Strong Beyond 50

05/09/2026

What does Strong Beyond 50 mean?

It’s not “older woman who wants to preserve function”.

It’s the woman who wants to be a badass.

Strong enough to climb mountains.
Strong enough to carry her own stuff.
Strong enough to hike, travel, ride, lift, scramble, adventure.
Independent.
Physically confident.
Maybe she wants to deadlift her bodyweight.
Maybe she wants to keep doing ridiculous things at 60 that other people assume she should have stopped doing.
And refuses to accept that one day she’ll need a walker.

And importantly, she doesn’t identify as old.

💪 She wants to be strong as f**k.

She wants to be the woman who thinks:

F**k yes, I can do that.

Climb the mountain.
Carry the pack.
Lift heavy s**t.
Hike all day.
Ride.
Travel.
Scramble up something ridiculous.
Get stronger at 60 than she was at 40.
Try something she’s never done before.

That’s what Strong Beyond 50 means to me.

It’s not about putting an age limit on what you can do. It’s about what’s possible. ⛰️

Here is a quick collection of my training over the years.

04/09/2026

The story of Bows & Arrows!

Without unlimited time and a well-lit filming studio, sometimes you just get me as I am. No Insta-worthy crop tops and scrunch-bum shorts. This is just me wearing funny socks and paddock clothes.

The story behind this is a little more important than the video itself.

In February 2022, I was near completing my 200-hour yoga teacher training when my sister was killed by a drug driver who veered over into oncoming traffic. The sudden trauma and grief didn't just affect me emotionally; it affected my ability to function physically in ways I hadn't expected - an overall weakness that I realised one day when I couldn’t climb down the back steps.

After a few weeks, I went back to yoga, but couldn't face lifting a weight. I continued doing a gentle strength workout occasionally, but not enough to maintain strength and function.

With no strength training, I soon developed frozen shoulder, and it became more and more difficult to perform yoga.

In the ‘freezing’ stage, the slightest sudden movement, a jerk, bending over or trying to sleep transitions between deep ache and excruciating pain that leaves you collapsed on the floor screaming in agony – I’m not exaggerating.

And it wasn't just the pain. Frozen shoulder severely restricted everyday movement. Some of the first things you notice are:

➡️ Turning your arm outwards becomes restricted, and this is often the most limited movement.
➡️ Lifting your arm out to the side becomes difficult.
➡️ Lifting your arm forwards and overhead becomes increasingly restricted.
➡️ Reaching behind your back becomes impossible - you can no longer undo your bra.

I went to a physio (I booked in with an exercise physiologist, but my appointment was changed). She poked around in my back, which ended up making the pain considerably worse (not just temporarily). But she did give me one thing of value – the Bows & Arrows exercise.

It’s a great overall movement that opens the chest, rotates the upper spine and hips, and encourages shoulder mobility as the reaching arm gradually works through more range. It's now a part of my dynamic mobility warm-up every time I train, and I program it for all of my clients.

When I started back at Exercise Physiology, honestly, exercises like deadlifts didn't hurt. We progressed through appropriate exercises starting from a place of not being able to do a vertical lift, and very limited shoulder movement. We included angled exercises like ½ kneeling pulldowns and landmine press, until I was able to successfully do an overhead vertical press – and that took a long time!

Yoga has a place, but cannot provide the benefits of strength training. And I gotta tell you, I find it very uncomfortable finding stillness in my own mind in savasana – even though neurotypical people will tell you that it’s calming stress relief. I find mindfulness in movement, like counting reps and sets. The experience reinforced my belief – if you love yoga, keep doing yoga. If you walk, hike, cycle, dance or garden, keep doing those things too. But strength training is the overarching piece that supports all of them.

❤️‍🩹 If you have frozen shoulder, please go and see an Exercise Physiologist for appropriate exercise specific to you.

01/09/2026

“Just lift heavy.” 🏋️‍♀️🙄

Arbitrary advice women are hearing throughout the menopause conversation.

Lift heavy. Five reps. This skips the most important part: how do you get strong enough to lift heavy in the first place?

Heavy is relative.

Heavy isn't a predetermined weight. It's the right stimulus for your body, at your current level.

🏋️ An Olympic bar weighs 20kg without any plates and is 7ft long. Some gyms have a 15kg 'women's' bar that is slightly shorter and thinner. Preaching that “you don't have to earn the bar” and anyone can jump straight onto a barbell is not helpful.

Many women starting strength training are only comfortable with dumbbells or kettlebells around 4kg–8kg. Over the weeks, we progress through foundational movements, learning technique and gradually increasing the load until they are confident enough to lift the bar. Sometimes this takes months, depending on their starting level. Sometimes, they don't want to lift heavy at all. But what usually happens is they enjoy it so much that they want to keep progressing the load.

Progressing doesn't just mean adding weight. It can include improving technique, controlling the tempo, increasing range of motion, adding reps at the same weight, or changing the exercise, reps or sets.

Moving comfortably and enjoying your workouts matter. We always work across a range of reps to cover not just strength, but hypertrophy, endurance, power, etc.

🚩 Clients come to me with some terrible past training experiences, looking for a trainer who actually listens to them and understands where they're at.

One had a trainer force her to lift a barbell weight she wasn't ready for, wasn't comfortable with, and said she did not want to lift. She ended up in tears, feeling intimidated and unsafe.

Another was made to do 100 bicep curls (ridiculous in itself) with a weight that was far too heavy for her, while the trainer looked at her phone. She ended up at the doctors, on anti-inflammatories and pain relief.

I watched a class where everyone was told to pick up a bar using a mixed grip. One young woman was brand new to strength training. She picked up a 3kg bar using a mixed grip and had no idea what she was doing. A mixed grip, with one hand facing towards you and one away, is a strategy used in powerlifting, not a default grip for beginners.

I've been coaching women for 15 years, aged 14 through to 70, at every stage from complete beginners through to women who want to lift heavy and those training at an athletic level.

Good coaching isn't about telling women to lift heavy. It's knowing where to start, how to progress, and when to increase the load.

01/09/2026

Why “One-Size-Fits-All” Workouts Keep You Stuck (And What to Do Instead)

🏃‍♀️ You start out strong, fueled by pure willpower, but within weeks you hit the same familiar wall: overwhelming fatigue, burnout, or frustration when life gets busy and you miss some sessions.

💡 The problem isn't your commitment or effort. It's the programming. There is a HUGE gap between generic workouts and programming written just for you.

Generic Programs & Group Workouts

❌ Built for the "Average" Person: Standardised templates that treat a 25-year-old and a 50-year-old with different stress levels, sleep, and schedules exactly the same.
❌ One-Size Intensity: Intensity is judged by the exercises, not your individual level.
❌ Sweat as a Metric: Success is measured by how exhausted, sore, or soaked in sweat you end up as you're pushed beyond your limits.
❌ Rigid & All-or-Nothing: If work, travel, or family throws off your week, you fall behind, lose momentum, your progress goes back to square one, and you feel like you're "starting over."
❌ Punishment Exercises: Forcing movement patterns that don't suit your body or capacity simply because "it's on the board" or using exercise as a penalty (e.g., 50 burpees if you turn up late).

Individually Tailored Programming (Exactly What I Do)

✅ Respects Your Unique Goals & Needs: Built around your baseline recovery, life goals, and daily demands.
✅ Purposeful Progression: Exercise selection, load, and rest periods are intentionally structured for the right level of intensity without burning you out.
✅ Adapts to Your Life: When life demands shift (broken sleep, stress, busy schedules), your training adjusts so you never hit pause on your progress.
✅ Suits YOU: Exercises are scaled and chosen specifically for your body, so you keep getting fitter and stronger.

✨ Stop relying on workouts designed to leave you wiped out. Choose a smarter, evidence-based system built around your body, your pace, and your life.

Momentum Hybrid Membership™ is a complete in-studio and digital ecosystem where you'll continue to unlock your physical potential, strength, power, fitness, confidence, and overall vitality at your level, with spaces strictly capped at four women.
www.strongbeyondfifty.com/hybrid for details and to apply.

31/08/2026

✨ I’ve just opened 4 spaces for Momentum Hybrid Membership™.

For women aged 35–65 who want more effective workouts to fit their goals and life. You've tried group fitness, YouTube workouts, or even PT, but are looking for a better way - especially where what you were doing stopped working or left you constantly exhausted.

The nuances of navigating midlife - broken sleep, high stress, fatigue, holidays, family commitments, changing work demands, directly inform and influence your programming. Based on individual recovery, potential, and lifestyle, finally - a way to maintain momentum without burning out. The goal isn’t simply to get stronger and fitter - it’s to empower you with the confidence and freedom to live life fully, on your terms.

Momentum Hybrid is an in person and digital training ecosystem, combining master-level programming, dynamic in-studio coaching and the flexibility to train wherever life takes you.

🏋️ In the studio, up to four women train alongside each other, but each person follows their own individually programmed workout. Think 1:1 personal training alongside three other women who are also receiving 1:1 training.

📱 When you can't train in the studio, your online program allows you to train seamlessly. Your workouts are individually programmed around your level, goals, and equipment (home or gym).

⚡ If you’re looking for long, slow sessions, gentle rehab-style exercise, or extreme high-intensity workouts that leave you completely exhausted, this is not it. These are high-intensity, high-impact strength training sessions with low-impact options where needed, designed to challenge you with controlled intensity and intent - at your level.

🚫 No punishment workouts. No reckless no-pain, no-gain sweat culture. No generic programs. No AI-generated workouts.

😍 Finally, a coaching membership that will make you wonder why you ever settled for anything less.

📅 Opening from Wednesday 2 September 2026 - new members can join until all 4 spaces are filled.
📍 Drouin private studio and online ecosystem.
⏰ Wednesdays & Fridays at 8.00am.
👥 Maximum 4 women.

Your weekly membership stays the same whether you're training in the studio or online. The digital component is part of your complete training ecosystem, so you stay consistent and maintain momentum wherever you are.

👉 If you're looking for a smarter, evidence-based approach to training, head to the website to read all the details and apply.
www.strongbeyondfifty.com/hybrid

28/07/2026

Are you putting everything into your training, but feel like it's not working?

You've tried online templates, YouTube workouts, shreds, downloadable PDFs, and group fitness classes. Or typical 'programs' that are either too hard, too easy, demand way too much of your time, or have nowhere to go once completed. You're not getting stronger, your health and performance are not improving, you're just left sore, exhausted, and burnt out.

You're left asking yourself:

🤔 Why isn't this working?
🤔 Why is nothing changing?
🤔 What do I do next?
🤔 What should I actually be doing?

The fitness industry treats exercise like a collection of random sweat sessions or rigid training phases. PTs and instructors measure success by whether they wiped you out, while online programs spit out AI-generated templates built on typical bodybuilding routines labeled "fat loss" or "strength".

Training shouldn't be in isolated boxes, and you don't need separate, disconnected routines for every goal. You are unique. Your capacity changes, your body adapts, your life shifts, and your goals evolve. You are not the same as thousands of others doing exactly the same 'program'.

I don't build one program in an hour and sell it to thousands of people, because mass training can never take you to your full potential.

💡 Most importantly: it is not the program that needs to progress, it is you!

🤝 What sets my coaching apart is simple. I take the time to understand where your program needs to go next, adjusting around your progress, your goals, and where you are now.

My programming brings everything together into one cohesive plan that evolves right along with you.

💬 Swipe through to see client responses and feedback. You're not just buying another one-off program and left to struggle on your own. With a 12-week minimum commitment to start, your programming keeps progressing for as long as you are a client.

✨ Training shouldn’t leave you exhausted. It should enhance your strength, resilience, fitness, and overall health so you can live the life you want.

👉 I genuinely only work with a few clients at a time so they each get the attention and focus they deserve. Head to my website for details and apply to work with me. www.strongbeyondfifty.com

22/07/2026

"Fitness for riders" ads keep popping up on my feed. They're often a quick pilates routine or generic core workout fronted by someone who looks great on a horse, but clearly lacks a background in athlete strength and conditioning.

They treat riding like a gentle balance exercise. But if you want to improve your performance, that’s not enough.

💡 Take "rising to the trot." The name itself is misleading. You aren't just going up and down or holding a light core brace. Riding is driven by the pelvis, an active, controlled movement swinging forward toward the pommel, supported by your glutes, thighs, calves, and full-body power. The faster you trot, the stronger your pelvic control, and the higher you rise. The size of your horse doesn't matter. You are using your entire body to absorb force, control your seat, and actively drive a powerful animal forward into the movement.

Every discipline, from trail riding to top level dressage, requires serious athleticism.

🏆 My experience as an endurance rider, combined with in-depth expertise of athlete strength and conditioning, means I know exactly how to incorporate the right training to enhance performance across any discipline, and counteract the demands of riding such as over-worked calves and thighs.

Whether you're working in the arena, racing round barrels, or out in the forest for hours on a trail ride. Or as an endurance rider, there are far more minute speed adjustments than maintaining extended trots at speed, galloping up steep hills, cantering when the terrain allows to give both you and your horse a break, or sitting properly on technical downhills to look after your horse. Your horse’s education only gets you halfway there. Your own athletic conditioning is crucial to keep improving your performance, in partnership with your horse.

"Just riding more" isn't enough. Like any athlete, equestrians need targeted strength and conditioning that also balances out the intense physical demands of riding.

🐴 Strong Beyond Equestrian™ is one of my new Signature Programs. Designed for riders who want to improve performance, develop whole-body strength, power, stability, coordination, and agility needed to maintain balance, respond quickly, and stay controlled through the unpredictable demands of riding.

This isn't another generic workout app or a one-off template. You get personal access to me and continuous program progressions that keep evolving with your active weekly membership, starting with an initial 12-week commitment.

🔥 Ready to train like the athlete your horse needs you to be? Check my website www.strongbeyondfifty.com/programs for details and to apply.

➡️ Reel is my beautiful Arab boy 'Luke' several years ago, clearly upset by whatever was happening in the background 😆 Just a jog speed for him.

15/07/2026

What exactly is an Exercise Physiologist?

Following on from my post this morning, I wanted to explain a little more about what an ExPhys does.

Exercise Physiologists are university-qualified allied health professionals who specialise in designing, prescribing and progressing exercise for everyone, from the general population and athletes through to those with injuries, pain and medical conditions.

They work with people recovering from injury or surgery, living with chronic health conditions, and anyone who wants expert guidance to safely improve their strength, fitness and physical function. They are not just for rehabilitation.

Exercise Physiologists are still one of Australia's most under-recognised allied health professions. Some health professionals are still not fully aware of the role they play in using exercise to improve health and function.

People can spend months, sometimes years, trying to find answers for pain or injuries. They'll see chiropractors, osteopaths, myotherapists, or try acupuncture, massage, needles, and other forms of "manual therapy". And there's a huge misconception that Pilates will 'fix' their issues.

While some providers may give you stretches or exercises to do at home, this is very different from progressive exercise prescription. To improve strength, function, and recovery, you need progressive overload - safely increasing resistance, challenge and training demands over time - which requires appropriate gym equipment and an exercise environment.

I have happily driven 50 minutes every week for PT sessions with my EPs because they provide the absolute best level of training available. They have helped me through frozen shoulder, hip pain and other health challenges, as well as training for my Nepal trek.

They listen, understand the bigger picture, and help people build strength, resilience and confidence in movement.

If you're interested in learning more about Exercise Physiology or finding someone in your area, you can search for one here: (note: enter 50km radius or it doesn't seem to work) https://www.essa.org.au/Web/Web/Member-location-search.aspx

For those local to Warragul, try Molly Slater-Lowe at Progressive Physio and Nick at BC Health. Another option is Pace Health Management, which has multiple clinics around Melbourne.

If you've never considered seeing an ExPhys, it might just be the missing piece in your recovery, health or performance journey.

Search for an ESSA accredited professional near you using our location search. Find an accredited exercise scientist, accredited exercise physiologist, or accredited sports scientist today.

14/07/2026

The strongest thing I did this week wasn’t in the gym.

🔥 We were at our son’s house and going outside to sit by the fire. Carrying a full mug of hot tea, I opened the sliding door, stepped onto the small concrete landing, and somehow completely lost my footing in the dark.

Instead of stepping down the two steps, it was as though the ground disappeared beneath my feet. I was suddenly hurtling forwards while my body instinctively did what it needed to do to keep me upright.

Tea went everywhere, yet somehow I saved the mug (part of a dinner set I’d given them as a gift). I continued hurtling forwards with the momentum of the fall until I was finally able to reach my hand out to the shed wall about two metres away.

😂 I looked around for help, but nobody else had seen what happened. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and I honestly wished someone had been filming. I’m sure it would have made a viral video.

💪 In my 60s, hitting the concrete at that speed would usually mean a nasty injury and a long recovery. But years of progressive training have built the physical capacity and muscle strength that allowed my body to absorb the momentum, adjust in mid-air, and walk away without a scratch.

A common misconception is that fall prevention is simply about balance. Standing on one foot or focusing on core strength alone does not build the full physical capacity needed to respond quickly to prevent a fall. Your body needs to react quickly, produce force, and regain control.

🏋️‍♀️ This is why it is crucial for women to intentionally train strength, power, agility, coordination, and whole-body stability. It is so much more than simply lifting weights, or practicing yoga or Pilates. It is about developing the physical capacity to respond when life doesn’t go to plan.

And that is exactly what I program for my clients.

14/07/2026

Why I Sometimes Recommend an Exercise Physiologist Instead of Coaching.

One of the biggest misconceptions about PTs/coaches is that we can help everyone.

➡️ The truth is, we shouldn’t!

Part of my application process involves completing the standard Adult Pre-Exercise Screening Tool used by exercise professionals across Australia.

If the screening identifies certain health considerations, symptoms, or risks that may require a different level of support, I may recommend seeing an Exercise Physiologist.

This isn’t about turning people away. It’s about making sure they’re working with the right professional for their needs.

Exercise Physiologists are university-qualified allied health professionals who specialise in exercise prescription for people with medical conditions, chronic pain, injuries, or rehabilitation needs. Some people may also require a higher level of supervision and clinical input than a PT can provide.

🤝 A good PT understands that being a qualified exercise professional and coach, does not mean being qualified to manage every health condition, injury, or rehabilitation need.

🌱 Good coaching isn’t saying yes to everyone. It’s putting a client's wellbeing ahead of business.

🏔️ This is something I personally believe in and practise.

For almost 10 years, I have worked with an Exercise Physiologist through weekly sessions to support my own training - from managing challenges like frozen shoulder to preparing for physically demanding goals such as trekking in Nepal.

📸 A photo from my own training journey a couple of years ago, with two Exercise Physiologists who have supported me for almost 10 years. Hex Health