Aging Athletically with Alison Heilig

Alison Heilig

Women have long been told: At midlife, it's time to slow down. Be gentle. Watch from the sidelines. But this advice is only accelerating women's decline. What if instead of accepting decline, we built our strongest body in midlife that makes us faster, stronger, and more efficient than ever before? Women in midlife are presented with a unique set of biological challenges, but that doesn't mean we need to accept defeat. It just means we need a better strategy. Aging Athletically is for the woman who wants the world to stay open to her: whether that's running your 20th ultra or just loading your suitcase into the overhead bin without assistance. I'm Alison Heilig: Running Coach, Corrective Exercise Specialist, Certified Nutrition Coach, Women's Fitness Specialist, Yoga Medicine® Registered Therapeutic Specialist, and author of The Durable Runner. And I believe your strongest years are ahead of you. Let's go.

Season 1

  1. 01: The Health & Fitness Industry Is a Lie

    Episode 1 ·  Video

    01: The Health & Fitness Industry Is a Lie

    LEARN MORE ABOUT ALISON HEILIG The fitness industry sold women the recipe for skinny and called it health. It wasn't. In this episode, you'll hear Alison answer questions like: Why are men's fitness goals about performance while women's are only about aesthetics? What does a woman's life actually look like at 60, 70, 80 if she ages the way we've been told to? Is it really too late to reverse the damage of decades of skinny-first programming? If you've been doing "all the right things" and still feel like your body is working against you — Alison's work is exactly what you've been missing.

    19 min
  2. 02: The Recipe For Strong vs. Skinny: What Needs to Change

    Episode 2 ·  Video

    02: The Recipe For Strong vs. Skinny: What Needs to Change

    LEARN MORE ABOUT ALISON HEILIG At 30, she was told her body just wasn't built for running. She said no. In this episode, you'll hear Alison answer questions like: What does it actually look like to dismantle decades of skinny conditioning — layer by layer? Can even the most committed female athlete still have that little skinny voice running in the background? What would happen to the entire fitness industry if women collectively chose strong over small? If you're tired of fighting your body and ready to fight for it instead, this is the conversation that reframes everything.

    28 min
  3. 03: The Menopause Gold Rush: Weaponizing Women's Symptoms

    Episode 3 ·  Video

    03: The Menopause Gold Rush: Weaponizing Women's Symptoms

    LEARN MORE ABOUT ALISON HEILIG Someone is getting rich off your perimenopause symptoms — and it's not you. In this episode, you'll hear Alison answer questions like: What is the menopause gold rush, and how do you spot it in your Instagram feed? Why are weighted vests everywhere — and do they actually do what they claim? What do women actually have control over during perimenopause, and what's just noise? You don't have to white-knuckle your way through this transition the way every generation before you did — and Alison can show you exactly why.

    21 min
  4. 04: The High Achiever's Paradox: What Got You Here is Keeping You Here

    Episode 4 ·  Video

    04: The High Achiever's Paradox: What Got You Here is Keeping You Here

    LEARN MORE ABOUT ALISON HEILIG The skill that got you to the top of your career is the same one that's running your body into the ground. In this episode, you'll hear Alison answer questions like: Why are high-achieving women and undiagnosed ADHD showing up together in perimenopause? What does it look like when a woman who tracks everything, works out six days a week, and eats "clean" is actually destroying her metabolism? What is a reverse diet — and why do women fight it so hard even when it's clearly working? If you've been doing more and getting worse results, Alison doesn't think you have a discipline problem. She thinks you have a strategy problem.

    38 min
  5. 05: Why Midlife Makes Wellness Hard (And Why We Need to Do it Anyway)

    Episode 5 ·  Video

    05: Why Midlife Makes Wellness Hard (And Why We Need to Do it Anyway)

    LEARN MORE ABOUT ALISON HEILIG Sandwich generation, career peak, perimenopause, aging parents — and someone's telling you to add a workout routine. Here's how to actually do it. In this episode, you'll hear Alison answer questions like: What does Alison look for when she's assessing a woman's real capacity to train? Why does she always start clients at two days a week even when they insist they can do five? Why do women end up in group classes while men end up at the squat rack — and what does that actually cost them? You don't need more time. You need a better strategy. Alison built her entire system around women who have none to spare.

    24 min
  6. 06: Training in Midlife: What Your Body Actually Needs to Get Stronger

    Episode 6 ·  Video

    06: Training in Midlife: What Your Body Actually Needs to Get Stronger

    LEARN MORE ABOUT ALISON HEILIG You can eat healthy and still be chronically under-fueling. For most active women, that's exactly what's happening. In this episode, you'll hear Alison answer questions like: What is the fueling paradox — and why does getting fitter sometimes mean your body has to change in ways that feel wrong? Why does Alison tell athletes to eat even when they're not hungry? What does 175 grams of carbs actually look like in real food — and is it anywhere near enough? 75% of the women Alison works with who train four or more days a week come in under-fueled. If you're one of them, everything else you're doing is working against you.

    21 min
  7. 07: Injuries, Setbacks & the Fragility Myth

    Episode 7 ·  Video

    07: Injuries, Setbacks & the Fragility Myth

    LEARN MORE ABOUT ALISON HEILIG Your body didn't betray you. You just lost your margin for error — and no one told you. In this episode, you'll hear Alison answer questions like: Why are women in midlife suddenly dealing with tendonitis, frozen shoulder, and injuries they didn't see coming? What actually separates women who come back stronger from injury versus the ones who never fully return? How do under-fueling and under-recovery stack on top of each other to make injury inevitable? Alison has never had a client who physically couldn't come back from an injury and truly wanted to. The barrier is almost always the same thing — and it's not what you think.

    24 min
  8. 08: Refuse to Decline: Your Strongest Years Are Still Ahead

    Episode 8 ·  Video

    08: Refuse to Decline: Your Strongest Years Are Still Ahead

    LEARN MORE ABOUT ALISON HEILIG Most of what we call aging is just under-training. And you don't have to accept it. In this episode, you'll hear Alison answer questions like: Why does starting a fitness journey reveal every self-imposed limitation you have — in every area of your life? What does multi-generational fitness actually look like, and why does it matter so much? What does Alison want women 20 years from now to be able to say that women today can't quite say yet? If you've tried before, gotten some of the way there, and know the generic advice just isn't cutting it anymore — Alison works with exactly that woman.

    20 min
  • 8 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Women have long been told: At midlife, it's time to slow down. Be gentle. Watch from the sidelines. But this advice is only accelerating women's decline. What if instead of accepting decline, we built our strongest body in midlife that makes us faster, stronger, and more efficient than ever before? Women in midlife are presented with a unique set of biological challenges, but that doesn't mean we need to accept defeat. It just means we need a better strategy. Aging Athletically is for the woman who wants the world to stay open to her: whether that's running your 20th ultra or just loading your suitcase into the overhead bin without assistance. I'm Alison Heilig: Running Coach, Corrective Exercise Specialist, Certified Nutrition Coach, Women's Fitness Specialist, Yoga Medicine® Registered Therapeutic Specialist, and author of The Durable Runner. And I believe your strongest years are ahead of you. Let's go.

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