How to dodge the ultimate fitness mansplain.
This is not a rage against all male trainers. Just the shit ones.
"I'm looking for ten women over 40 who want to lose their menopausal weight gain forever."
If you see this sales pitch, run. Or at least, tread carefully.
This is the classic marketing trope, almost always posted by a cis male trainer or coach.
They’ve built an entire fitness business around one thing - women over 40 who’ve gained weight they don’t want, for reasons they don’t understand.
Why?
Why are young male trainers frothing over older women’s hormonal chaos?
Sure, there could be a plausible reason. Maybe they live with someone going through it. Maybe they’ve seen firsthand how brutal the ‘pause can be, and they genuinely want to help. I will always applaud any man who’s taken his experience and empathy and channelled it into something actually useful.
But my cynical guess?
They’ve clocked that perimenopause and menopause are the latest wellness goldmine.
A hormonal Bermuda Triangle where women feel like shit, don’t know what’s happening to their bodies, and are desperate for relief.
Cue Chadley, standing in a tank top in front of a squat rack:
“Are you upset by weight gain, brain fog, night sweats, mood swings, vision fuckery? Well, have I got the programme for you...”
Give me strength.
It is a trap.
If you’re in the thick of it and looking for support, you do have options.
A great trainer - male or female - will listen, learn, and tailor your training with care.
But unless that guy has actually studied how female hormones work (and more importantly, how they don’t anymore), gap it.
Some of these dudes have built a business off the back of desperate women who don’t know where to turn. And their entire knowledge base?
They read a book.
Probably the same book you could buy and read for yourself.
They’re not experts. They’re parrots.
And it’s the ultimate fitness mansplain.
This isn’t a rant against men in fitness. The good ones? Gold.
They don’t centre their whole brand around your hormonal despair.
They don’t try to “fix” you. They train all the people with empathy, skill, and intelligence.
The difference is easy to spot once you know what to look for.
Just don’t hand your money or your midlife body over to Chadley the Hormone Whisperer.
But seriously, what are we supposed to do when our hormones are stampeding from our body?
You lift.
Heavy, but not for hours. Just enough to build back the muscle midlife is trying to steal.
You move.
Fast and short intervals that leave you breathless but not requiring an ambo, and definitely not bored out of your skull on a cross-trainer or a treadmill.
You rest.
Properly. Sleep is now your CEO and recovery is it.
You eat.
Eat way more than you think you should. Carbs are not the enemy, but you gotta get that protein in somehow.
You are not broken.
You are not a before photo.
You are in the goddamn chrysalis.
So block Chadley. Unfollow the “ten women” ads. Burn the detox tea.
And start showing up for yourself the way these so-called experts never could.
You don’t need fixing.
You need facts. Support. Sleep. Iron. Rage.
And a playlist that makes you feel like you could bench press a small car.
Go lift.
Go rest.
Go rage.
You’ve got this.