Major surgery can temporarily change what your body can do. But being strong before surgery, physically and mentally, can change how you approach everything that comes next.
In this episode of Stronger By Design, Michelle MacDonald sits down with two remarkable women who know that firsthand: Susan Thiessen, 67, and Joan MacDonald, 80.
Susan has faced four hip operations in a little over a year, including an unexpected surgery following a serious infection that interrupted her return to bodybuilding and the competitive stage. Joan recently underwent a full knee replacement after years of pain, following a reverse shoulder replacement the previous year. Both women entered these challenges with something incredibly valuable already in their corner: strength.
Together, Susan, Joan and Michelle have an open conversation about what recovery really looks like for women over 60. They discuss preparing your body before surgery, maintaining strength and movement as you age, following the recovery process without losing sight of who you are, and dealing with the frustration that comes when your body temporarily can't do what your mind wants it to do.
Susan shares how her identity as an athlete helped her through weeks in the hospital and how focusing on what she would be able to do, rather than what she couldn't do, gave her something to work toward. Joan discusses the mental challenge of accepting limitations, her determination to return to the gym after knee replacement, and how dramatically different this recovery has been from her first knee surgery more than a decade earlier.
They also explore the importance of accountability and community, listening to your medical team, knowing when not to push, nutrition and recovery habits, and why preparing for surgery can begin long before you enter the operating room.
Most importantly, this conversation isn't about pretending recovery is easy. It's about building a body and mindset capable of meeting difficult moments when they arrive.
Whether you're facing surgery, recovering from an injury, rebuilding after a setback, or simply want to stay strong and capable as you age, Susan and Joan offer living proof that getting older doesn't mean you stop moving forward.
Favorite Moments
0:00 How Much Does Strength Before Surgery Matter?
Susan and Joan immediately establish the central idea of the episode: surgery is a major physical stress, and preparation matters.
3:11 Four Hip Operations at 67: How Strength Changed Susan's Recovery
Just days after an unplanned surgery, Susan was already walking without a walker. She explains why she believes entering surgery in exceptional physical condition made such a difference.
7:27 When Recovery Challenges Your Identity as an Athlete
Michelle and Susan discuss what happened when training, macros and normal check-ins had to give way to simply recovering.
9:57 Accountability Isn't Someone Judging You
Michelle reframes accountability as having someone who knows what you're capable of and can remind you who you are when you're struggling.
12:00 Learning to Give Yourself Permission to Recover
After three and a half weeks in the hospital, Susan describes something that's normally very difficult for her: slowing down.
14:13 The Hardest Part of Recovery: Accepting Your Limitations
Joan talks about impatience, believing she should be healing faster and eventually recognizing how much progress she was actually making.
18:20 Two Knee Replacements, More Than a Decade Apart
Michelle looks back at Joan's first knee replacement and contrasts who Joan was physically then with the dramatically stronger woman entering surgery this time.
23:27 "I'm Going to Be Able to Get All That Strength Back"
Joan explains how surviving the harder recovery from her first knee replacement gave her confidence that she could rebuild again.
25:48 "Wow, I Can Actually Do It"
Only weeks after surgery, Joan discovers what her new knee can already do, while also learning an important lesson about not pushing recovery too quickly.
29:47 When Physical Therapy Becomes Your Workout
Unable to train normally, Susan turns her rehabilitation exercises into a structured daily training plan and keeps her athlete mindset alive.
33:23 "Even Your Warmups Are Heavy": What Happens When You Get Strong
Michelle recalls Susan questioning her increasingly heavy deadlifts and the simple coaching statement that completely changed how she approached them.
34:10 What Can You Control When Everything Else Is Uncertain?
With Susan still facing uncertainty about another surgery, Michelle talks about aging, change and controlling how we show up when circumstances are outside our hands.
35:05 Facing Surgery Later in Life? Get Strong First
Joan's advice to other women is simple: don't wait passively for surgery. Prepare your body for what's coming.
36:17 Susan's Advice: Allow Yourself to Grieve the Setback
Susan explains why anger, sadness and disappointment have a place in recovery, but why eventually you have to accept what's happened and move forward.
38:10 How to Prepare Your Body Before Surgery
Michelle brings the lessons together with practical preparation around strength, nutrition, inflammation, habits, food planning and post-surgery support.
43:38 At 80: "I Can Do Most of the Things I've Always Wanted to Do"
Joan puts the entire conversation into perspective by describing what being strong at 80 actually gives her: the ability to continue doing things, taking chances and accepting challenges.
GUEST: JOAN MACDONALD
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trainwithjoan
Website: https://www.trainwithjoanofficial.com/
Joan MacDonald, known to millions through Train With Joan™, is an 80-year-old fitness inspiration whose transformation has helped challenge conventional ideas about aging, strength and what's possible later in life.
In this episode, Joan shares her experience recovering from a full knee replacement following a reverse shoulder replacement the previous year. Her perspective is especially powerful because she can compare her current recovery as a strong, active 80-year-old with her experience undergoing knee replacement more than a decade earlier, before transforming her health and fitness.
GUEST: SUSAN THIESSEN
Susan Thiessen is a 67-year-old competitive bodybuilding athlete who has demonstrated extraordinary resilience through a series of major medical setbacks. After preparing for and recovering from a planned hip replacement, Susan experienced complications that ultimately led to multiple additional hip operations and an extended hospital stay.
Before her latest setback, Susan had returned to training, was hitting personal records and deadlifting more weight than ever as she prepared to return to the competitive stage. Today, she continues to approach rehabilitation with the same structure and determination she brings to bodybuilding, using physical therapy, training, nutrition and her athlete mindset to work toward getting strong again.
HOST: MICHELLE MACDONALD
Michelle MacDonald is the creator of the FITNESS MODEL BLUEPRINT™ and host of the Stronger By Design™ podcast. Known internationally for her evidence-based approach to women's fitness, Michelle has coached thousands of women since 2012 through strength training, nutrition and mindset. She is a Physique Champion, ISSA Strength and Conditioning Specialist, co-founder of Tulum Strength Club, and founder of The Wonder Women™ (TWW).
Michelle is also recognized for helping inspire the remarkable transformation of her mother, Joan MacDonald (Train With Joan™), and continues to empower women to redefine aging through science-backed fitness education and coaching.
