Honestly, Carly

We're supposed to be celebrating what our bodies can DO, rather than what they look like. And I'm absolutely here for that.

But does that mean we're no longer allowed to care about our stomachs, our weight or how our jeans fit?

I think we've created yet another impossible expectation for women. Not only are we supposed to look a certain way, we're apparently supposed to be sufficiently enlightened that we don't care how we look. 🙄

In this episode, I'm talking about my own journey from obsessing over thinness in my twenties to being far more interested in strength, fitness and what my body can actually achieve.

But I'm also tackling a question I hear all the time from women over 40: I'm being consistent with my exercise and nutrition, so why am I not seeing the results I want on the scales?

We'll explore:

• Why wanting to lose body fat doesn't make you vain or superficial.
• How focusing on performance can completely change your relationship with your body.
• Why the scales can be useful, but don't tell the whole story.
• How to assess your progress when you've been consistent for weeks but your weight hasn't changed.
• Why being consistent and being effective aren't necessarily the same thing.
• How to recognise when you need more patience, and when it's time to rethink your approach.

Because you can be incredibly disciplined, work your socks off and still not be doing the things that will get you the result you're hoping for.

And sometimes the answer isn't another workout, another restriction or another enormous expenditure of effort.

It's getting clearer about what actually matters for YOU.

Work With Me:

• If you've listened to this and thought "right, this is what I need to work on and I want Carly's support to do it", The Reboot is the place where we make that happen. You can read all about it here: The Reboot
• Make sure you're following me over on Instagram @carlycorrigall - I always love to hear from you in my DMs!

I’ve been reading my old training diaries.

And frankly, this episode was in danger of becoming Carly Reads Her Old Diaries and Calls Herself a d*ck for 25 Minutes.

Because there is A LOT in there. And I'm sharing it with you here (as we all like to nose in someone else's diaries, right?!).

But underneath the comedy, there was a pattern.

More miles. More sessions. Faster pace. Get everything done. Therefore: fitter.

These days, I train substantially less than I did in my late 30s and early 40s, but I consider myself far healthier overall.

So in this episode, I’m asking: what does being “fit” actually mean?

We’ll talk about why fitness isn’t one single thing, why doing more exercise doesn’t automatically make your training better, and why the right training depends on what you actually want your body to be able to do.

Because the question isn’t simply:

Am I doing enough?

It’s:

What am I training for?

And does the way I’m spending my precious time and energy actually reflect that?

If you’ve ever thought I used to do so much more than this or wondered whether you should squeeze another workout into an already packed week, this one’s for you.

• What my old training diaries revealed about my relationship with exercise, food and my body
• Why my marathon and ultramarathon training wasn’t “wrong”
• The difference between run-specific fitness and being fit more broadly
• Why strength used to be little more than a tick-box for me
• The problem with measuring consistency by whether you completed every planned session
• Why more miles, more sessions and more intensity don’t automatically equal better results
• What my training looks like now and why everything has a job
• The question I now use instead of “Am I doing enough?”
• What I’d really like to tell the younger woman who wrote “feeling heavy” in her training diary

If this episode has made you realise you could do with some help zooming out and working out what actually matters for your body, goals and life, that’s exactly the sort of thing we work on inside The Reboot.

👉 Find out more about The Reboot here

Oh and don't forget to follow the podcast and, if you're feeling extra-nice, leave a review. It really helps me to reach more women ❤️

If I could only choose THREE exercises to do for the rest of my life, what would make the cut?

Think Desert Island Discs for fitness... except apparently eight records, a book and a luxury item is far too easy. I'm allowing myself one lower-body exercise, one upper-body exercise and one core exercise. And honestly? Choosing them was ridiculously hard.

In this episode, I'm revealing my three current favourites and why they've earned their place.

But there's a bigger point here, because the best exercises for me aren't necessarily the best exercises for you.

Whether you're training for strength, bone health, running performance, balance, muscle, injury prevention or simply to make everyday life feel easier, every exercise in your programme should have a job.

So we're creating a fitness capsule wardrobe: fewer random exercises, more of the ones that actually do something useful for YOUR body and YOUR goals.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why the lunge is possibly my favourite exercise for runners (and about 700 different ways I can use it to make you swear at me)
• Why unilateral training is so useful for strength, balance and stability
• Why the press-up might be the ultimate bodyweight compound exercise
• The reason I'm not a fan of knee press-ups if your goal is to progress to full ones
• The universally hated core exercise that's made my top three
• How to work backwards from YOUR goal to choose the exercises that deserve a place in your training

And if your current exercise programme consists mainly of saved Instagram workouts, random YouTube sessions and whatever you happen to fancy that day, we'll talk about why that might be the real problem.

Inside The Reboot, we take exactly this approach: looking at what you're trying to achieve, what you're currently doing and what your body and your life can realistically accommodate, before creating your own personalised exercise prescription.

Because you don't need another enormous list of exercises.

You need to know which ones have a job to do for you.

🎙️ PLUS: a little podcast update

We've made it to Episode 50! From here, Honestly, Carly is moving to a fortnightly schedule.

I know lots of you are still catching up when the next episode lands, so I'm giving you a little more breathing space to listen, digest and actually put some of this stuff into practice.

I'll be back in your ears in two weeks. And with another 49 episodes already waiting for you, I'm not exactly leaving you short of listening material... 😁

Find me:

Instagram: @carlycorrigall

Work with me:

The Reboot: personalised support with your training, nutrition, recovery, sleep and wider lifestyle - discover more here: The Reboot

Train with Carly: live online Strength and HIIT classes, plus replays so you can fit your training around your life (and not the other way round): Train with Carly

“How heavy should my weights be?”

It’s one of the questions I’m asked most often by women starting strength training (and quite a few who’ve been doing it for years).

And my irritating answer is: it depends.

Because a weight that’s challenging for a squat might be completely inappropriate for a lateral raise. And the right weight for you when you’re learning a movement isn’t necessarily the right weight six months later.

So in this episode, we’re getting VERY practical about what “lifting heavy” actually means.

We’ll talk about:

🏋️‍♀️ Why beginners don’t need to rush to lift heavier weights

🧠 The neuromuscular adaptations happening when you first start strength training

💪 The difference between doing a strength workout and actually training for strength

🔥 How to tell whether your weights are genuinely challenging enough

📈 Why progression doesn’t always mean adding more weight

🪶 When lighter weights are absolutely the right choice

🛒 And my completely unsponsored guide to buying dumbbells for training at home, including what I’d buy, what I probably wouldn’t bother with and why I’m firmly Team Hexagon.

If you’ve been using the same dumbbells for years, or you regularly finish a set knowing you could happily have carried on for another ten reps, this one is especially for you.

Because you don’t need to lift the heaviest weight you possibly can.

But if you want your body to adapt, at some point you do need to challenge it.

And sometimes, yes, that means buying some heavier bloody dumbbells.

Train With Carly

If you’d like structured strength training with plenty of coaching, options and prompts to help you keep progressing, you can join me live online every week inside Train With Carly - check out my classes here.

Come and chat with me on Instagram @carlycorrigall - I'd love your questions for a future podcast!

September has arrived.

But if you spent the summer telling yourself you’d sort your health and fitness when September came around, and you’re now thinking perhaps after half term, after Christmas or when life calms down… this episode is for you.

Because waiting isn’t neutral.

Even when you’re exercising, eating well and trying to do all the “right” things, continuing with an approach that isn’t giving you the results you expect still has a cost.

In this episode, I’m looking at:

• The difference between consciously choosing maintenance and repeatedly kicking the problem down the road

• Why doing more of the same isn’t necessarily a plan

• The surprising amount of headspace health and fitness confusion can consume

• How repeatedly feeling stuck can begin to erode your confidence

• Why the answer probably isn’t another workout, supplement or complete dietary overhaul

• How to identify the signals your body is already giving you

• What could realistically change over the next 12 weeks

• Why you don’t need to feel completely ready before taking action

Three months from now, December will arrive either way.

You could reach it promising yourself that January will finally be the month you sort everything out.

Or you could look back and feel extremely glad you started when you did.

The September Start for The Reboot is now open until Friday 18 September.

The Reboot is my three-month programme for active women over 40 who are already doing plenty of the “right” things, but aren’t getting the results they expect.

Together, we’ll work out what’s already working, identify what’s missing and adjust the balance across your training, nutrition, recovery and mindset, so you can feel stronger, fitter, clearer and back in the driving seat by Christmas.

Find out more and join the September Start here:

The Reboot

Come and find me on Instagram:

@carlycorrigall

A few big fitness accounts have been making a pretty bold claim recently: menopause-specific fitness programmes are a SCAM.

You might expect me to be personally affronted by this as someone who has created programmes specifically for women in midlife who are experiencing the perimenopause and menopause.

And on one level - I am (because I’m absolutely not a scammer 😆)… but also… I’m not 🧐

So in this episode I’m examining whether we actually need anything menopause-specific at all?

In this episode, I’m talking about what I got spectacularly wrong as a newly qualified PT, why writing the “perfect” programme is actually the easy bit, and what 12 years of coaching women has taught me about the difference between information and coaching.

We’ll talk hormones, recovery, ageing, injuries, pelvic floors and the sheer amount of LIFE that tends to be happening by our 40s and 50s. I think you’ll feel seen!

So are menopause-specific programmes a scam?

As ever, there’s a LOT more nuance hiding behind the Instagram headline. Let’s get into it. 🎧

‼️ AND IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE THIS WEEK…

🎟️ WATCH MY FREE 20-MINUTE VIDEO

If you’re an active woman over 40 doing all the “right” things but not getting the results you expect anymore, I’ve made this for you.

I’ll show you why trying to do ALL THE THINGS may actually be part of the problem, and how to work out what deserves your effort, what needs tweaking and what you can stop worrying about altogether.

👉 WATCH THE FREE VIDEO HERE

📱 COME AND FIND ME ON INSTAGRAM

For more midlife fitness chat, training advice and general behind-the-scenes ramblings:

👉 Instagram: @carlycorrigall

Protein. Strength training. Steps. Cardio. Sleep. Fibre. Creatine. Bone health. Mobility. Stress. Recovery…

Excuse me, but when exactly do we get to clock off? 😵‍💫

In this episode of Honestly, Carly, I’m asking why looking after ourselves can suddenly feel like a full-time bloody project in midlife – particularly when most of us are already doing plenty of the “right” things.

Because perhaps the problem isn’t that staying fit and healthy suddenly requires us to do 47 different things.

Perhaps it’s that when our bodies and results start to feel less predictable, we respond by trying to control more and more variables.

We’ll talk about why the relationship between what you do and how you feel can become a little fuzzier in midlife; the endless cycle of tweaking training, food, supplements and routines; why one rubbish week doesn’t necessarily mean something needs fixing; and the question I’d rather you ask instead of “What else should I be doing?”

Because your health and fitness should give you more capacity for your life – not become another enormous project to manage.

PLUS: The Reboot is getting a September shake-up 👀

If you want feeling absolutely incredible in midlife to feel less like a full-time job, The Reboot is the place where I show you how.

For the first time this year, I’m running a live September cohort of The Reboot, with a group of women all starting together.

Want to be the first to hear when it goes live? Drop me the word SEPTEMBER in a DM on Instagram and I’ll make sure you’re first in the know.

👉 Find me on Instagram: @carlycorrigall

👉 Find out more about The Reboot: The Reboot

Apparently, people want to snoop on my Strava to see how I train. So I thought I'd save you the detective work... 👀

In this episode, I'm laying out exactly what my training looks like right now at 45, with access to all the latest knowledge as well as over a decade of experience as a PT.

But there's a rather important caveat.

Because while looking at what somebody else does can give you ideas, blindly reverse-engineering their training plan is rarely the answer. Your body, history, goals, injuries, lifestyle and stage of life all matter. And doing someone else's workouts won't magically give you someone else's body.

We talk about:

• the three main elements I build my training around
• how much I actually do each week
• why repetition beats throwing loads of random workouts at your body
• the extra 10 minutes I do every day, and why you might not need to
• what's conspicuously absent from my routine (hello, stretching, yoga and Pilates...)
• why your training needs to change when your goal changes
• and the simple training audit I'd encourage every woman to do as we head into autumn.

The big takeaway? Every workout in your week should have a job.

You don't need to do everything. You need to know what your body needs, what you're trying to achieve, and build your training around that.

Also mentioned:

🎧 Ep10 Stretching Is Not The Answer (and other things you didn't know about midlife aches and pains) with Danielle Garfoot - listen here on Apple and here on Spotify

💪 Want to try Train with Carly? Your first PAYG class is £7! Tap here for more: Train with Me

✨ Want my help creating your own bespoke exercise prescription? That's exactly what we do inside The Reboot - find out more here: The Reboot

⭐️ Abs of steel in 10mins a day? Check out PerimenoCore

Come and find me on Instagram @Carly Corrigall

Do you feel like you’ve got a LOT of work to do on your body this September?

Maybe you feel puffier and more bloated than usual. Your clothes are fitting differently, your fitness seems to have disappeared and your normal routines have gone completely out of the window.

Before you launch yourself into a September detox, diet or punishing workout plan, I want you to hear this: you’re probably not as far behind as you think.

After a summer of heatwaves, holidays, disrupted sleep, different food, a few more treats and drinks, and perhaps a lot less movement and training than usual, it’s hardly surprising if you don’t feel quite like yourself.

In this episode, I’m looking at what might actually be going on and, more importantly, what I’d do about it.

We talk about:

• Why hot weather can leave you feeling puffier and more bloated
• The summer “treats and tastes” that can add up without us really noticing
• Why you might feel less fit after a more sporadic few weeks of training
• Why there is no wagon to fall off or climb back onto
• The importance of sleep and getting your usual anchors back
• A quick note on HRT, heat and transdermal preparations
• Why September should be an opportunity to recalibrate, not punish yourself
• The simple approach I’ll be taking myself over the next few weeks

Because before you start trying to change your body, it might be worth asking a different question:

What do I need to put back into my life to feel like me again?

Give yourself a little time, get your normal rhythms back and then decide whether anything else actually needs to change.

🎧 Mentioned in this episode:

Listen to my episode with sleep specialist Laura Murphy for much more on improving your sleep - it's Episode 42: Sleeping Badly in Midlife? Let’s Fix That (with Laura Murphy of The Sleep Shift)

💪 Want help getting your exercise routine back?

Come and join me inside Train With Carly for 30-minute strength and HIIT workouts you can fit around real life, 52 weeks of the year.

✨ Want support with the bigger picture?

If it’s not just your workouts and you’d like help with your training, food, sleep, stress, habits and feeling good in your body again, The Reboot is where we work on all of this together.

💌 Want to chat about your next step?

Drop me a DM on Instagram - I'm @carlycorrigall

And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend who’s currently looking at September and thinking, “Right. I need to sort myself out.”

Cortisol has become the latest wellness villain.

Apparently it’s responsible for your belly fat, poor sleep, brain fog, cravings… and heaven forbid you do a hard workout and send it “skyrocketing”.

But cortisol isn’t something we need to fear, flatten or detox. It’s a vital hormone that helps us wake up, mobilise energy, respond to challenge and, crucially, adapt to exercise.

In this Bitesize episode, I’m cutting through the cortisol noise and looking at what’s actually going on when we train. I explain why exercise should create a short-term stress response, why that stress is part of how we become fitter and stronger, and why the real issue is when we pile training stress on top of poor sleep, under-fuelling and an already overflowing life-stress bucket.

I’m also sharing the mistake I made during my own half-marathon training, and why the lesson wasn’t “running wrecked my cortisol”, but something much more useful.

Links from this episode:

• Come and train with me - super-effective, 30 minute workouts designed to work with Intelligent Intensity: Train with Carly
• When you want more than just workouts: The Reboot is for you. Check it out here: The Reboot
• Come and tell me what you thought of this week’s episode over on Instagram - I’m @carlycorrigall