my Body can : midlife exercise experiments and reflections

When Rest Isn’t Enough I’ve been sick again. Not dramatically sick. Not emergency sick. Just that low grade, lingering, frustrating kind of sick that doesn’t knock you out all at once, but quietly rearranges your days. The kind where you’re technically functioning, but something feels off. For me, that off feeling shows up as disconnection. Because movement, at least the way I experience it, isn’t...

What did I love to do as a kid, purely for the joy of it, that somehow disappeared when movement became serious ? Not productive. Not corrective. Not attached to a goal. This episode, and this piece, came from remembering that movement doesn’t actually have to lead anywhere to be worth doing. It can just exist. It can meet us where we are. It can feel good in the moment and stop there. 💡 Check ou...

I didn’t record this episode while lifting weights or balancing on one foot or stretching my hips on the floor. I recorded it while walking outside in Bilbao, Spain, past a fountain, toward the river, on a break from work. That detail matters. Because this episode wasn’t really about gyms. It was about how my body responds to places, energy, sound, light, expectations, and pressure, and how I’m fi...

Vote for the mBc podcast! We’ve been nominated for a Discover Podcast podcast award in the Health and Fitness category. Hurrah! The Quiet Magic of Healing Sooner ✨ Some weeks feel ordinary on the surface: little routines, little experiments, tiny adjustments that all blend together. Then one small moment reminds me that my Body’s changing in ways I never expected in my fifties. That happened to m...

Season 2: coming on Tuesday! Midlife movement gets real, messy, honest, hopeful. Rebuilding your body in midlife shouldn’t feel impossible. my Body can returns for Season 2 with a weekly look at what it actually feels like to move again after years of injuries, illnesses, and hormonal chaos. Instead of offering polished fitness advice or unrealistic midlife transformations, this podcast documents...

Thirty days. Thirty episodes. Thirty attempts to say out loud what I have been trying to make sense of privately for years. I knew this project would change something, but I didn’t know it would change this much. I didn’t know that simply talking about movement while actually moving would rewire the way I think about my body, my habits, and myself. I’m not exercising while recording this one, not...

There is something I’ve never said out loud before, but it’s been simmering in the background for months. As I rebuild my strength, as I try new routines, and as I settle into this new phase of midlife, I am realizing that my relationships are shifting too. Not because of drama. Simply because my daily habits and priorities have changed so much that some friendships no longer line up with the pers...

Walking has always been my movement home base. Out of every type of movement I have tried in my life, walking is the one that has stayed with me. Through childhood, through illness, through injury, through all the shifts and surprises of midlife. Today I wanted to talk about that. Not the pain, not the diagnoses, not the setbacks, but the thing that has consistently brought me joy.💡 Transcripts,...

I didn’t expect frozen shoulder to shape my entire movement life. But here I am, years later, still noticing the aftershocks in my workouts, my choices, and even my confidence. Today I want to walk through what happened, what I learned, and why this experience affects the way I train now. Before I get into it, if you’re following along with my 30-day podcast challenge, thank you. This project has...

How Strength Training Improved Travel Days I did not expect my travel days to become a marker of progress in my strength journey, but here we are. Today I want to talk about what it actually takes, physically and mentally, to move countries with only a few suitcases and a body that is still learning how to be strong. Hi, I am Steph, creator of My Body Can. I am documenting my midlife strength jour...

I didn’t expect this to be the thing I uncovered during my 30-day movement experiment, but here I am: somewhere between dumbbell reps and editing my own voice for the 25th day in a row, discovering a weird little streak of resentment toward cute workout gear. And the more I heard myself say it, the more I realized I needed to sit with it instead of letting it float by like background noise. → New...

Planning is helpful but proof changes everything. Today I realized something big: I’ve been putting all my exercise plans into Google Calendar and assuming that was enough. It worked beautifully when I only had two workouts to remember, literally two things to track. I would open my calendar, see the workout, tap the link, and do the thing. Super simple. No friction. No thinking. Just show up and...

I didn’t realize how many unspoken rules I had about exercise until I started breaking them. Accidentally at first, then intentionally, and now with a bit of curiosity. For most of my adult life, movement was supposed to look a certain way. Focused. Structured. Contained. Done in a particular room, in a particular order, wearing the “right” clothing, following the “right” exercises, and never—ever...

Today’s episode is a little different. I am deep into this 30 day podcast challenge and while most of this month has been about movement, balance, strength, and navigating my very midlife body, today I needed to step back and look at the bigger picture. One month equals a mindset shift. At least it does for me. It always has. And this year, more than ever, I am noticing the way that daily consiste...

There are days when a single Instagram reel hits harder than any workout ever could. Last night was one of those nights. I was scrolling in that half-distracted, half-exhausted state that often comes at the end of my day when a reel stopped me cold. It was someone talking about endometriosis, not in the usual “here are the symptoms” way but in a “your neuroimmune system might still be affected yea...

I recorded this episode while doing my very first fascia video, which already tells you the mood I was in. I was moving, stretching, wobbling a little, making noises I probably didn’t plan to record, but I felt alive. And in that exact moment, the phrase “just go home and rest” floated into my mind like an annoying ghost. Not because I needed rest. Because I’ve been told that phrase way too many t...

Today surprised me. I didn’t plan anything big; I just pressed play on a fascia movement video on YouTube because fascia has been on my “I want to try this someday” list for ages. Ten minutes in, I was so unexpectedly energized that I started recording this episode while doing the workout . (video sound muted, of course.) I didn’t expect to like it. I didn’t expect it to feel this good. And I defi...

The messy middle of my movement experiment A few weeks into this workout overhaul, I hit a moment where I needed to stop, breathe, and actually look at what I was doing. I had just finished a workout, still sweaty, still energized, and all I could think was: What’s actually working here? And what am I pretending I can keep up with? This whole my Body can project is about the messy parts — the over...

When I chose the phrase my Body can , I thought it was just a motivating name, a reminder that I could rebuild myself after years of illness, injury, and hormonal chaos. I liked the sound of it, the energy of it, the quiet encouragement hidden inside it. But I didn’t think too deeply beyond that. It was a spark I grabbed onto because something in me felt ready to shift. But something’s been naggin...

One thing I’ve learned during this 30-day movement experiment is that the tools I actually use to support my body are not always the ones I expected. They’re not the fancy-looking things you see laid out on Instagram. They’re not the “ideal” gear that signals you’ve achieved some polished level of fitness. My tools are practical and simple. They’re chosen by a body that’s been through illness, inj...

There are so many movement resources online that sometimes choosing a workout feels harder than doing the workout. YouTube, Instagram reels, courses, programs… it all blurs together. But today, while searching for a simple standing stretching video, I noticed something I didn’t expect:I actually have a process for choosing exercise videos. A very loose, intuitive, slightly chaotic process — but a...