How to Structure Your Routine Like a Pro
Your Body Isn’t a Honda Anymore—It’s a Lamborghini
Once you hit midlife, your body needs more care and attention.A random, unplanned workout won’t cut it anymore!
To feel strong and move well, your routine needs structure and intention.
This is where a lot of women get stuck.“How do I structure a good routine?”
“What are the key elements that I should include?”
The good news is that you can build a well-structured routine for yourself that’s actually simple, sustainable, and effective.
Why This Matters
Not having a clear, predictable structure to your routine leads to feeling overwhelmed. But when you know which pieces of your fitness and nutrition regime are the most important, you can move forward with clarity and confidence!
FITNESS SIMPLIFIED
Most women skip proper warm-ups and cool-downs and go straight to the “main set”.
I know it’s tempting to rush through!
But that’s a recipe for soreness, injuries, and missed gains in mobility and balance.
Fitness Tip to Structure a Routine Like a Pro
Include warm-up, main set, and cool down
A well-rounded fitness plan should build muscle, boost cardio fitness, improve joint mobility, and train balance, coordination—even power.
Sounds like a LOT, I know.
Here’s how you can fit all of that into a workout in as short as 15 minutes:
• Warm-up (5–10 mins): Prepare your body with mobility work, balance drills, and light versions of the exercises to come.
• Main set (5–30 mins): This is the main part of your workout. It can include functional strength training, cardio, and power movements, ideally in circuit format.
• Cool-down (5–10 mins): Lower stress on your nervous system and help your body recover with deep stretches, gentle mobility work, and maybe even foam rolling.
Ok, let’s talk about the “mainset” part real quick.
In your 40s and beyond, your joints and connective tissues are more sensitive to quick increases in volume and intensity.
Too much too soon can lead to pain or injury.
You may hear people talk about “lifting heavy” in midlife.
And you wonder when to add weights, and how much to lift in your workout routine.
If you want to avoid tendinitis, compensation patterns, and totally unnecessary injuries, you need to build up to weight lifting strategically.
Don’t worry! Here are some simple tips to help you get stronger while staying injury-free.
How to Start Strength Training & Weight Lifting for Women over 40
- Start with bodyweight-only exercises. Spend 2–3 months doing moves like squats, bridges, hip hinges, bear crawls, planks, inchworms, bird dogs, split squats. etc. These will help you get stronger and build better balance and control.
- Add weights when you feel stable and steady with an exercise. NEVER train poor technique. You can start light, but once the move feels stable, bump up the weights.
- Build strength over time. Most women I work with can safely lift 10, 15, even 20-pound weights by month 3 or 4—just by following this safe progression that I have laid out in my Jumpstart series of programs.
Extra tip: Aim for doing a strength training workout 2-3X a week if possible. You’ll build the most muscle mass and feel your strength progress the most when you’re working in the 6-12 repetition range.
Did You Know...
- How you structure your week also matters—avoid stacking hard workouts back-to-back. Space them out with lighter sessions in between, like stretching and balance work.
- Want to lift heavier? Ease into it! Try the heavier weight for one set, then return to your usual weight for the next, building up from there.
- The 6 key elements of fitness are muscular strength, cardiovascular stamina, flexibility, balance, coordination and power. Your fitness routine should have a spot for each element.
NUTRITION SIMPLIFIED
Build a Strong Nutrition Foundation
Just like a good fitness routine needs to include key elements, your meals do too!
Nutrition Tip To Structure a Solid Foundation
Eat Your PROs - protein and produce.
(Yes, I say it a LOT… because it’s that important! 😊)
When building a balanced meal, aim to include:
- Protein (animal or plant-based, for muscle growth, immunity, and cellular health)
- Produce (fruits or veggies for fiber, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants)
- Healthy fats (like nuts and seeds for cellular health, cardiovascular health, hormonal regulation)
- Other complex carbs (like whole grains and legumes for more fiber, cholesterol regulation and energy)
- Water (for hydration)At the very least, get protein and produce on your plate at every meal.
That’s the simple way to cover most of your nutrition needs— eat your PROs!
Blackened Chicken with Avocado Cream Sauce
More ideas to structure a solid nutrition foundation
- Visually split your plate in half, loading up one whole side with produce, and the other side with a combo of protein, fats & complex carbs
- Drink a full glass of water at every meal time
- A smoothie is a great way to fit all these meal elements in one drink!
MINDSET SIMPLIFIED
Structure gives your routine a roadmap and helps you feel steady.
It’s hard to stick with healthy habits if you don’t know what you’re aiming for.
You’ll feel like you’re drifting in the ocean, not sure which direction the wind and the currents will take you.
You’ll even struggle to see results!But your structure shouldn’t be too strict or rigid, either.
When life throws you a curveball, you need to be able to adjust.
Be flexible, give yourself grace and do what you can.
Mindset Tip of the Week
Build flexibility into your plan
THE TAKEAWAY
Building clear structure into your fitness and nutrition routines will give you the mental stability you’re looking for AND the results your body has been craving.
- Include warm-up, main set, and cool down
- Eat Your PROs - protein and produce
- Build flexibility into your plan
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Self Care Simplified podcast
Ep 427: Getting Laser-Focused to See BIG Health Changes in 2025
Ep 420: 10,000 Steps a Day? The Shocking Truth About Walking And What To Do Now
Ep 378: How to Get Back Into a Routine After a Break: Avoid These mistakes!
SPECIAL RESOURCE
Need a good workout for the “main set” of your routine? This one is awesome! In just 20 minutes, you’ll work on your cardiovascular system, muscular strength, power, coordination and more—no equipment needed. Simply tack on a good warm-up and nice relaxing cool down to the beginning and end of this video.
20 MIN Fat Burning Workout For Beginners
Until next week... Be strong
