Alva O'Sullivan

Full recipe in my website alvaosullivan.com
Today I had a mix of hazelnut, cashew nut and pecan nut in my 450g nuts - all whole nuts and blitz really well with other ingredients.

Chilling and ready for my teams “performance” snack 💪 at the fab annual golf outing in this afternoon

(Don’t worry also have a little batch for you 😊)

Yesterday I talked about why technique has to come before load.

But once you can perform the movement well, the next question is: are you actually challenging the muscle enough?

Strength training needs to be difficult enough to create adaptation.

That doesn’t mean lifting the heaviest weight you can. It means choosing a resistance where the final few reps feel genuinely challenging, while you can still maintain good form.

If you finish a set and feel you could easily keep going for another ten reps, you may need more challenge.

Over time, that might mean increasing the weight, adding reps, increasing range, slowing the movement down or making the exercise more demanding.

Technique first. Then progressive challenge. That’s how strength develops.

Tomorrow I’ll show you how to progressively overload

Save and share with a female friend that might be interested in learning more about muscle adaptation and growth in midlife

Before we lift heavier we need to learn to move better

There’s a lot of messaging telling women in midlife to “lift heavy” and yes, progressive strength training is incredibly important but for many women, the missing piece isn’t effort - It’s technique.

Before adding more load, it so important we understand how to set our body up well, to control the movement, to understand where the power of the movement should come from and how to push, pull, hinge, squat and brace properly.

If we add heavy resistance to poor movement patterns, we’re simply loading the problem and that can increase the risk of injury which none of us want in midlife!

I like to start with the foundations:
Alignment
Control
Mind-muscle connection
Movement mechanics

Then, once the movement is technically sound and controlled, you can progressively increase the challenge safely and in turn build strength and bone density for the long term.

Ever feel your form and set up in a movement is stopping you progressing further?

Share this with a friend if you think she might be interested in this weeks content 😊

Is breakfast an important meal in the day for women in midlife?

I’m asked that question all the time.

My answer is usually another question “Do you want to spend your day chasing your energy, or do you want to start one step ahead?” That, to me, is a much more useful way to think about it.

I talk to so many women who describe the same pattern... Coffee... rushing... grabbing food whenever there’s a chance... then arriving home absolutely exhausted, starving and wondering why all the healthy choices feel so difficult.

It’s not willpower. It’s often that we’ve simply asked our bodies to keep going without giving them what they need.
After an overnight fast, your body needs nourishment to prepare for the day ahead. When we delay fueling by skiping breakfast altogether, we’re more likely to experience dips in energy, increasing hunger and stronger cravings later in the day. That’s when healthy choices can feel much harder, portions often need to be larger to satisfy and we’re more likely to reach for quick, energy-dense foods in the evening.

As we move through perimenopause and menopause, hormonal changes can make it more difficult to regulate blood glucose and insulin efficiently. That means many women notice greater fluctuations in energy, appetite and cravings than they did in earlier years.

That’s why I encourage women to think about getting ahead rather than catching up.

This habit change often makes healthy weight management and improving body composition feel more doable. It’s not because breakfast is magic. It’s because fuelling well earlier in the day supports steadier energy and steadier decision-making all day long.

If this resonated, save it and come back to it tomorrow morning!

Lots of ideas on how to fuel as you start your day coming.