Toned at 60 After Years in the Gym: Why Less Training Works

Nikkiey: What's up, you guys, and welcome to another weekly Q&A, where today I'm going to take four top questions that I received from an earlier live Q&A that I do every single week, every Tuesday, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at facebook.com/WarriorBabeNikkiey, and I'm going to answer them here for you right now. I am super excited because I love doing this for you guys. I love sharing some knowledge, some value, giving you guys clarity and helping you have answers to the questions that you may have as you are going along your fitness journey.

So if you guys are as excited as I am, please be sure to smash that like button right now and make sure that you subscribe to this channel, because this is going to be something that I'm going to be doing every single week. And every single week there are going to be new questions that could serve you as you are going through your journey. Let's dive into it.

First question that I've got is: "I need to change my body composition now that I'm 60. I've been a gym rat since I was 20 but can't seem to accomplish getting back that toned, defined body that I once had."

I love this. This is more of a "what do I do right now that I'm 60 but I have the mentality of a 20-year-old" question. In simple terms, what you once did when you were 20 is not going to work now that you're 60. Your body has changed. Your metabolism has changed. Your lifestyle, most importantly, has changed. And also, more importantly, you've most likely gone through a very intense cycle, aka menopause, where everything shifts on the inside.

So what once worked when you were 20 is not going to work now that you're 60, because all of these different things have changed. Plus, when you're 20 years old, you have all of this freaking energy, right? You're like, I'm going to go do this 10K run. I'm going to go do this lift. I'm going to go try powerlifting. I'm going to try all these different types of things. And you have all of this amazing energy. Some of that does tend to dwindle as you get older, but it doesn't get completely lost. Let me remind you that the vision that you have for your body does not need to go away.

You can accomplish the body that you want regardless of how old you are. The thing is that the tools and the resources change as you get older. And one of the biggest things that changes is that our body at 50, 60, 70 years old has less stress tolerance. It can tolerate less stress. What I mean is that the more stress you put onto it, you're actually going to create results counterproductive to the ones you want to see. Because one of the number one things that gets elevated is cortisol.

And cortisol is a fat-storing hormone, which is completely counterproductive to the way that you want your body to go. So when you're 50, 60 years old, less is more. That's going to be a mind-blowing answer for a lot of you guys, because you're like, oh, I want to do five, six, seven days of training per week. You're actually doing a disservice to the results that you want to see. Something that I preach inside of WarriorBabe is a four-day program split for women that are 50 or older. Those women that have applied that and gotten away from the mentality of what they used to do, like "I want to work out five, six days a week," and applied this new strategy, have seen far more results than they were ever able to accomplish by doing six days of training.

Once you put less stress on the body, but you're still physically active, you're still moving, you're still lifting, you're still doing all the things that are really good for you, you're just doing less of it, you're going to double the chances of seeing the results that you want to see. What worked at 20 probably will not work for you when you're 60 years old, but it doesn't mean that you can't still accomplish the body that you want. You just have to change up the styles of techniques that you're putting forth to get the results that you want to see.

All right, second question: "I'm in the 50-plus group. Is LISS still advised, or any HIIT?" This babe being in the 50-plus group means she's inside the WarriorBabe program. If you guys want to learn more about our programs, check out the link in the description below.

So is LISS still advised, or any HIIT? If you guys don't know what LISS or HIIT is, let me just explain that really quick. LISS is low-intensity steady-state cardio. HIIT is high-intensity interval training. One is better for a lot of people. It just depends on the type of body composition, but most importantly, the type of lifestyle that you lead. If you lead a very, very high-stress lifestyle, I would not recommend doing HIIT cardio. HIIT cardio adds more stress to your body, whereas LISS does not. And this is where the majority of my answer for anybody, regardless of your age, is to do LISS all of the time.

You're already physically stressed through life. You're already physically stressed through training and working out. So the less stress you can put on your body, the better, because again, it's going to facilitate the results that you want to see. All in all, LISS and HIIT pretty much do the same thing. A lot of people think that HIIT causes you to burn more calories. At the end of a training session, they both burn the same calories. It's just that one is a little bit more intense. So for timing purposes, that's where HIIT can come into play. You can get a HIIT workout done in seven minutes and burn a ton of calories, whereas with LISS, you have to take a little bit longer to do it.

But again, it's less stress on the body. So for women, doubling back to the question that I just answered regarding the stress factors on the body, for anybody that is 50 or older, or really any age, I would always recommend doing LISS. I would recommend doing steady-state cardio. That doesn't mean that you have to get on a piece of cardio equipment. You don't have to get on a treadmill. You don't have to get on a stairmaster. You don't have to get on an elliptical. You can just get outside and walk. People undervalue what walking can do, not just for your health, but also for your body composition and the results that you're seeking.

That's my answer to that question. Let's dive into question number three: "I started using the 1st Phorm Ignition with my post-workout protein shake. I like it a lot so far, but the sugar content is so high. Are you concerned with that much sugar after a workout?"

Sugar is actually really good, and sugar is really good around your workout. So I'm going to use this analogy. When you're going in to do your weightlifting, I always recommend doing a pre-workout meal, fueling your body appropriately for the exercise you're about to do.

When you do that, you fill up your gas stores, meaning you fill up your energy stores. You fill up your glycogen stores. That could be sugar, or that could be in terms of carbohydrates, which do have sugar in them. And so when you go to perform your workout and you're doing the weight training, by the end of the workout that gas tank is now empty. You've depleted your energy stores. You've depleted your glycogen stores. And so immediately following a workout is where Ignition comes into play.

You are shuttling in fast-acting carbohydrates. It's refilling that gas tank. You're not as depleted from the end of your workout anymore. When you're inside the gym, you're not building muscle. You're breaking it down. And everything that happens post-workout, from the shake that you have to the nutrition that you have for the next 24 hours, is what's building that muscle. Sugar is okay, especially pre- and post-workout, because of that whole concept that I just stated. If you have it throughout the rest of your day, again, you don't want to make it things that you consciously know are not good for you.

But if you're having fruit, you're not going to get fat from eating fruit. If you have rice cakes, you're not going to get fat from the sugar inside the rice cakes, right? You're going to get fat from eating too much of the shit that's bad for you. So just keep that in mind. It's totally fine. Sugar is totally fine pre- and post-workout, and even throughout the rest of the day if you're making the right choices.

All right, last question: "Can you buy that protein powder anywhere, or do you need to order it?" Vegan Power Pro from 1st Phorm is the only vegan protein powder (God, try saying that 10,000 times fast) that I have found to love, that blends nicely and that tastes so good. You can only buy it on 1st Phorm's website, but I'm going to link the Vegan Power Pro and the Ignition in the description below this video.

So I hope that you guys gained tons of value from those answers to the four viewer questions that I received from the live Q&A. Again, I do it every single week on Facebook at facebook.com/WarriorBabeNikkiey. Every Tuesday, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. If you want to tune in live and be a part of that, be sure to check it out. Set your alarms, mark your calendars, whatever you've got to do to tune in. I hope you guys loved that, and I look forward to bringing you more of these Q&As on a weekly basis. So be sure to subscribe to the channel if you have not already, and I'll see you guys in the next weekly Q&A.