Why Strength Matters More Than Shapes After 40

Have you ever noticed how much the fitness and movement industry emphasizes shapes?

“Your heels should be down and your knees should be out when you squat.”
“Your spine shouldn’t be banana-backed in your handstand.”
“Your spine shouldn’t round any time you lift a heavy object.”

The problem with these well-meaning instructions is that they focus on the shape the body is making, rather than how the body transitions from one place to another. And it’s the transitioning—not the shape—that’s actually the most relevant part.

You know… the part where you’re actually moving.

This isn’t to say there’s no value in sensing and feeling what position you’re in once a transition is complete. I’m very much in favor of building body awareness. But strength that applies to everyday life—whether that’s basic movements around the house or a movement hobby—doesn’t come from finding a perfect shape and holding it.

It comes from how you get from Point A to Point B.

Shapes vs. Transitions: A Trailhead Analogy

Have you ever tried to map how to get to a trailhead on your phone?

If so, you may have encountered some wildly different routes—some of which don’t actually take you to the trailhead you intended to reach.

Sometimes this works out fine. You end up at a trailhead (even if it’s not the one you planned), you don’t get lost, and you still get a great hike or trail run.

Other times, you wander around endlessly, following the directions perfectly, yet the trailhead never appears. Frustration sets in. Eventually, you abandon the plan altogether, defeated by a path to nowhere.

Trailheads are harder to find than something like a Starbucks. They’re tucked away, hidden, and require effort to reach—but once you arrive, they can be incredibly rewarding.

The path you take during an exercise is a lot like this.

If you do a basic squat, the path you take to lower down and stand back up is usually fairly straightforward—more like finding the Starbucks down the street. But in an effort to make movements more “correct” or interesting, a lot of rules get layered on about how the movement should look.

Whenever a coach suggests rules for a basic movement, it’s worth asking yourself:

• How does this change my experience of the movement?

• Does it enhance the movement, or make the coordination feel unnecessarily difficult?

• Am I curious enough about the change that I want to try a few more reps to explore it?

If you find yourself consistently confused by the shape you’re supposed to be making—especially one that feels inaccessible—you may want to change your focus.

When Shapes Aren’t Working

When a map doesn’t get you to the trailhead, you usually need different information to reach your destination (AllTrails has saved me more than once).

If focusing on shapes isn’t helping you feel stronger, more coordinated, or more capable, there is another way—one that’s arguably more effective for building real-world strength and awareness.

And yes, this applies even to more shape-based movement practices like yoga or aerial arts.

When you let go of the shape and focus instead on the journey, the shapes that emerge are often both interesting and visually pleasing. More importantly, exploration creates a positive practice environment—one that encourages you to try again and again.

We build strength through repetition. Curiosity keeps repetition alive.

Progressive Overload: Strength That Actually Transfers

Building physiological strength—the kind where muscles and tendons adapt—requires regularly exposing your body to something that feels heavy.

Heavy is relative.

When you first start, 10 pounds might feel challenging. Weeks or years later, you’ll fling 10 pounds around like you’re tossing a pillow across the bed.

How strong you “need” to be is up for debate. Most of my clients simply want to be strong enough—strong enough that daily life feels easy.

That includes carrying heavy groceries, rearranging furniture on a whim, hauling something up a flight of stairs, or flinging themselves around a pole with a reasonable amount of control.

Strength is having a moment right now—and that’s a good thing. Strength is the opposite of fragility. Along with stamina and flexibility, it’s what keeps you doing the things you love as you age.

The beauty of strength training is that it isn’t complicated. It requires about 20–30 minutes, 2–3 times per week, and the exercises don’t need to look fancy.

If you’re curious what a basic, general program looks like, you can download the free strength training template below. You don’t need much: a bit of floor space, a chair, and a set of dumbbells. If you’re new to strength training, a set ranging from 3–20 pounds is more than enough to get started.

If you don’t overthink it and you show up consistently, I promise—you’ll get stronger.

Strength, Stamina, and Capacity

In addition to progressive overload, it’s useful to develop both stamina and capacity in certain positions.

Some hobbies demand this—like carpentry and aerial arts (a pairing you probably didn’t expect).

• Stamina is your ability to sustain effort over time.

• Capacity is your physical or mental ability to perform the task at all.

In the context of building a storage cabinet:

• Stamina is the ability to endure the time and effort required.

• Capacity is the ability to actually build the cabinet.

Someone can have stamina without capacity, and vice versa.

Traditional fitness often emphasizes stamina but neglects capacity—unless you participate in a movement hobby, where capacity tends to develop organically. Building capacity requires spending time exploring positions you already have strength in, but in less predictable ways.

One simple approach is to take a familiar position—like a squat—and explore where you can go from there, and how to return. Flowing in and out of the position builds a deeper understanding of the movement and develops a different kind of strength than traditional training alone.

A More Complete Way to Train

Strength, stamina, flexibility, and capacity are complementary. None is more important than the others.

A well-rounded movement program weaves all of them together.

If that sounds complicated, I promise it’s not.

And if you’re curious to explore this approach further, Attention Reframed is a 5-day mini-course with a minimal time commitment, designed to challenge both your body and your brain.