Women's Fitness Over 40: Cutting Through the Confusion with Nikki Naab-Levy

Fuel Your Strength

Steph Gaudreau

Fitness, Health & Fitness, Nutrition

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you've been feeling like women's fitness over 40 is a nonstop back-and-forth debate - like you're courtside at Wimbledon watching the ball whip from one hot take to another - you're not imagining it. Social media is loud right now, especially when it comes to what women should or shouldn't be doing in midlife. That noise can make it hard to trust your instincts or know what actually matters for building strength and aging athletically.

In this episode, I'm joined by strength for hypermobility & nutrition coach Nikki Naab-Levy. Together, we unpack the most confusing fitness narratives floating around right now and give you context that brings you back to center court so you feel confident, grounded, and clear on what works.

What you'll learn in this episode:

What if "feeling the right muscle" isn't the best way to judge your lift?
Are you training for strength… or just training to get tired?
Do rest periods actually matter, or is that all overblown?
If hypertrophy works across a huge rep range, how do you choose what you should do?
What happens when aesthetic fears collide with long-term strength and aging well?

Enjoyed this episode and want more?

If you want a lifting program that tells you exactly what to do, try 7 days of Strong with Steph here >> https://stephgaudreau.com/workout

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When it comes to women's fitness over 40 lately, you might feel like you're watching a Wimbledon
0:05.4	match between some of the greatest tennis players in the world because there's a lot of back
0:10.7	and forth going on about super popular topics. And if you're feeling a little confused by
0:15.8	it all, you are definitely not alone. On this episode, I'm bringing back one of my favorite guests, and we're talking
0:22.8	about some of the more common things that we're seeing on social media about women's fitness
0:27.6	and lifting over 40. It will be talking through a lot of the nuance and context you need to know
0:32.9	in order to land more at center court.
0:46.4	If you're an athletic 40-something woman who loves lifting weights, challenging yourself and doing hard shit, the fuel your strength podcast is for you.
0:51.2	You'll learn how to eat, train, and recover smarter so you build strength and muscle,
0:57.2	have more energy, and perform better in and out of the gym. I'm strength nutrition strategist
1:03.6	and weightlifting coach, Steph Goddrow. The Fuel Your Strength Podcast dives into evidence-based
1:09.5	strategies for nutrition, training, and recovery,
1:13.2	and why, once you're approaching your 40s and beyond, you need to do things a little differently
1:18.6	than you did in your 20s. We're here to challenge the limiting industry narratives about what
1:24.0	women can and should do in training and beyond.
1:28.2	If that sounds good, hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app and let's go.
1:36.0	What's going on?
1:37.1	Welcome back to Fuel Your Strength.
1:39.5	Thanks so much for joining me today.
1:40.9	I'm very excited because we haven't done a guest episode in quite some time.
1:45.8	And I'm very happy. It is my good friend and colleague, the wonderful Nikki Nab Levy.
1:52.0	Nikki is a strength and nutrition coach. She has a very pragmatic, practical point of view about so many
	...

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