How Heavy Lifting Builds Midlife Strength and Mental Resiliency with Endurance Athlete and Strongman Competitor Alyssa Ages

Show Snapshot:

Meet Alyssa Ages, journalist, endurance athlete, and strongman competitor—she can pull a 50-ton truck more than 20 feet using only her body. Alyssa shares fascinating insight into the science and psychology of why pushing our physical limits not only builds strength but can also soothe our spirits and minds. We dive into her debut book, “Secrets of Giants: A Journey to Uncover the True Meaning of Strength,” and do some myth-busting around what it means for women to be strong. Bonus—we get into easy at-home ways to build strength (no truck required!), foods to fuel muscle building, how to be a weight-lifting beginner, and why midlife is the right time to become body confident.



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Alyssa’s Book: Secrets of Giants: A Journey to Uncover the True Meaning of Strength

Quotable:

When we build muscle, we also build bone density, and we improve our balance. So, one—we mitigate the risk of falling, but two—we also mitigate the risk of breaking something if and when we do fall, right? So as we get older, that becomes more and more important.

Transcript:

Katie Fogarty 0:04

Welcome to a certain age a show for women who are unafraid to age out loud. I'm your host, Katie Fogarty beauties. If you've listened to a certain age podcast for more than five minutes, you have heard any number of conversations on the importance of weight training and building muscle in midlife, we have featured fabulous fitness experts and doctors on the critical importance of building muscles to keep our bodies and our brains working for the long haul. Today, I'm excited to be exploring weights, weight training and strength through a new lens. I'm joined by journalist Alyssa ages who is also an endurance athlete and strongman competitor, she can pull a 50 ton truck more than 20 feet using only her body. So she is the real deal. She's here to dive into her debut book Secrets of giants a journey to uncover the true meaning of strength. We're going to do a deep dive into the science and psychology of why pushing our physical limits not only builds strength, but can also soothe our spirits and minds. And we're going to do some myth busting around what it means for women to be strong. And what motivates us to lift heavy things. Spoiler alert, humans have been lifting heavy for ages. listen in to learn why. Welcome, Alyssa.

Alyssa Ages 1:19

Thank you so much. That was a heck of an introduction. I love it.

Katie Fogarty 1:23

Well, you have a heck of a story so it deserves a heck of an intro. Because you are a mom a strongman competitor right endurance athlete. I know you've done six marathons and an Ironman. You are a rock climber, a crossfitter and a former member of the Jersey City bridge and pummel roller derby team. But you also write for publications like GQ and SELF magazine bustle. So I know you've got a pretty full plate. What made you sit down and write secrets of giants.

Alyssa Ages 1:52

So I had been in strength training for about two years. And I was in the gym one day, I was getting ready for a competition. And I was lifting an atlas stone which for those who don't really know the sport of strongman, it's kind of like this big boulder. Basically, it's what you might have seen if you ever watched late night reruns on ESPN of world strongest man. And I suddenly felt like I was just exhausted and not the kind of exhaustion that comes from just a tough workout, but something else. And I went home that day, I took a pregnancy test. And I found out that I was pregnant. And then three weeks later, I found out that I was miscarrying. And I very quickly went from feeling the strongest I ever had in my entire life to feeling just the weakest and vulnerable and broken. And it really kind of made me question my body, I felt betrayed by my body, I didn't trust it anymore. And during that time, one of the things I did to kind of cope with all those feelings was I went back to the gym. And as I would go back to the gym, I found that when I was when I was working out and when I left the gym, I just started to feel more capable. I believed in my body a little bit more, I walked a little taller, I had my shoulders pulled back. And it got me thinking, well, maybe I have had this all wrong. Maybe strength isn't actually about how much we can lift, but maybe about how we learn to use the things that we've learned in the gym to manage the struggles we go through outside of the gym.

Katie Fogarty 3:13

Yeah, absolutely. This is such a such a powerful story. I you know, spend time with your book. And I, I heard, you know, just it was such a vulnerable time for you. And you describe it. So well. I'm sure that listeners who have gone through that experience themselves can so relate. I, you know, in your book that you've interviewed dozens of researchers and psychologists and you really focus on a lot of strength pioneers across genders and backgrounds, you share that you you know, return to sort of pushing yourself physically, and that you experience benefits beyond strength, you know, what did you What did your strength training produce for you? And is that echoed by what you heard from the interviews that you had? Are there common themes that emerged?

Alyssa Ages 3:56

Yeah, on a personal level, I mean, the biggest thing was that I just regained that trust in my body. And over the years since then, I you know, whenever I lift, I just I find the even just the hours afterwards, the days afterwards, I feel more powerful. I feel like I can do more. And it taught me especially during that time that I could deal with hard things. I could endure hardship, and I could come out the other side being stronger. And absolutely that was echoed, in particular with the athletes that I interviewed. I think a lot of us think that people come to weightlifting, from an aesthetic perspective, right? We always think, Okay, well, we're going into it, I want to get bigger biceps. I want to get six pack abs and the athletes I spoke to that really wasn't the case for them. Maybe it was an early kind of driver but for the most part they came to it because something happened in their lives that made them feel vulnerable. And they wanted an opportunity to take control over how they felt and to feel more empowered and lifting heavy things allowed them to do that.

Katie Fogarty 4:59

Yeah, exactly. To put your language around this resonated when I read in the book and it's resonating for me now and you say quote, lifting didn't erase the burden of my miscarriage. But it reminded me again and again, I could endure hard things that I know that strength isn't about being immune to pain or impervious to failure. It's about managing the struggle. And I, I feel that getting to midlife teaches us that we can do hard things, right? Because you just shared something that you went through, not a single person listening to the show has gotten to the north side of 48 without navigating hardship, right. We have job loss, we lose people, we lose. You know, sometimes our sense of self we lose jobs, there's, you know, a lot of change in hard things we need to navigate lifting help. Did you helped you? Do you feel that aging played any role in this as well? Or, you know, could it be a hybrid? You know, tell me what your perspective on that is?

Alyssa Ages 5:50

Yeah, I mean, this, this journey, to write this book, and to kind of go a little bit deeper into the world of strength started. Part of the impetus for it was the year that I turned 40. So I had been lifting before then. But when I started lifting, again, a little bit more in earnest after turning 40, I started to just approach it differently. I began to think of it as less about okay, well, can I win this competition? What's the most weight that I can lift? And started to think about it more as well? How do I want to feel for the rest of my life? I'm a mom of two kids now. What do I want to be able to do with them? And do I want to be able to continue to run around with them I had my daughter's a little bit later in life. And I want to be able to do all the things that a younger mom could do with their kids as I get older. So what

Katie Fogarty 6:36

is the most way you can left? Because I did a little bit by saying that you were pulling 52 And I was knocked out by some of these strong man challenges. And by the way, we need to get like why is it called strongman because you are a very strong woman. We need to we need to rebrand of this competition. Yeah, I

Alyssa Ages 6:55

think it's funny. I don't really never really fazes me, I think in part because I also did an Ironman and that was just like, that's the corporate name of the race. So I've always just been like out while I'm an Iron Man, I've never said iron woman, strong men. It's interesting, because strong, the female competitors and strong men will say strong woman, but the sport is called strong, man. Gotcha. So yeah, so and I'll do that kind of throughout the book where I say the sport of strong men, but I will say, you know, someone's always a strong woman competitor.

Katie Fogarty 7:23

Yeah, I love it. And so what we're gonna what you left me with tell us I mean, this is not a competition. But I'm curious on our list. I because I've read the book. I know what it is that you get into. And I would love for you to paint up for our picture for our listeners about what does it mean to compete in this type of strength? pursuits?

Alyssa Ages 7:41

Yeah, I mean, for anybody who hasn't watched the sport of strongman, I will say first of all, it, there's kind of the the highest level, which is World Strongest Man, which is what people might know of. And then under that, though, you've got all these other levels way, way down to the amateur level where we're competing in literally parking lots, just to kind of see who can do the most who can lift the most. I typically define the sport of strongman as picking up really heavy objects, and then either putting them back down, carrying them for a distance, or like throwing them or pressing them over house

Katie Fogarty 8:17

a little bit more about what we're picking up here.

Alyssa Ages 8:19

So, rocks of all shapes and sizes, kegs that are not filled with beer. Vehicles. So I've, I've pulled the 50 ton truck, but before that, I also pulled a rev four, which doesn't sound like it should be as hard but somebody thought it would be a good idea to make it harder by putting the emergency brake on. And you know,

Katie Fogarty 8:39

it doesn't move. Wowzers

Alyssa Ages 8:42

Yeah, so that's like dragging it. There's Yeah, I mean, it's logs like an actual hollowed out log that you put over your head. There's something called a circus dumbbell, which is sort of if you can imagine a regular dumbbell but about 1015 times the size of that. sandbags. It's kind of one of things I love about strongman is there's very little barrier to entry in the sense that yes, stuff in the sport is heavy. But if you ever wanted to just see, Hey, I wonder if I could do this. You could walk outside your house, pick up a heavy rock and just throw it or put it over your head and like congratulations, you're doing strongman.

Katie Fogarty 9:17

I love well, you make it sound so easy. And I know it's not we're heading into a quick break. But when we come back, I want to learn a little bit more about how you got started. We're back from the break. We were talking about the heavy things that you pick up you're encouraging some of our listeners to realize they can do some of this at home you don't need to be in a competition. But for listeners who are thinking this sounds, you know all well and good for you, but I could never possibly do this. You must be an incredible athlete. And you know, I would love for you to share a little bit of a snapshot about your athletic background in the past and how you got how you got started on this track.

Alyssa Ages 9:53

Yeah, I was not an athletic kid. To be clear. I had done a season of little EEG when I was 10, and had this very strong memory of never hitting the ball, and that kind of took me into this place where for the rest of my life, I sort of thought, Well, I'm just not athletic. I'm just not good at sports. And it wasn't till I was in my early 20s, that I found out from my mom that it wasn't that I had never hit the ball in Little League, I had never even swung the bat. And I, very quickly in that moment, I kind of went, Oh, my God, maybe I'm not bad at stuff. Maybe I just was too scared to try. And it led me on this path of just wanting to do the extreme version of everything, which is how I kind of went from not running a mile to doing marathons and from not being able to really swim a lap in the pool to doing triathlons. Not lifting weights to doing CrossFit to doing strongman. So I really and truly started from absolutely nothing. And I compete, and that competed a lot. But I've also come in last and pretty much every single competition I've ever done. And I still love it. I think there's just this really amazing joy in testing your limits, and seeing what you're capable of, even if that's not what even if you're not going to achieve what you hope to achieve. You hear a lot from people that no I don't know how to get started in strength, right? Or it's really intimidating. And I 150% get that I still walk into a new gym and feel really intimidated when I go in. But there are so many ways to get started. Even if it's brand new to you, even just from starting with bodyweight is a really, really good place to start. I was speaking to someone today who she put this really well we talk a lot about functional fitness, right? But what does functional fitness mean to you? And she explained to me that, you know, what matters is finding what your function needs to be. So what do you want to do better in your life that strength training can support. An example for me was that when I was pregnant, my coach would have me walk up and down the length of the turf in our gym, carrying a really heavy kettlebell in one hand, because he wants it to mimic for me what it would be like to carry a car seat around.

Katie Fogarty 11:59

That's so smart. I love that. Exactly. And it occurred toddlers, frankly, you know, yeah, I'm always joking that I started weight training, probably nine months ago now. And I say weight training. These are like tiny baby weights compared to what you're doing. But I want to be able to lift my suitcase into the overhead compartment of an aeroplane because I plan on traveling the globe when I have more free time. And I want to you know, I want to have the functional fitness. They do that to carry my groceries to carry future grandchildren to do all of that good stuff. So I love that there's a level of fitness for anyone and that you don't have to necessarily be picking up logs to add strength training to your life. What are some of the what are some you mentioned first, I love that you use the word joy. That was one of the benefits that you got out of doing your lifting, because we can all use more joy in our lives. And I think that's like a very underrated health benefits that don't, that people don't necessarily think about when they start new things. I started playing pickleball and I play paddle platform tennis. And both of those things give me joy, even though it makes me feel like a bit of a cliche. What are some of the other health benefits to strength training that you've experienced for yourself, and that you've learned from interviewing experts on the book?

Alyssa Ages 13:11

Yeah, on a personal level, so when I would do endurance sports, one of the unfortunate side effects for me when I would train for marathons was that I often got stress fractures. And that happened to me almost every single time I trained for a marathon. And I learned from testing that I had low bone density. Well, one of the things we know about strength training is that it increases bone density. And that becomes sure that was important for me in my 20s when that when I was getting those stress fractures, but it's even more important as I'm getting older, and as any of us are getting older, right? Because we're starting to get into that place where osteopenia and osteoporosis are a real concern. And then you know, falling right or balanced decreases. So when you lift and again, not super heavy things, just strength training, just resistance training, that can be bands that can be your body weight. But when we build muscle, we also build bone density, and we improve our balance. So one, we improve the we mitigate the risk of falling, but two we also mitigate the risk of breaking something if if and when we do fall, right? So as we get older, that becomes more and more important.

Katie Fogarty 14:13

And so for people who are now like okay, you've converted me, I am ready to give this a try and that they're up for you. Where do you recommend they begin? Is it is it started with CrossFit? I say no you did before you kind of you know transitioned into more strength training, what is a kind of a regimen that you might recommend to somebody to get get started?

Alyssa Ages 14:35

Yeah, so you absolutely do not have to start with Crossman you don't have to do CrossFit ever at all if you don't want to, you know I liked it. But certainly it is not a prerequisite. I usually say if you have the means one of the best, best best things you can do is to work one on one with a coach and that can be virtual that can be in person, whatever works for you. I also recognize that that is not available to everybody so beyond that At the next thing I usually say is if you can join a small group class, and I say small, because in anything too large, you can be moving with dumbbells and doing it completely wrong and get injured because nobody can. Nobody can give you individual attention. But past that, there's also there are apps that will have video demonstrations

Katie Fogarty 15:20

of the movements, and what are some good ones that you might recommend?

Alyssa Ages 15:24

That is great. I don't actually know one off the top of my head. I apologize.

Katie Fogarty 15:28

That's okay. This is what Google this is what Google is for.

Alyssa Ages 15:33

Yeah, but one of the things I would say that those are great. And I think that's a really, really good way to see what, what the movements should look like. But again, this was the same person I was speaking with today, who's a specialist in this. She also added for me that, in addition to watching someone else, do it on video, one of the best things you could do and something I do in my own lifting is take videos of yourself. And then compare that to the videos you're seeing of someone else doing the movement. Because it's one thing to feel that you're doing it right. But it's quite another thing to look and go, Oh my gosh, I didn't realize I was totally rounding my back when I picked up that weight.

Katie Fogarty 16:08

Yeah, that's such a genius suggestion because I like I was mentioning Racquet Sports earlier, I've played tennis for a decade. And you can feel like, you know, Serena Williams when you're heading and then when you look at a video because I've seen them and you're like, oh, like I'm not doing that. Right. And it's you really have to see her body in motion during the movements so that you can then correct it when you're you're next back on the court.

Alyssa Ages 16:32

Yeah, exactly. And you don't have to put that video anywhere like that doesn't have to go on your social media. It's just for you. I take videos every single time I lift. And what I do is in between lifts, I go back and I look at the video. And if I did something wrong, now I can fix it the next time.

Katie Fogarty 16:46

That's so smart. That's a smart. And so what are some other tips to get started if we want to incorporate this at home?

Alyssa Ages 16:53

Yeah, at home, I would say again, begin with bodyweight. You know, do some squats with just your bodyweight do push ups even if they have to be on your knees with your bodyweight. And once you feel strong in that, you can start to progress, right? So you can pick up water jugs, start with that, see how it feels to hold that in front of you and like a goblet position and do a squat. You can put that over your head. You can you know, you have all kinds of manner of things that are just available to you in your home before you start to transition to a gym.

Katie Fogarty 17:22

Okay, I love I'm like picturing me with like a big gallon of milk over my head.

Alyssa Ages 17:26

Let's start a COVID. That's what all of us were doing right I when I was traveling at one point, and I didn't have access to weights and but we did have backpacks. And I took my backpack and I filled it with like everything we had. And I just put it on my back and I did squats with it.

Katie Fogarty 17:42

Yeah, that's I love that because he makes it makes it sound so easy and accessible. I want to listen, I want to ask you about something when you're in one of the chapters in the book is called take up space, which I immediately gravitated to because of course, right we you know, we want to take up space in the world. I think getting to midlife means that we recognize that we're kind of claiming ourselves and things that we're interested in. One of the ideas that you explore in this chapter is that, that there some people feel that strength training and being strong and being bulky, is you know, it's not feminine, or that women should not be you know, taking up space in this way, our world often asked women to be smaller, I would love for you to walk through why you wrote this chapter, what you share in it and what strength training has taught you about what it means to be a strong woman?

Alyssa Ages 18:35

Yeah, when, you know, I think it's really interesting the way we talk to women about weight training, right? So typically, we hear one of two things, we hear, Oh, don't lift weights, because you don't want to get bulky. And then on the flip side, let's say you're talking to someone who's enthusiastic about lifting, you might hear Hey, don't worry about lifting weights, you won't get bulky, right. But either way, we are suggesting that bulky is a bad thing. We're suggesting that there's a negative connotation to it. And when I started thinking about that, I thought, well, what is the definition of bulky, and I looked it up and the definition read taking up much space, typically inconveniently. And I thought, oh, yeah, this makes sense now, right? Because, of course, a strong woman is inconvenient. Of course, a woman whose aesthetic is challenging gender norms is inconvenient. Absolutely. It's inconvenient to Well, I guess, largely men. And it's so it's been sold to us as this really negative thing. But the women that I spoke to for this book, all of them talked about how lifting weights taught them to learn to love taking up space. And it also taught them to learn to love their bodies, not for how they looked, but for what they can do. And it taught me that too. It was a struggle, though. I'm really honest in the book that it's not like I went from, you know, diet culture all the time, and wanting to be thin to suddenly be like, Yep, I want to bulk up. I want to be big, I want to be whatever. It didn't happen overnight, and It's still something I struggle with, even as I've tried to put on mass to get stronger. I don't think it happens overnight, but I care a lot less about it now. And when I can move something that seemed immovable before, that's when I really don't care about what the muscles look like, I care about the fact that I'm strong enough to do that.

Katie Fogarty 20:21

I think that's another reason that I this book really resonated with me because I it's, I would never have thought that there was kind of a direct comparison between strength training and midlife and just sort of this weight, this weight training, but this notion that we're looking and viewing our our bodies in new ways, and that we're more accepting of them just really resonated, because, you know, when we look at what it means to be a woman in midlife, and to be sort of menopausal, when you're no longer having your will, you can't reproduce, you know, for so many women, the way we get dealt with in the world and the way we get interacted with by, by by media, or by men or by marketers, right, it's about, you know, getting your period being reached, you know, being having this reproductive years, and then being forced to sort of reinvent your sense of self, when your your body has changed, and you're in this midlife space. And it feels like so many women that come on the show, talk about just feeling so much more confident, so much more powerful, so much more accepting of themselves, even when things are challenging, because menopause is no walk in the park, you know, there get incredible impacts that happen on your body and your brain. But, you know, we have to reinvent our sense of self and in terms of our body, and I feel like the way you talk about strength training, it just feels so familiar, and so resonant to me. Yeah,

Alyssa Ages 21:55

yeah, it's, you know, I think one of the really interesting things, too, is that we, as women, how much of our lives are, we told that our body is ours, right? Not much, it's, we don't tend to feel a lot of autonomy. For most of our life, we're sort of told from the moment that we are capable of bearing children that our body has a specific function to it. And that's what it's supposed to do. And then when you get pregnant, okay, maybe briefly, everything is about you. And then the second you have the baby, everything is about the baby. And no one cares about your body anymore, with the exception of making sure that you bounce back from what you love, you know, from what you'd like now to what you looked like before, and then you get to menopause. And then what I mean, historically, and even now, it's like now your body matters even less, because now it has no function to the rest of the world.

Katie Fogarty 22:45

Yeah, so I think it's culturally in the US too, because you know, you were talking about your body in the bouncing back, you know, I had a wonderful pelvic floor therapist, you came on doctor and Duke, and she shared that in France, you know, women get 12 weeks of pelvic floor training, after they deliver babies. And they get even more if they've wound up with a second pregnancy or complications. And you know, so I, in your book, I know you talk to lots of different people it was there sort of any kind of, Did you learn anything surprising culturally about the way different communities feel about women and weight training and strength training?

Alyssa Ages 23:22

Um, no tremendous amount when I was researching the book, but since finishing it, and since going out and promoting the book, yes, I mean, when I'm going to events, now I'm talking to women of all different cultural backgrounds and learning that, you know, for them, women being strong, and women being muscular, is viewed completely differently, depending on where you live. But, I mean, overall, there's almost no culture that says, women should be very visibly strong. So we can be strong enough to be capable to do things around the home and take care of the family. But, you know, showing big muscles I've yet to find anywhere where that is, you know, necessarily rewarded.

Katie Fogarty 24:04

Yeah, it's so interesting. Your book is full of really fascinating facts about strength, you explore the history of strength. There's a lot of fascinating tidbits about I was surprised to learn the term hysterical strength from you in the book, which I thought was so cool. Do you want to give our listeners a quick snapshot of what that is? Yeah, I

Alyssa Ages 24:23

think hysterical strength is one of the coolest things. So if you've ever heard stories of a mom being able to lift a car off a child, suddenly that's an example of hysterical strength, right. So what happens when you are able to do that is basically your body is able to use 100% of the strength and for reference, or the 100% of its total strength. For reference, on average, a person can lift can use about 60% of their strength and in a competition setting they can use about 70% If they're a trained lifter. Alright, so outside of that, we're not accessing them. We don't access 100% of our strength but in That moment you can. What happens though is that everything else in your body shuts down, all of your body's resources are diverted to helping you do that your body is flooded with pain deadening chemicals. So you don't feel any pain when you're doing that. It is not something that we know we can replicate anywhere else, because it's pretty impossible to artificially put someone in that situation. But I do talk about one athlete who went to and went to a hypnotist and basically tried to create hysterical strength for himself in order to pull a very, very heavy deadlift that he wants to pull. And whether he access historical strength, or somehow hypnotized himself into believing that that day, there's no real way to know. But I did find it just particularly fascinating. And I think the biggest takeaway for me from that was that when we're scared our bodies involuntary reaction is to produce strength, which is really cool.

Katie Fogarty 25:55

And so it's accessible to us all along. And sometimes, and you address a little bit of that, that notion of fear, right, that sometimes we're, you know, the connection of feared and strength. And it's, it's so interesting that this power resides in us. And we don't often access it like we don't swing the bat like you didn't do when you were young. You know, you told yourself a story, I'm not a good, you know, I'm not good at baseball, I'm not good at softball, because but I never actually swung the bat and never gave it a try. And I think that's something that that we often do is we talk ourselves out of things. And we choose to believe stories that aren't necessarily true. And I love that you told yourself a new story, and you access a bit this ability to be strong. This was, you know, maybe it's something that was surprising to you what else in researching and writing this book surprised you?

Alyssa Ages 26:47

One of my favorite things that I learned researching the book was, you know, I mentioned at the start of this, that when I had, when I'd gone through that miscarriage, one of the few things that kind of helped bring me back to life was going to the gym and lifting heavy things. But at the time, I didn't really understand how or why. And when I was writing this book, I spoke to a couple of people who work in the field of trauma informed weightlifting, which is basically working with people who've gone through trauma, and helping them heal from that trauma through lifting heavy things. So when I would go into the gym, after the miscarriage, and let's say I wanted to go do a heavy deadlift, right. So to do heavy deadlifts safely, I have to brace my core, I have to breathe into my core muscles. And I have to kind of pump them out into if I'm wearing a weight belt into that weight belt, and to feel my abdomen pressing against it. And in that moment, in order for me to lift, that heavy weight, I have to believe that this place on my body of sadness and weakness and vulnerability is also a place of strength. And if I don't believe that, and I don't trust in my body, I'm not going to be able to move that week safely. And learning that that was part of what helps me with my recovery was really fascinating.

Katie Fogarty 27:59

Yeah, I love that I have a wonderful yoga teacher that every time I take her class, she says, If you think you can't, you're right. And you know, the opposite of that is if you want to do something, you have to believe that it is possible, you're never you're never going to be able to achieve something if you don't truly believe that it's within your grasp. And the mind in your book is fascinating, because when I thought about strength before I began this book, I thought of the physical physicality, you know, muscles, lifting those heavy things. But the book really links the mental strength that is required to be strong, you cannot be strong physically, if you aren't strong mentally, and you don't believe in yourself. And I thought that was such a fascinating realization for me. Absolutely. I want to end the show. Before we move into our speed round by asking you about something that begins your book, you open your book with a quote that says, learning about what you're made of is always time well spent. And I have found no better teacher, the iron has taught me how to live. This is a quote by somebody named Henry Rollins. We've talked a lot and we've talked a lot about what weight training has given you this sort of confidence, it gave you this sort of resiliency, it allows you to feel good in your body again, what did writing this book teach you about yourself? Because this is a very different kind of project.

Alyssa Ages 29:21

Yeah, writing this book. So when I had the idea for this book, I thought, I'm going to write a book about the sport of strongman. I just wanted to write this book about the subculture, and tell people about this weird and wonderful sport. And the feedback I got from authors that I spoke to was, that's really really niche. I don't know how to people are gonna care about that. This needs to be your story. And I really didn't want write my story. I'm a journalist. I like writing other people's stories. So I had to really dig deep into you know, my my emotions surrounding all of this and in particular, that chapter that we talked about, about body image and you know, bulkiness and all that was the hardest for me to write, I had to really be honest about the fact that I, for my whole life have been kind of a victim of diet culture, and all of the ways that I've thought about eating and restricting my food and working out to lose weight. That was really difficult. But it, you know, in the same ways, I hope that it makes other people feel better about their own bodies. It didn't make me feel that way about mine.

Katie Fogarty 30:29

Yeah, I when we share our stories, we remove some of the, the shame and we also feel more connected to people I'm sure you've been getting such great feedback from, from other women and other you know, other people that have had the same exact experience. I so enjoyed reading this book, it's something that's, you know, it's one of the best things about having this podcast is I have conversations with people that that are into things that I'm not into, that are experts and things that I'm you know, just learning about. And I was really fascinated, I think this book is, you know, way beyond simply, you know, the strongman community as you shared, it's just it's a really interesting look at at sort of discovery and challenge when cells and how you can really, you know, swing the bat for yourself, I found myself thinking about things in my own life that I was trying or that I was afraid of, you know, way beyond simply physical thing. So thank you so much for bringing it into the world. It was such a great treat to read. And it reminded me I know you mentioned Danielle Friedman, in the book, who wrote the book on the history of women's exercise movement called Let's Get Physical Danielle was a guest in the past for any listeners who have not listened to that show yet. It's really fascinating as well, and the book is wonderful. And so we are we live our lives that it kind of informed by things that we're not even aware of, you know, like the history of women in athleticism, the history of how we view women and strength. And it's so great to do a deep dive and to learn more about the things that really shape our lives in ways that we might not understand. So again, Alyssa, thank you so much. We are heading you. We are heading into our speed round. This is just one to two word answers. So we can cover a little bit more ground before we have to say goodbye. Are you ready? I know that I know. You're ready. You're like you're ready to go. Alright, writing secrets of giants was

Alyssa Ages 32:23

challenging.

Katie Fogarty 32:24

Okay, we love honest answers. I'm trying to write a book too. So I can totally relate. I've got to I've got two chapters in a drawer. And yes, it's very challenging. The first time I saw my book on a store shelf or on an E commerce site, it felt surreal. Surreal. Nice. Your book and your workouts feature equipment I have never used or frankly heard of battle ropes Atlas stones, which is a favorite.

Alyssa Ages 32:49

The yoke the hand down it? Yeah, it's I know we're supposed to do one word answer, but just to give people an explanation. It's like this long bar attached to these kinds of legs that you put on your shoulders and you walk with it and you feel like you're in the Oregon Trail. Okay.

Katie Fogarty 33:05

That sounds intense. All right. We currently aren't lifting kegs or using yolks at home. What's a home workout tool? We should all consider investing in.

Alyssa Ages 33:15

Investing in resistance bands.

Katie Fogarty 33:18

Nice. Okay, I like that. That's easy. You've done a lot of stuff. We've already talked about rock climbing CrossFit strength training. What is an exercise that you haven't really adopted yet that you'd love to add to your routine Sunday?

Alyssa Ages 33:33

Oh my gosh, I don't know. What I wanted to do. Oh, what's a really good one? I don't I don't know that there's anything that I am dying to do. I would like to rock climb more. I would like to do more outdoor rock climb.

Katie Fogarty 33:48

Okay. Well, I That's a great answer. If you're doing all the things that you would want to be doing. That's a wonderful place to be. How about this one hard pass? This exercise is not for me.

Alyssa Ages 34:01

I hope I don't offend a lot of people. I really don't like spinning. I like biking. I like cycling. I just don't like spinning

Katie Fogarty 34:08

that's okay. We all you know we don't have to but not all things to all people. All right, this lifestyle choice beyond strength training helps me stay fit and feel sane.

Alyssa Ages 34:21

Going for long walks.

Katie Fogarty 34:22

Nice. Building strength and muscle takes more than lifting this strength building superhero is always in my grocery cart.

Alyssa Ages 34:31

Oh, like a food item? Yeah. Protein Powder.

Katie Fogarty 34:35

Okay, protein powder. That sounds a lot easier than lifting. I'm going to do that. Okay. Finally, your one word answer to complete the sentence as I age. I feel powerful. Nice. Yes. I love it. I love it. I love it. This has been such a treat. I so enjoyed learning more about you and your book and you've really inspired me to kind of up my game beyond you know my 10 pound you know a little bicep curl. So thank you

Alyssa Ages 35:00

Thank you so much for having me. This was wonderful. Before we

Katie Fogarty 35:03

say goodbye, though, how can our listeners keep following you learn more about your work and find this great book,

Alyssa Ages 35:09

you can find secrets of giants anywhere that books are sold. You can find me if you're on social media at Elissa ages I am that would that handle on Twitter, Instagram and very reluctantly I have just joined Tik Tok. So you can join my two followers there, which will be great. And then for any of my work, including excerpts from the book, if you want to read that before you buy the book, it's just Elissa ages.com

Katie Fogarty 35:33

Phenomenal I'll put this all in the show notes. This wraps a certain age this show for women who are aging without apology. And before I say goodbye a quick favor. I would love it. If you could take five minutes to write an apple podcast review. You can share something you learned on today's show or on a previous episode. Or simply share why you tune in every week and make the show a part of your week. Apple podcast reviews help the show grow. Special thanks to Michael Mann see me who composed and produced our theme music See you next time and until then lift heavy beauties.

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