18/09/2026
What if the best workout for your hormones isnāt the hardest one?
For years, fitness taught us that more was better.
Sweat more. Push harder. Burn more calories.
But for women moving through their 40s, 50s and beyond, I think we need a more intelligent conversation about exercise.
Our hormones are changing. Oestrogen fluctuates and eventually declines. Sleep can become more difficult. Recovery can feel different. Body composition changes. Stress can feel harder to manage.
Exercise is incredibly important during this stage of life ā but it doesnāt always need to be intense.
Moderate cardiovascular exercise can support heart health, insulin sensitivity, mood, sleep and weight management, while strength work helps us protect muscle and bone.
And then thereās something we rarely talk about enough:
Where we exercise.
Gyms are brilliant. They give us access to weights, resistance equipment and a controlled environment, and strength training absolutely deserves its place in womenās health.
But there is another gym available to us.
Outside.
Walking briskly through woodland, climbing hills, carrying weights, squatting, lunging and working against our own body weight can create a completely different exercise experience.
We get movement ā but we also get daylight, fresh air, changing terrain and exposure to nature.
For me, that combination is powerful.
Exercise doesnāt always have to leave us exhausted to be effective.
Sometimes the goal should be to finish feeling stronger, clearer and more energised than when we started.
That philosophy has become central to the STOMP Method.
We combine purposeful walking with strength and conditioning stations in nature. Heart rate rises, then recovers as we walk. We work hard, but we donāt believe every session needs to push people to their limit.
Itās not anti-gym.
Itās another way to train.
One that combines cardiovascular fitness, strength, nature and human connection in the same hour.
And thereās one more benefit we donāt talk about enough.
No banks of treadmills.
No rows of electrically powered machines.
No lights illuminating a huge exercise floor.
Our gym is already there.
The paths. The hills. The trees. The weather.
Not to mention ā we use less power.
Climate-friendly exercise.
Perhaps the future of fitness doesnāt need more equipment.
Perhaps sometimes, we just need to step outside.
