Strong Women Are Bad for the Fix-a-Female Economy
Eleven things to fix before I'd brushed my teeth. The one that actually counts wasn't on the list.
Building muscle past 40, and why the usual advice is built for you to fail.
Hey Gang-
Before anything else: a whole bunch of you walked in this week, a good number of you nudged this way by the excellent Alexandra Winteraven (they). Welcome. You found us, and I’m glad you did.
Since you’re new, I’m not going to ease you in with a protein chart. You should get the thesis first. It’s the foundational belief I base my coaching and programming on.
Longtime frendos, you know this one by heart. Read it again anyway. It’s load-bearing.
Here goes.
The messages blowing up my phone this morning:
Fix your sleep. Fix your gut. Fix your cortisol. Fix your hormones, your boundaries, your blood sugar, your face, your seed oils, your posture, your attitude, and your chakras before the next full moon.
Eleven things to fix before I’d even brushed my teeth.
I’m 52. I’ve been doing this work for decades, and I’ll tell you the one thing on that whole list that actually changes the next thirty years of your life.
None of them.
It’s not even on the list. You can’t sell it in a gummy, a $14 collagen creamer, or a 21-day detox, so nobody’s shoving it at you at 6am.
It’s muscle.
That’s the part the wellness industry is quietly hoping you never catch.
🎯 Strong women are bad for the fix economy.
We don't come back.
Their whole model needs you failing instead of flexing.
A woman who got strong and strolled out the door doesn't re-up for the next cleanse or pseudo-supplement.
I'm not here to fix you. Nothing is wrong with you. You're allowed to spend the back half of your life getting harder to knock over instead of smaller. Instead of invisible.
That's it. No gag-inducing gummy required.
You with me?
If you rolled up in here tired…
Tired of the noise. Tired of being told becoming bird-boned is inevitable. Tired of getting handed a pink dumbbell and a patronizing little smile, then…
This is your place.
And I mean your place, specifically.
The aforementioned Alexandra Winteraven (they) uses the term feminized bodies. I’m stealing it, because it’s exactly right.
Cis or trans, however you arrived on our wee li’l rock in the vessel you’ve got: if it’s a feminized body, the door is the same (open) and the work is the same (consistent and progressive, not perfect or punishing).
All are welcome here. I mean that.
And here’s what I actually want for you. It’s nothing you have to earn first or wait until you’re 80 to collect: I want you to feel powerful in your own meat suit. Not someday. This summer.
Strong enough to haul your own suitcase into the overhead bin without the little silent panic. The bone density and the thirty-extra-good-years ride along for free, but the feeling shows up first, and the feeling is the point.
What’s inside the Deep Kimchi Training Lab:
Two Day Strong — an evergreen 2x/week progressive strength track. Two real sessions, programmed for you, with actual progression. Start here if a full cycle feels like too much right now. Just because it’s 2x a week doesn’t mean it won’t maintain and grow muscle. Science for the win.
Progressive Hypertrophy Programming - Rotating, muscle growth meso-cycles for when you want more. Your subscription covers it. It adjusts for all abilities and skill levels.
Remember: strength is a skill anyone can cultivate with small, strategic deposits.
The interactive workout app — set and rep logging, deload (recovery) protocol, protein tracking (with a unique GLP-1 mode) built in.
A subscriber chat where I answer training and nutrition questions and post weekly coaching cues.
Here’s my honest case for going paid…
…with no countdown clock or fake discount attached to it: strength gets built on deposits, and the weeks you wait are weeks you don’t get back.
Start today or start in October, the work is identical. October’s just further from strong. (There’s also a secret tucked into the current cycle that we’re building toward in August. Every rep you log between now and then is money in the bank. Do the work now, thank yourself later.)
On the other side of the button below is a coach in your pocket and in your corner who has hot flashes, janky joints and muscle of her own. Not a stopwatch. Not a food shamer. Come build something that won’t gaslight you.
Your subscription also keeps the lights on at Save Our Paws, the Romanian rescue I support that pulls dogs and cats off the kill list and delivers them to forever families. Every paid subscription saves the life of street animals living under cruel conditions.
I will never hand you a pink dumbbell. And I will never shame you for whatever tool you used to start this work. I’ll just hand you the next right thing to do, backed by actual science, built around how a feminized body really puts on muscle after 40 and well beyond.
We are not small men. Quit training like one.
Your sister in strength,
Michelle
P.S. —
The cage you're in isn't locked. Never was. You just got handed a lifetime of reasons not to try the door.
aww — yay! i love knowing peeps came to find you from my share. 💪🏼