359. Fitness Tips and Inspo For Midlife with Alicia Erickson

You Are Not Broken

Kelly Casperson, MD

Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on You Are Not Broken, I’m joined by the strong, grounded, and refreshingly honest Alicia Erickson for a conversation about midlife reinvention — from hormones to heavy lifting. We talk about the real-life impact of perimenopause (and why projects like The M Factor: Shredding the Silence on Menopause matter), Alicia’s decision to get sober at 45, and what happens when women stop shrinking and start building — muscle, boundaries, and belief in themselves. Alicia shares her journey into strength training, progressive overload, and even stepping on a bikini competition stage — not for validation, but for growth. We break down body recomposition (yes, you can build muscle and lose fat at the same time), the critical role of sleep, and how hormone replacement therapy can dramatically shift quality of life in midlife. This is a conversation about doing hard things on purpose. About eating enough. About lifting heavy. About community. About deciding your second half will be stronger than your first. You are not broken. You might just need a barbell. Why perimenopause feels chaotic — and what’s actually happening hormonally Alicia’s sobriety journey and the connection between alcohol, mental health, and midlife Why strength training is non-negotiable for women over 40 Progressive overload explained simply Sleep as the foundation for body composition Hormone replacement therapy and quality of life Body recomposition: burning fat while building muscle Eating more (not less) to support muscle growth The mindset shift from “smaller” to “stronger” The power of community and doing hard things together If this episode resonates, share it with a woman in your life who needs permission to take up space — in the gym, in her body, and in her life. Because midlife isn’t the beginning of decline. It’s the beginning of power. https://www.instagram.com/aliciae/ Listen to my Tedx Talk: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Why we need adult sex ed⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take my ⁠⁠Adult Sex Ed Master Class:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠My Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Interested in my sexual health and hormone clinic? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Waitlist is open⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Thanks to our sponsor ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Midi Women's Health⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Designed by midlife experts, delivered by experienced clinicians, covered by insurance.Midi is the first virtual care clinic made exclusively for women 40+. Evidence-based treatments. Personalized midlife care.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.joinmidi.com⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to You Are Not Broken, the podcast that challenges everything we've been taught about midlife,
0:08.1	hormones, and sexuality. I'm Dr. Kelly Casperson, board certified jurologist, author, and a leading
0:13.7	voice in women's sexual and hormone health. Enjoy the show. And we're on with Alicia Erickson
0:19.3	on the You're Not Broken podcast. Welcome. Thank you for coming on my podcast. Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. You're one of my besties. I'm like, when did the we happen? I think it was like I started following you. I don't know why, mostly because I follow buff chicks to work out. And then I was like, oh, she's in Washington.
0:57.2	Oh, she's like a five-five. Okay, this is pretty good. We're literally, what, an hour from each other? Yeah, I know. A little over an hour. Yeah, and then I came to the movie for the premiere. I didn't get to meet you because it was a full crowd. Oh, you came up to the Bellingham one. Yeah. Yes. 26 second documentary is coming out. Do you know this?
0:56.9	Oh, you came up to the Bellingham one. Yeah. Yes. 2026, second documentary is coming out. Do you know this? Oh, no. Yes. M Factor 2.0 before the pause. It's all about perimenopause. Oh my gosh.
1:05.4	Can't win. Let's see. I'm going to the L.A. premiere in January. Seattle is going to be February 11th, and then Bellingham is likely going to be March 22nd.
1:17.5	Oh my gosh, maybe I need to come to the Seattle one. I want to see it.
1:20.0	So yeah, you should come to Seattle or Bellingham, whatever's closer.
1:24.1	Spoiler alert, I'm in it again.
1:25.9	Yes. Oh, no, everybody will be so excited about that.
1:28.4	Oh, dude, I think, like, as much as for anybody who doesn't know the M Factor documentary, PBS did an M Factor documentary two years ago now about menopause. It's phenomenal if you can get your hands on it. And they're doing the second one. That's just perimenopause, 2026. And I think it's going to be we're watching it today,
1:45.9	like everybody who's in it is watching it today
1:47.5	so we can all get on. one, it's just perimenopause, 2026. And I think it's going to be, we're watching it today,
1:45.9	like everybody who's in it is watching it today, so we can all get on the same page. It's as good,
1:50.6	if not better than the first one. I think that, you know, honestly, I think that that is probably
1:56.5	an area where people have even more questions is around perimenopause, because it's so,
2:02.2	such a fluctuation of things going on that I think that's going to be perimenopause is crazy it is i mean i will never
2:07.8	forget one time you talked about how you know your hormones coming online as adolescence so think
2:12.0	about how crazy adolescent you know in your adolescence so perimenopause your hormones going off
2:16.1	you're starting to go offline think about this is why we're going, we think we're crazy, but no.
2:20.7	Yeah, no, you're just reverse pubertying with having kids in relationships and jobs and
	...

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