> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.practically.fit/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # PF Episode 34: A Personal Trainer Shares Her Secrets to Staying Strong and Powerful at Any Age - URL: https://www.practically.fit/pf-episode-34-a-personal-trainer/ - Published: 2023-09-24T18:16:33.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-23T21:18:46.000Z - Author: Alex Johnson - Tags: Podcast, #Migrated-1786808468945, #Import 2026-08-15 15:41 In this episode, Alex and Jen interview Joan Maiden, who started a new career as a personal trainer at 50, helping clients overcome tremendous obstacles to lead an active, healthy life. Author of [*F Old Age*](https://www.amazon.com/Old-Age-Warriors-Secrets-Passion/dp/B09VFS55FR/?ref=practically.fit), Joan talks about her own fitness journey and shares tips on how to live with passion, purpose and power at any age. You’ll also get a sneak peek of Jen and Joan’s upcoming trip to walk the [Boudicca Way](https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/out-and-about-in-norfolk/norfolk-trails/long-distance-trails/boudicca-way/about-boudicca-way?ref=practically.fit) in England, named for a legendary warrior woman who stood up to the Romans in AD 60. #### Read The Transcript ****Jen:** Welcome to Practically Fit, Real Fitness Over 40\. I'm Jen Chamberlain. ****Alex:** And I'm Alex Johnson. ****Jen:** And today we are so excited to have a very special guest on our program, Joan Maiden. Joan has a pretty remarkable story about how she started a new career as a personal trainer at 50, moved across the country — very much like I did — and found her calling helping clients whom others, even often doctors, had given up on as being too old, too frail, or too overweight to live an active life. She's also written a book about her experiences called **F*\*\* Old Age\* — I can't say the full title on our program, because we're family-friendly. But Joan, welcome to the program! ****Joan:** Thank you so much, I'm so excited to be here. ****Jen:** We're glad to have you. ****Alex:** Yeah, thanks, Joan, for joining — excited to dive into the interview. So, let's start with your fitness journey. How did your fitness journey begin? Finding Fitness at 50 ****Joan:** Well, I was very unfit most of my life. I came from a family where fitness was not encouraged — my brothers and sisters were extremely obese. And I married a man who thought you could not be too thin. So that started a whole journey of thinking I needed to lose weight, and I did it in a lot of unhealthy ways. Then, as I got older, and my daughter was going through anorexia, a therapist told me, "You need to do something to take care of yourself — why don't you join a gym?" So I joined a gym, and I was fortunate to meet a trainer who really taught me about strength training. ****Jen:** Wow — and about how old were you when you started training? ****Joan:** I was in my late 40s, close to 50, when I started that journey. ****Jen:** So, I've read your book, and I really enjoyed it. One of the things you say in there — I'm going to quote here — is: "Challenging my body changed me. Physical activity, especially a combination of aerobic activity and weightlifting, changed not only my body, but my thoughts and emotions." Can you tell us a little more about that process? ****Joan:** As I found my body changing, I found I had more self-confidence, and I felt better about myself — which really changed my outlook on life. ****Jen:** Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Did you find it was kind of a virtuous cycle, where some things changing in your life led to more changes? ****Joan:** Yeah — it gave me the courage to walk away from a bad marriage, to look at my life, and start a totally new career. What started me on the path of becoming a personal trainer was my best friend, from the time I was five years old — she'd been very, very obese all her life. At 49, she was in the hospital, weighing 519 pounds. She hadn't been able to walk for two years, and the doctors had totally given up on her. I'd seen the difference strength training made in my own life, and I thought, maybe it would help her too. So I encouraged her to start a program of some strength training and some water aerobics. About six months later, she took her first unaided steps in over two years. One day I was complaining about my job as a legal assistant, how boring it was, how much I disliked it, and she said, "Why don't you become a personal trainer?" I said, "Are you crazy? You were in gym class with me — you know how uncoordinated and unathletic I am." And her comment was, "But people like me need people like you to help us." That really changed my life — it made me look at the fact that maybe I did have something to offer, that I could help people in that situation. From Client to Trainer ****Alex:** Wow, that's amazing. So you became a personal trainer, Joan — tell us a bit about the clients you worked with. Obviously not any specifics on who they were, but what types of clients were you working with? ****Joan:** So I'd bought a house with a basement and started a gym there. My first client was Helen — she was 80 years old, had been walking with a walker, was afraid to go places by herself, couldn't lift a one-pound weight. Within a couple of years, she was doing eight- or ten-pound dumbbells, she'd given up the walker, and was going places by herself again. She'd been training with me for two years when she slipped and fell and broke her hip. The doctor told her, "Most people your age would be dead, but you have so much muscle in your legs, it saved your life." Two years after that, she and I and some other friends took a trip to France — she started traveling again, and kept traveling right to the end of her life, at 87\. She's the one who really inspired me to start concentrating on functionality for older people. I also had one client who totally changed the way I looked at personal training. She was in her 50s, a nurse, very obese — she'd already had both knees replaced. When she came to train with me, she could barely make it down the stairs. I asked her, "Tell me, what's your diet like?" And she looked at me and said, "Don't mess with my food." People told me, "Well, you couldn't help her, could you?" And I thought, I'm going to see what I can do to make her more functional. So I started helping her get stronger — climbing up and down off a three-inch step was a real challenge for her at first. She got stronger, more active, but she had one great fear: she knew that if she got down on the floor, or had a fall, she wouldn't be able to get back up. One day she sat down on the weight bench, missed, and landed on the floor — we both just looked at each other like, now what? So I got down with her, showed her a technique to get up, and she was able to do it — she was so excited. After that, she actually wanted to do floor exercises, because she said, "I can." One day she called me from vacation and said, "I walked up a hill today" — which was a real accomplishment for her. So many people think that when they exercise, when they train, it's to lose weight — and that experience changed my focus, from losing weight to being functional. The weight takes care of itself after that. ****Jen:** I love that so much — those are some really excellent stories. So much of what we talk about on the program is how gym culture can be difficult to break into, and I think a lot of people feel intimidated about going to the gym. But a lot of times it's just about taking that first step — and functionality is something we talk about a lot too. Going back to the woman who didn't want you to mess with her food — of course, fitness is only part of the picture when it comes to our overall health and well-being, and what we eat matters too. So, another thing you write about in the book is "diet brain." Tell me a little about diet brain, and how it gets in the way of healthy eating. Diet Brain and Real Food ****Joan:** It's all about the focus on losing weight. I tell people they get so hung up on the scale — and I say, the scale tells you what the package weighs, it doesn't tell you what's in the package. I did a body composition test on a woman who weighed about 110 pounds, and she was 30% body fat, because she was what we call "skinny fat" — she had no muscle, and was chronically dieting, so she couldn't build any. Like I always tell people: just eat real food. That's the fuel you need. Don't worry so much about counting carbs or protein — just eat a balance of real food. ****Jen:** Absolutely. I wanted to ask you too — why strength training specifically? I've written a bit about this myself, but why is strength training so important, especially for women? At least for me, I wasn't raised to think about strength training at all. Why Strength Training Matters ****Joan:** A lot of people don't realize we start losing muscle around age 30, and it accelerates the older we get. An 80-year-old who's never done any kind of strength training will have lost half their muscle — that's why older people are so frail and weak. But you can build new muscle at any age — at 90, 95\. I've had clients in their 90s who got stronger and more active. We don't realize you have to actively maintain functionality. I had a client who was a cardiologist, and he told me he'd been to a cardiology conference where they said: you can eat right, not smoke, and still end up bedridden at the end of your life if you lose your functionality. The only way to maintain that functionality is through exercise. ****Jen:** The whole premise, and the structure, of your book is really about "the warrior way." Tell us a bit about that — what does that term mean to you? The Warrior Way ****Joan:** The warrior way, to me, is about being strong, and being able to function, to be independent. I was really inspired when I saw a documentary about Boudica, the Warrior Queen — how she stood up against the Roman Empire, did things her way, and made a difference in the world, in her world, for her children. That inspired me. You can walk a path of being strong, or you can walk a path of being weak — and I chose the path of being strong, not only physically, but emotionally and mentally too. ****Alex:** Wow. Joan, I'm curious — with your clients, in addition to strength training, how do you address the cardiovascular side of fitness as we age? Cardio, Balance, and Falls ****Joan:** I'd always have them do a warm-up on a treadmill or elliptical, and just encourage them to walk more. A lot of people who have joint problems do water aerobics — just walking in a pool can be wonderful therapy and exercise. People don't realize how much exercise walking in water can give you. My friend, the one who was obese — that's literally how she started, just walking in the pool. She ended up losing 200 pounds, moved to California, after basically being bedridden and needing family to care for her. She ended up in a relationship with a wonderful man, ran her own business for several years, and really got her life back — just from getting in a pool, getting some exercise, and starting to eat correctly. She'd had a doctor tell her to go on a 1,200-calorie diet, which for her was completely unrealistic, because her normal diet was probably around 6,000 calories a day. So just cutting back by even a third of that was enough for her to start losing weight. ****Alex:** Joan, I'm curious too — what's it like working with clients that others may have given up on? That must be really rewarding work, seeing those outcomes. ****Joan:** Yeah, it's very rewarding. I saw people make so much progress, do things they hadn't been able to do in years. It's amazing to see an older person — somebody 75, 80 years old — who thinks, "I'm old, I can't," realize, "yeah, I can." Some people would say, "Well, I don't really care about building muscle," and then realize, "oh, this is actually kind of cool — I do want to look good, I want to be strong, and be able to do the things I want." Another thing a lot of people forget to work on as they age is balance, and that's so key for older people — a lot of balance issues come from loss of muscle. Once you start building that muscle back — I'd have people do balance training on a BOSU ball — I'd hear things like, "I was going down the stairs, I missed a step, but I was able to keep my balance," where before that might have meant a fall and a broken bone. It's about being able to go about your daily tasks without falling. I remember getting ready to go into a grocery store once, and there was a little old lady standing on the curb — probably a three-inch curb — and she was terrified to step off it. And I thought, I never want to get to a point in my life where I'm afraid to take a step, or go up the stairs, or do the things I want to do. That's what I'd challenge people with: what do you want to do? Don't let your body be a prison. ****Alex:** Yeah, absolutely — that's very powerful. Joan, I'm curious — you've gone through this whole fitness transformation over the years, and you've been working with clients as a personal trainer. What's next for you, in terms of your own personal fitness journey? What's Next ****Joan:** What I've found — I turned 70 this year — is that flexibility becomes much more important the older you get, which is something you can kind of get away with ignoring when you're younger. So keep up the strength training — and my challenge for this year is that Jen and I are going to England, and we're going to walk the Boudica Way, a 36-mile hike. It's going to be a challenge, but it's like, okay — if not now, when? So that's my newest challenge, and I'll see what comes up after that. ****Jen:** Yes — it's a challenge for me too, since we're doing this one together. ****Joan:** I did my first marathon at 59, and did it again at 60, just to say I did it at 60\. So, you always have to challenge yourself, find something new and interesting — whether that's golf, running, whatever — just stay active, and stay interested. ****Jen:** Wow, that's so true. Last question I'll ask you — what would you say to someone who thinks maybe they're too old to make a big change in their life at this point? ****Joan:** One of the things I'd tell people is: how do you want to age? Do you want to need help getting on and off the toilet? Or do you want to be able to get up and down on your own? It's about your quality of life — how do you want to end your life? I went to a class once, and the man speaking put it so well — he said, we can go crawling right up to the finish line, just barely moving, or we can go crash right into the wall at full speed. How do you want to end? And I decided I want to end crashing at full speed. ****Alex:** Wonderful — thank you. I love that direct advice, that's great — such a good way to motivate people. ****Jen:** Well, thank you — thank you so much, Joan. We really appreciate having you on the program, and I know our listeners are going to love hearing your stories too. And if they want more, they can read your book. ****Alex:** Yeah — where can folks buy your book? ****Joan:** On Amazon, or Barnes & Noble, any of those online sites — or they can visit my website too, there's a link there. It's maidenpower.com. ****Alex:** All right, maidenpower.com — go check it out. Takeaways ****Jen:** Wow, Alex, I thought that was a really powerful discussion we had with Joan. Very inspiring. ****Alex:** Yeah, very inspiring. I had a few main takeaways from that — let's dive into our takeaways. ****Jen:** Talking with Joan, I'm always inspired by how important, and also how difficult, it can be just to take that first step — for her clients, and for her too. Taking that first step can be hard, and maybe at first you feel like you can't do it, but once you start making small improvements, it kind of cascades, and one thing leads to another. And like she said, it's not just your physical health that improves, but the way you think about things — your mental health too. It reminded me a little of what we talked about with Brandon LaForce, about just getting moving, and how that affects your mental health as well. What about you, Alex? ****Alex:** Yeah, absolutely. I think, in the spirit of taking that first step — if you're in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, and you're thinking, "I'm out of shape, I've never been in shape, I have this mental barrier to working out, I can't possibly do it" — if you feel like that, you absolutely can do it. The examples she shared were people in their 80s, overweight, in some cases incredibly overweight, or with broken bones, who couldn't take a step — and through working out, it resulted in a major change in their quality of life. So if you're in your 40s or 50s thinking, "oh, I can't do this" — you absolutely can. ****Jen:** And I'll admit, I'm thinking that right now about trail running — but I know if I just keep working at it, it's going to get easier. ****Alex:** It will, it will. The other thing I'd point to is this idea of maintaining functional fitness. We've talked a bit before about things like bone density, how exercise can increase it — but the reason you want to start now, in your 40s or 50s or 60s, is because you want to be functional when you get to your 70s, 80s, and 90s. The advice she was giving her clients, and how blunt it was — "do you want to be crawling to the toilet?" I know I don't want to be crawling to the toilet. So, honestly, I think that kind of directness, about your later years and the potential for a low quality of life, is incredibly motivating. ****Jen:** Absolutely, absolutely. And so we've got to start now — which is what this program's all about, right? Speaking of which, what's coming up on the horizon? I know we've taken a bit of a break, a little summer vacation, to refresh our creativity. ****Alex:** So next week, we're going to talk about everything you always wanted to know about your muscles — things like muscle adaptation, muscle memory, the impact of strength training. That's going to be the subject next week, which I think will be fascinating. ****Jen:** Absolutely, looking forward to it. ****Alex:** Yeah. If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating on Apple, Spotify, or your podcast platform of choice. And as always, if you have any stories you'd like to share with us, or know somebody who'd make a really inspiring fitness story for the podcast, shoot me an email at [alex@practically.fit](mailto:alex@practically.fit), or leave a comment on the podcast over at practically.fit. But until next week — remember, fitness is for everybody.