Hi, and welcome.
Here's something that might sound strange for a newsletter about strength and movement: the generation of women before us largely didn't lift a single weight in their lives, and many of them stayed strong and active as they got older.
That's not a contradiction, and it's tied up in why I'm writing this at all.
Last year, I hit a point where work and life just felt relentless, the kind of stretched-thin that creeps up on you until you're running on empty without quite noticing when it started. What pulled me out of it, unexpectedly, was movement, Pilates and running, mostly. Not a dramatic transformation, just noticing that the days I moved my body, I felt more like myself again. Over time, that led me to strength-based Pilates, and that's where I found even more enjoyment and satisfaction. But a different question kept nagging at me: was it enough for the long-term, physical side of things, bone density, real strength, ageing well?
That question turned into curiosity, and the more I read into the actual research on strength and long-term health, the more I realised how much this matters, not just for how we feel day to day, but for the next few decades of our lives. The more I looked, the more scattered and contradictory the information turned out to be: one source telling me to lift heavy, another warning against it, everyone just as certain they were right. It was genuinely hard to know where to even start.
On top of that, the thought of actually stepping into a traditional gym scares me enough that I never really went looking for one. And online, I didn't even know where to start. If you've ever felt a similar way and worried about doing it "wrong," or just not sure you belong at the gym, you're probably not alone, I think it's part of why a lot of us hesitate to start at all. So this newsletter, and eventually, something more, is partly me building the place I wish had existed: a safe, welcoming place for women to invest in their long-term health, without the confusion or judgment.
So, back to our grandmothers. Their daily lives kept them moving in ways ours often don't, walking, standing, carrying, scrubbing, climbing stairs. It wasn't structured training, and it didn't protect everyone from bone or muscle loss, genetics played a role too, but it was real movement most of us don't get built into our days anymore.
Most of us don't live that life anymore. We sit at desks. We drive instead of walk. Washing machines and dishwashers replaced hours of manual labour. None of that is a bad thing. Our daily lives just don't move us the way theirs did.
For a lot of us, there's another layer on top of that too: whether it's paid work, caring for children, running a household, or simply a full and demanding life without any of those, many women carry a heavy, sometimes invisible workload that makes "just add a workout" easier said than done. That's the gap Evessa is here to close.
This isn't about fear, and it isn't about chasing an extreme. It's about restoring something our daily lives used to give us automatically, especially as our bodies change through our 40s, 50s, and beyond. And it's not only physical: exercise has a real, measurable effect on mood and stress, backed by a solid body of research, even though, like most psychology research, it's not perfectly clean or certain.1
More soon.
Next time: why "just find the time to exercise" is easier said than done, and what actually helps when your day is already full.
1 The content in this newsletter is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as personalised medical or fitness advice. It is not a substitute for professional medical guidance. Please consult your doctor or a qualified healthcare professional before starting any new exercise programme, particularly if you have any existing health conditions.