Age Is Just a Number: What Strength Training at 57 Actually Looks Like
EPISODE 05 / KIMBERLY HALL
Most people assume the hard part of a HYROX is the running. Kimberly Hall is a marathoner, so she gets to skip that assumption entirely and go straight to the real answer.
"The sleds. It's the sleds."
She joined for one specific reason
Kimberly joined ISI® Elite Training last December, and she didn't arrive looking for a hobby or a social outlet. She came in with a clear brief for herself.
"One of the reasons why I wanted to join is because I wanted to get stronger. At my age, which is 57, I find that I need to build more strength and I need to do things that can help me physically stay strong."
-KIMBERLY HALL
This is the part a lot of lifelong runners arrive at eventually. Cardio fitness and physical resilience are not the same asset. You can have an excellent aerobic engine and still be losing the strength that keeps you independent, stable, and uninjured later. Kimberly did the math early and acted on it.
She is not solemn about it, either.
"Age is just a number and it's exciting to see what my body can do."
-KIMBERLY HALL
What HYROX looks like from a marathoner's point of view
Kimberly's description of HYROX is blunt. She calls it one of the biggest fitness competitions in the world, and says finishing one takes commitment, determination, willpower, and strength.
The format is eight one kilometer runs alternating with eight workout stations, and most people who hear that immediately fixate on the eight kilometers of running. Kimberly does't, for obvious reasons.
"I know that some people think the running is probably the hardest part, but as a marathoner, actually the running is probably going to be easy for me. It's got to be making sure that I can do the sled pulls and pushes."
-KIMBERLY HALL
Which is a useful thing for anyone reading this to sit with. The race does not reward one quality. It finds whichever one you skipped.
Showing up for work
Kimberly's training philosophy is short enough to fit on a sticky note. Set the goal, understand what completing it requires, and then show up for work.
In practice that means she is at ISI® on leg days and upper body days without negotiation, because strength training is the thing she came for and the thing she cannot replicate alone. The conditioning she handles on her own. The running she handles on her own. The barbell work and the loaded carries are what she shows up for.
That division is worth stealing. Most people outsource the wrong half of their training. They join something for accountability on the cardio they would probably do anyway, and leave the strength work to a vague intention.
Training next to women her age
Ask Kimberly about the people on the turf and she gets specific fast. She likes the coaches. She likes the room. But the thing she names first is seeing women in her own age bracket who are as strong as she is or stronger, doing the work for the same reasons.
"Women who are really putting in the work to get stronger and feel good about ourselves."
-KIMBERLY HALL
Representation is not a soft benefit here. It is a practical one. It is extremely difficult to train for something when you have never seen anyone who looks like you doing it, and extremely straightforward once you have.
The dumbbell swap
Kimberly's favorite detail about the coaching is a small one, and it tells you more about the place than any description of the programming would.
"Sometimes when you get too comfortable in your reps, they may slide you an additional size, and you're like, wait a minute, 15s have been really good for me. Now I'm up to 20."
-KIMBERLY HALL
Nobody announced it. Nobody asked her if she was ready. A coach watched the set, decided she had more, and quietly changed the equation. She loves it.
That is what coached training actually buys you. Left alone, almost all of us will stay at the weight that feels respectable. Progress is mostly other people noticing what you are capable of slightly before you do.
Her answer, in her words
Asked to complete the sentence "ISI® is ___," Kimberly did not hesitate. "A godsend." And when asked why she keeps showing up, the answer came in the present tense, which is the whole point.
"I keep showing up because I am strong."
-KIMBERLY HALL
It is never too late to start, or to start again, and she puts it in four words.
"Just go for it."
-KIMBERLY HALL
Kimberly is the last of five members in this series. Five people, five different reasons for walking in, and not one of them arrived ready.
Strength is trainable at any age
Kimberly started at 56. Find your closest ISI® Elite Training and book a session.