How to Strength Train as a Hobbyist Athlete

Fuel Your Strength

Steph Gaudreau

Fitness, Nutrition, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you're a hobbyist athlete over 40 who loves your sport – cycling, running, pickleball, martial arts to name a few – but you've been hesitating to start strength training, this episode is for you.

In today's episode of the Fuel Your Strength podcast, you'll hear exactly how to strength train as an athletic woman over 40 without sacrificing time for your sport. This is a simple, sustainable blueprint for building muscle, improving power, preventing injury, and staying in the game long-term – without living in the gym five days a week.

What you'll learn in this episode:

Why strength training makes you faster – not slower
The "Insurance Policy" mindset for athletes over 40
A 2-Day strength training template for athletes
How hard should you train? (RPE made simple)
Why power training matters after 40
Why less is often more for busy women over 40

Enjoyed this episode and want more?

If this episode resonates and you're ready to stop guessing in the gym, you can try a free sample of Strong with Steph, my progressive strength training program built specifically for women over 40 who want structure and flexibility.

Try 7 days free at https://stephgaudreau.com/workout

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend who's lifting (or thinking about starting), and make sure you're subscribed to Fuel Your Strength so you don't miss future episodes like this one.

Transcript

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0:00.0	20 years ago when I was racing mountain bikes, one of the biggest mistakes I ever made was avoiding
0:07.1	strength training because I thought it would make me slower on the bike. I can't fathom today
0:13.4	being on the doorstep of 47 as a hobbyist athlete who loves my sport and not having strength training as an insurance policy in my back pocket. But I hear from so many people constantly out there over 40. You love your sport so much. You've been reading about strength training and why it's so important. And yet there is something that's just kind of
0:38.2	holding you back. How do you actually strength train as a hobbyist athlete over 40 when you're
0:45.8	already trying to balance a busy life, a busy schedule, and doing the sport that you love?
0:51.0	On this podcast episode, I'm going to fill you in on the exact blueprint that I would
0:55.5	use if I were getting started strength training as a hobbyist athlete over 40.
1:00.6	If you're an athletic 40-something woman who loves lifting weights, challenging yourself and
1:06.4	doing hard shit, the fuel your strength podcast is for you. You'll learn how to eat, train,
1:12.9	and recover smarter so you build strength and muscle, have more energy, and perform better
1:19.1	in and out of the gym. I'm Strength Nutrition Strategist and Weightlifting Coach, Steph Goddrow.
1:25.3	The Fuel Your Strength podcast dives into evidence-based
1:29.2	strategies for nutrition, training, and recovery, and why, once you're approaching your 40s
1:35.2	and beyond, you need to do things a little differently than you did in your 20s. We're here to
1:40.7	challenge the limiting industry narratives about what women can and should do in training and beyond.
1:48.0	If that sounds good, hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app and let's go.
1:54.1	Welcome back to the podcast.
1:55.6	Thanks so much for joining me this week.
1:57.9	We're going to be getting into it.
1:59.4	Now, we've talked tons on this podcast about
2:01.5	why strength training is so beneficial for athletes over 40. On this episode, I want to stick a little
2:07.3	bit more to the how. How do we do this? And I'm going to be laying out a structure, a template for you
	...

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