out.  And I'm offering a SPECIAL ACTIVEWEAR DISCOUNT for MidLife Magic listeners! Text the word 'midlife' to 888111 to claim your offer! Or use this form to sign up: https://slkt.io/7s0Y