When you’re considering working with a personal trainer in your 40s or beyond, it’s important to understand what you’re really signing up for. Having coached hundreds of women through my 1:1 Coaching and Strength Essentials programmes, I’ve developed an approach that stands in stark contrast to much of what you’ll find in the fitness industry. Let me share what makes this approach different, and why it matters for women who want to future-proof their bodies in as little as one hour per week.
What You WON’T Get With My Approach
Let’s start with what you won’t experience in my programmes, because these distinctions matter:
No Endless Supplement Recommendations
You won’t get a lengthy list of supplements to buy. While certain supplements have their place, the fitness industry’s tendency to give them as magical solutions does more harm than good. My focus is on fundamentals – movement patterns, progressive loading, and sustainable habits – not selling you bottles of promises.
No Unnecessary Hormone Testing
Despite what you might read online, most commercial hormone tests marketed to perimenopausal women lack any scientific validity and reliability. Instead of chasing fluctuating numbers, we’ll focus on evidence-based approaches that actually improve how you feel and function, regardless of where you are in your hormonal journey.
No Shame When Life Happens
Missing workouts is part of real life. You won’t be shamed, guilted, or made to feel like a failure when work deadlines, family emergencies, or simple exhaustion interfere with your training schedule. Instead, we’ll build resilience and consistency over time, understanding that the path isn’t perfectly linear.
No Life Consuming Plans
Your strength training programme won’t take up all your free time and energy. The women I work with are already juggling careers, families, and countless responsibilities. That’s why my approach is designed to deliver maximum benefit in minimal time – often just one hour per week.
No Unrealistic Priority Expectations
I’ll never expect fitness to be your number one priority. For most women I work with, that simply isn’t realistic or desirable. Instead, we’ll make strength training work within your actual life and current priorities, finding sustainable ways to fit it in without overwhelming you.
What You WILL Get Instead
Now for the good part – what you can actually expect when working with me:
Genuinely Personalised Programming
Your strength training programme will be truly personalised around your real life and commitments. This isn’t about forcing you into a pre-written template. In my 1:1 Coaching I make sure everything’s taken into consideration – your unique schedule, energy patterns, preferences, and goals.
One client, a nurse with unpredictable rotas, needs a completely different approach than another client who cares for an elderly parent. Both are successfully building strength, but through very different pathways tailored to their specific realities.
Support from Someone Who “Gets It”
Having gone through early menopause myself and coached countless women through perimenopause and beyond, I understand the unique challenges you’re facing. The fatigue that doesn’t respond to “just push through it.” The sleep disruptions that leave you drained. The mood fluctuations that make consistency challenging.
This isn’t theoretical knowledge, it’s lived experience combined with professional expertise, allowing me to provide support that actually works with your reality.
A Coach Who Actually Listens
Being listened to is massively underrated in coaching. Lots of my clients share that our sessions are the only time someone fully focuses on their physical wellbeing without judgment or interruption. This part informs everything, from exercise selection to progression timing, making sure your programme evolves with your changing needs.
Strength That Serves You Long Term
The strength you’ll develop isn’t just about looking good in photos or hitting arbitrary numbers. It’s functional, purposeful strength designed to carry you through the next few decades of your life with more ease and capability.
We focus on movements that translate directly to real-life activities – getting off the floor easily, carrying shopping, lifting kids, keeping independence, and saying “yes” to adventures without worrying about your body keeping up.
Learning Strength Training as Self Care
Maybe most importantly, you’ll learn to approach strength training not as punishment or obligation, but as a powerful form of self care during a challenging period of life. This mindset shift transforms everything, turning “should” into “want to” and “have to” into “get to.”
Beyond the Physical Transformation
What makes my coaching truly different is the understanding that this isn’t about getting skinny or adding to another guilt cycle. Women have enough of that already.
Instead, this is about coaching that helps you feel better and live better for the decades to come. It’s about future proofing your body in as little as one hour per week, building capability rather than limitation, and approaching each stage of life with confidence rather than apprehension.
The women who thrive in my programmes aren’t looking for quick fixes or aesthetic transformations on their own. They’re looking for sustainable strength that enhances their quality of life – and they find it, often with far less time and struggle than they initially expected.
If you’re ready for a different approach to personal training – one built on honesty, sustainability, and genuine understanding of women’s experiences – let’s talk about how my 1:1 Coaching or Strength Essentials programmes might serve you.
- Download my free “2 Session Strength Kickstart” guide – the perfect starting point if you’re not sure where to begin. Download Now →
- Join my Midlife Strength Newsletter for weekly guidance on simple, effective strength training for perimenopausal women. Subscribe Here →
- Explore personalised support options:
- 1:1 Coaching: Get the same personalised approach that transformed Hannah’s fitness journey, tailored specifically to your needs, schedule, and goals.
- Strength Essentials Programme: Learn the foundations of perimenopausal strength training with a progressive programme – so you don’t have to think about what to do, you just need to show up.