Anna McGee, a fitness instructor with nearly four decades of experience, is helping women over 45 focus on health through sleep, nutrition, and exercise.
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McGee hosted her annual FitDay event, where she addressed outdated fitness advice and emphasized the importance of maintaining muscle as women age. The event takes a holistic approach to health and helps teach women over 45 to be “anti-fragile.” It ran from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11, at the Duluth YMCA.
Becoming “Anti-fragile”
“Back in the 90s it was all like women did cardio, men did weights and you don’t want to be big and bulky, so I’m trying to bust those myths of that’s to hang on to your muscle because that’s what decreases as women age much, much quicker than men and it just keeps you healthier and doing all the fun things that you want to do,” McGee said.
FitDay focused on step training and high-intensity interval training, or HIITs, which involves short bursts of effort followed by intentional recovery—an example is 20 seconds of activity, 40 seconds of rest, repeated for about 20 minutes. Amongst other types of training that help recover what is lost with age.
According to McGee, these styles of exercise help preserve muscle, insulin sensitivity, and metabolic flexibility as people age. She connected HIITs to better cardiovascular health, better stamina for daily life, and a metabolic boost that can last up to 24 hours post-workout.
“I’m older. And I’m dealing with more older women,” Anna said. “We’re going through like talking about bone density tests and strength training for women as they age and just how to age well and strong and be able to live independently.”
During rest periods, McGee shared her personal and professional insights to help women stay motivated. Anna gave birth to two children ten years apart and spent significant time as a full-time caretaker for both her parents. Through these experiences, she came to an understanding that strength is not just physical. It is what allows women to keep showing up for their lives, she said.
“I love meeting new people. I love when I can get somebody excited to strength train, especially for someone who gets out of their comfort zone who’s never done that before. It’s wonderful,” McGee said.
Anna McGee’s Guide
She said any fitness or health journey has to start with her three “rocks:”
SleepExerciseNutrition (especially protein)
She encouraged women over 45 interested in HIIT to try it once a week and to find someone, such as a trainer, who can help ensure proper form.
“Just find someone that can help you with form and there’s lots of us out there and just it’s not too late and don’t be scared. You are very adaptable. Our body’s adapting to anything that we do in our life and it will adapt to strength training and I think you’ll feel amazing,” McGee said.
McGee said these High-intensity interval trainings should focus on intention rather than exhaustion. “Short, smart sessions done consistently beat long workouts done occasionally,” she said.
Interval Structures
There are many HIIT formats. Anna said that for women over 45, 20 seconds ON followed by 40 seconds OFF tends to work the best. Other common formats are 30 on / 30 off, 30 on / 60 off, & 40 on / 20 off. She emphasized that each exercise should have options to lower the impact, better support balance, or extend a range of motion (i.e. Joint issues -> smaller range).
McGee offered a sample of exercise types and categories for people to try.
Sample HIIT Exercise CategoriesLower Body PowerSquat to calf raiseSit-to-stand with speedUpper Body Push or PullIncline push-upsBand or dumbbell rowsTotal Body MovementStep-back lunge with reachDumbbell deadlift io upright rowCore / StabilityStanding knee drivesDead bug or plank (elevated)Cardio without ImpactFast MarchesStep tapsShadow boxing
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