Women's Strength Academy

Women's Strength Academy Helping NYC women 40+ train the right way through strength, hormones & education.
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NASM CPT • Nutrition Coach • Menopause-Focused Strength Training • Manhattan

September 19 Workshop in Flatiron, Manhattan

Pilates is wonderful. I personally love Pilates.But Pilates alone does not provide the same progressive bone-loading sti...
08/25/2026

Pilates is wonderful. I personally love Pilates.

But Pilates alone does not provide the same progressive bone-loading stimulus that heavy resistance training can.

You can add springs. You can make the movements harder. You can twist, balance and challenge your core. Those things have value.

But they are not the same as progressively loading a squat, deadlift, press, pull or carry with substantial external resistance.

Bones adapt to load.

Bone is constantly remodeling. Osteoclasts resorb old bone, while osteoblasts form new bone. Mechanical loading is one of the signals that influences this process — and as we get older, providing enough stimulus becomes increasingly important.

This isn’t just theory.

In the LIFTMOR randomized controlled trial, postmenopausal women with low bone mass performed supervised high-intensity resistance and impact training for 8 months.

The result?

Lumbar spine BMD increased by 2.9% in the training group, while the control group declined by 1.2%.

Research specifically examining Pilates in postmenopausal women has not shown comparable improvements in bone mineral density at the lumbar spine, total hip or femoral neck.

That doesn’t make Pilates bad.

It means Pilates and strength training have different jobs.

Keep Pilates for the things it does beautifully.

But if protecting muscle and bone after 40 is the goal:

KEEP PILATES. ADD STRENGTH.

Watson et al., 2018, Journal of Bone and Mineral Research
de Oliveira et al., 2022, Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy

08/25/2026

Not sure where to put your feet for a lateral squat? Start here 👇

This is one of my favorite simple ways to find your setup:

1️⃣ Feet together.
2️⃣ Open your toes.
3️⃣ Open your heels wide.
4️⃣ Open your toes wide again.
5️⃣ Bring your heels slightly behind your toes.
6️⃣ Hinge, bend one knee, and sit into the lateral squat.

Stand tall, shift to the other side, and alternate.

But don’t treat this setup like gospel. It’s a starting point, not a rule.

Once you’re there, test it. How does the squat actually feel?

If something feels off, adjust your stance a little — wider or narrower, or change your foot angle slightly — and try again. Your anatomy and mobility matter.

The goal isn’t to copy a perfect foot position. It’s to find a position that lets you move with control and feels good for your body.

Save this for your next leg day. 💪

The scale is only telling you how much you weigh. It cannot tell you what that weight is made of.When you start progress...
08/24/2026

The scale is only telling you how much you weigh. It cannot tell you what that weight is made of.

When you start progressive strength training, you can build muscle while simultaneously losing body fat. That means your body composition can change significantly while your weight on the scale changes very little — and in some cases, it may even increase.

You may be stronger.
Your clothes may fit differently.
Your waist may change.
You may have more lean mass and less body fat.
You may look and feel completely different.

And the scale may barely move.

This is why I don’t want women — especially after 40 — using scale weight as their only measure of progress.

If you want a more detailed assessment, ask your healthcare provider or imaging facility whether a DEXA body-composition scan is available. DEXA can estimate fat mass, lean soft tissue and bone mineral content, giving you a much more complete picture than body weight alone.

Then think long term.

Train consistently. Progressively overload. Eat enough protein. Recover. And measure progress over months — not by what the bathroom scale says from one morning to the next.

The goal isn’t simply to weigh less. The goal is to build a stronger body.

🎥 JUST POSTED in the Subscribers Club: Natasha’s full-body strength workout!Here on my public page, I share individual e...
08/23/2026

🎥 JUST POSTED in the Subscribers Club: Natasha’s full-body strength workout!

Here on my public page, I share individual exercises, form corrections, technique, and training tips.

Inside the Subscribers Club, I share complete, ready-to-save workouts you can take to the gym or do at home.

This one includes Natasha’s complete exercise sequence, reps, rounds, rest periods, and the weights she used.

You don’t need to match her weights — choose resistance that’s appropriate for your current strength and experience.

Some Subscriber workouts are bodyweight. Others use dumbbells or other equipment. You’ll see workouts from my own training and real sessions with my clients, broken down so you can save them and try them yourself.

Subscribe to access the workouts and train with us. 💪

Thank you for choosing Strength & being a part of Women’s Strength Academy!
Getting Stronger Together! 💪

08/23/2026

Most women aren’t bad at bird dogs — they’ve just never been shown how to do them well.

The goal isn’t to lift your arm and leg as high as possible. The goal is to resist movement through your trunk while your opposite limbs move.

Try these cues:

→ Rotate your hands slightly outward and bring your elbows back
→ Push the floor away — don’t sink between your shoulders
→ Keep your knees directly under your hips
→ Brace before you move
→ Don’t think UP — think OUT
→ Reach the opposite arm and leg long while keeping your pelvis and low back controlled

A simple test? Place something light on your low back. If you can reach without it immediately rolling off, you’re doing a much better job controlling your trunk.

Less height. More control. Better bird dog.

08/23/2026

Strength training isn’t supposed to look effortless. 💪

When the weight gets challenging, your legs aren’t the only thing working. A strong brace helps create trunk stiffness and keeps you stable under load.

Before a heavy goblet squat:

→ Inhale
→ Brace your core
→ Squat
→ Stand
→ Exhale and reset

Think about creating tension around your entire midsection — almost as if you’re preparing for someone to punch you in the stomach.

And as the set gets harder, keep your knees tracking with your toes rather than letting them cave inward.

You don’t need every set to be maximal. But if your goal is to build muscle and strength, your working sets need to provide a meaningful challenge while you maintain good technique.

That effort you see on Natasha’s face? That’s what a challenging set can look like.

Inhale. Brace. Squat. Stand. Exhale. Reset.

There’s a concept in business called reverse engineering:Decide where you want to end up. Then work backward.We should d...
08/22/2026

There’s a concept in business called reverse engineering:

Decide where you want to end up. Then work backward.

We should do the same with aging.

Picture yourself at 70.

Can you carry your suitcase?
Get up from the floor?
Climb stairs?
Travel?
Live independently?

Now ask a harder question:

What would the 70-year-old you want you to start doing today?

Because we don’t suddenly become strong at 70.

The muscle. The balance. The habits. The identity of someone who takes care of her body — those are built decades earlier.

We can’t control everything about aging.

But we can train for the future we want.

Your 70-year-old body is under construction now.

08/21/2026

Most women aren’t bad at push-ups — they’ve just never been shown how to set them up.

If your elbows flare straight out, reset your position:

→ Thumbs by your armpits
→ Fingers spread
→ Bring that position to the floor
→ Keep your elbows at an angle, approximately 30–45° from your torso
→ Keep your body moving as one unit
→ Press the floor away

A push-up trains your chest, shoulders, triceps and core to work together. Start with the variation you can control, master the technique, then build from there.

Save this for your next upper-body workout.

Same age. Different muscle.From mid-adulthood, muscle mass can decline by approximately 3–8% per decade, with losses acc...
08/20/2026

Same age. Different muscle.

From mid-adulthood, muscle mass can decline by approximately 3–8% per decade, with losses accelerating later in life. For women, the menopausal transition can make preserving muscle and strength even more important.

When age-related losses in muscle and strength become clinically significant, we call it sarcopenia.

And it’s not just about looking less muscular.

Less muscle and strength can mean lower physical capacity, greater risk of falls and frailty, difficulty with everyday tasks, and loss of independence later in life.

The good news? Muscle remains trainable as we age.

Progressive resistance training is one of our strongest evidence-based tools for maintaining—and building—muscle and strength.

After 40, strength training isn’t just about how you look today.

It’s about what your body will still be able to do decades from now.

08/20/2026

Want more glute emphasis from your Bulgarian split squat? Start with your setup.

This is a simple starting point I use when setting up a glute-focused Bulgarian split squat:

1. Sit on the edge of the bench.
2. Extend one leg and note where your heel lands.
3. Stand around that position with your feet approximately hip-width apart.
4. Place the opposite foot on the bench behind you.
5. Hinge slightly at the hips and allow a controlled forward torso lean.
6. Bend the front knee and lower under control.

For this variation, the forward torso inclination and greater hip involvement help bias the movement toward the glutes, while the front knee and quadriceps are still working.

Your front shin may remain relatively vertical, but don’t force it to stay perfectly vertical. Some forward knee movement is normal and not inherently a mistake.

And remember: the sit-and-extend method is a starting point, not a universal rule. Limb lengths, bench height, mobility and individual anatomy all affect your ideal stance.

If you feel cramped, overstretched or unstable, adjust your stance until you can control the movement comfortably.

Save this for your next Bulgarian split squat.

Special thank you to my client Natasha for helping me film this one for you guys! ❤️

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