Blinco Built

If you're over 40 with a stiff neck and upper back, this one's for you.

What's missing is rotation in your upper back. A lack of rotation is what leads to a sore lower back and neck pain in the first place. So the pain shows up in one place, but the cause is somewhere else entirely.

That's why we build some form of rotation into basically every session. In a variety of ways, at a level that meets you where you're at, both in the workouts and the warm-ups.

So if you're not doing any at the moment, start there. Build a bit of rotation into your movement every single day, just to counteract all that sitting you're doing.

You've been told you need to strength train. But why does it even matter?

The obvious one is physical. You can lift things, you can get up the stairs, all of that. But that's the obvious part.

Then there's the psychological side. A workout that feels really challenging, mentally as much as physically, builds confidence on a micro level. And on a macro level, it shapes your identity. You become the type of person who does hard things.

Then there's the stuff people don't talk about. Lifting weights stimulates your body to release cells that clean up the waste from the exercise you've just done, and help fight things like cancer cells.

We like to compartmentalise. Your physical health here, your mental health over there. But they're all linked. You can't work on one without the other. And I'm biased, but I reckon the physical is the foundation the rest is built on. Mental, emotional, even spiritual.

Your body is built to move. Everything in it is about movement in some way. So strength training matters not just because of what you can lift and what it lets you do, but who it lets you become.

If you struggle to get your top on in the morning, this one's for you.

Besides back pain and knee pain, shoulder pain is the most common thing people come to us with when they first start. Which makes sense. Your shoulder is the most movable joint in your body, and that mobility can make it more prone to injury in those extended positions.

Stretching's great, but it's not the most effective way to produce lasting change. What I like is getting blood flow into the area. This goes for most joints, but the shoulder especially. And in a range that's comfortable for you, no more than a one or two out of 10 pain.

A lot of the supporting muscles for the shoulder are in the back, so that's a great place to start. Work a variety of movements, and make sure it's full range. Don't stop short. Push into those extended ranges.

When you're ready to start lifting overhead, I like this variation so I can move my upper body and my shoulder isn't locked into a position that hurts.

If you're not currently doing something focused to get blood flowing to your shoulders in a comfortable range, start there. I guarantee in two or three weeks your shoulder mobility will improve out of sight.

Feeling stuck with shoulder or neck pain and don't know where to start? Reach out and we'll show you how.

Building muscle in your 40s needs a different approach

Here's something that reframed how I think about training completely.

People don't usually end up in a nursing home because they got sick. They end up there because they can no longer do the small things. A quarter squat to get off the toilet. Reaching overhead for a glass. The unglamorous, everyday movements that let you look after yourself.

We all know "use it or lose it." It's such a throwaway line that it stops meaning anything. But sit with what it actually says. The things you stop doing, you eventually lose the ability to do. Not overnight. Over a period of time, quietly, until one day the movement's just gone.

The good news is it runs both ways. Keep taking your body through those movements and you keep them. That's the whole reason a good program has variety in it. It walks you through the range of things you'll need for the rest of your life.

Not at some punishing level. At a level that meets you exactly where you are right now, whatever that looks like today.

That's the point of training over 40. Not the mirror. Your independence, decades from now.

If that's the kind of training you've been after, send us a message and we'll show you where to start.

You don't come to the gym to get good at the gym 🐻 The real wins are chasing your kids (or grandkids) around, hiking up hills, keeping up with your life outside of the gym

You keep writing the same list. New year, new Monday, new start. And somehow you land back where you started.

The goals were never the problem. The reason underneath them is.

Setting a goal sets the direction. But direction doesn't get you off the couch when it's cold and dark and your knee aches a little. What gets you there is the why sitting underneath the goal. The one you feel in your guts.

So for every goal, ask three questions.

Why is this important to you. That peels the first layer of the onion.

If you achieved it, how would you feel. Go deeper. Name three or four things that change outside the gym. Not how you look. How you show up for the people you care about.

And the deep one. Why now. Why not three months ago, why not six months ago. What made enough finally enough. Nail that one, because it's what you come back to when the motivation dips.

Then the bonus. What's knocked you off track before. Those things aren't new. They're a pattern that feels new every time. Name them now and you can plan for them before they arrive.

This is the work we do in your first consult. So you walk out understanding exactly why you're here.

If that sounds like a process worth going through, send us a message and we'll show you where to start.

40 and want to get into fitness but have no idea where to start? This is for you.

Something I tell everyone in our first one-on-one consult is that we're setting a course for a distant horizon. That doesn't mean we can't get quick results. It means in those first sessions, and the first four to six weeks, you want to walk out thinking, "that was easier than I thought it'd be."

There's a real practical reason for it. Your muscles and your nervous system adapt fastest. But your joints, tendons and ligaments take a lot longer to catch up.

So if you go too hard in those first four weeks, the problem often doesn't show up until month three or four. Right when you've got momentum, you've got results, and you want to really get into it. Then your elbow starts to hurt. Your neck. Your knees. And that problem actually started back in week one, two, three and four.

As a bonus, going in easier takes the pressure off. You get to learn the habits first. Showing up. Being consistent. The language of a gym, all the stuff that feels overwhelming at the start. Put your focus there and let the training take care of itself.

Share this with someone over 40 who you think it might help.

You want to start exercising but the thought of walking into a gym terrifies you? Watch this.

This might surprise you, but you probably should be terrified. A gym is a strange environment. There's nothing else in your life quite like walking into one. It feels like everyone already knows what they're doing. They've been here for ages. It makes complete sense that you'd be nervous.

That's why it matters to find a gym that specialises in reducing that anxiety.

And it's not just about what the gym does. Meeting you one-on-one first. Your first session being a one-on-one PT. Small group classes so you get a lot of individual attention. All of that helps.

But the bigger thing is this. Gyms that specialise in it are full of people exactly like you, who started exactly where you are. So when you walk in, there's a complete lack of judgment, because everyone has been in your shoes. You're surrounded by people over 40 who knew they should be exercising but were too nervous to start, or had never done it before. And now they've found their place.

If this is you, I'm not saying you should start with us. But find somewhere like that. Somewhere that resonates with you, whatever that looks like.

And if you need help finding it, even if it's not us, reach out. More than happy to help.

Over 40, eating pretty well, and still putting on weight? This is for you.

That describes about 99% of the people who walk in here. And they're confused by it. They're eating healthy meals, they're not at Maccas every day, and yet two, three, four kilos creeps on almost every year.

Here's what it isn't. It's not that you've got it all wrong and need a nutritionist or another meal plan. Don't start with those.

There are really just a couple of key principles that make this simple. Simple, not easy.

That's why we do the one-on-one nutrition consults before you start. Everyone's life is different, so the problems you're having have a specific solution. And very rarely is it stuff you don't already know. It's about fitting what you already know into the life you've actually got.

That's the problem I've solved for people over 40 for more than a decade. Businesses, high-level careers, kids, all of it mixed in.

You've already got enough on your plate, pardon the pun. A 20 or 30-minute catch-up can unlock great results without cutting things out. More often than not, we're adding things in. So you're not skipping meals. So you're not snacking at 3pm. So you're not reaching for the chocolate after dinner and then not stopping until it's gone.

Sound like you? Send me a DM and I'll reach out and see if I can help.