Straight Up Strong

The Straight Up Strong Monthly Membership Provides Structured and Convenient Strength Workouts & Community Connection for Women 40+

The Straight Up Strong Experience

Our WORKOUTS are thoughtfully designed to progress you with your strength goals!

Coach Tina & Coach Michelle put their expertise to work for you by integrating the science of strength programming with the compassion of knowing that YOU are busy and require flexibility & variation when it comes to staying consistent.

The BEST plan is the one that can be implemented CONSISTENTLY and that means providing you the structure of an organized, progressed workout program AND the autonomy to be able to modify when needed: shift workouts around in the week and swap out/in exercises within a workout.

All workouts are designed for the convenience of being able to be accessed at home with dumbbells and resistance loops. The workout can also be done in a gym, if available.

Straight Up Strong is designed to support women who have strength trained before and have a basic foundation and understanding of exercise movement patterns (squat, hinge, push, pull, lunge, carry) and are seeking a well designed program to provide structure for their strength workouts to get the strength and muscle building results they are seeking.

The workouts are organized into 12 week cycles (called macro cycles) with an overarching theme/goal /outcome such as strength endurance, hypertrophy, power, etc that is then broken into two, six week cycles of progressive training within the larger 12 week cycle.

The Straight Up Strong workout program:

  • 3 strength workouts a week, programmed for Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, that will be completed for 6 weeks

  • Workouts are 45-60 minutes in length depending on how many sets you complete and your needed rest throughout the workout.

  • Two, six week mini-cycles that are intentionally programmed to compliment each other to build towards the larger 12 week week theme/goal

  • 1-2 optional suggested cardio based workouts a week.

  • All workouts include a suggested warm up and cool down, explanation of the workout, video demos of the exercises, suggested exercise variations you can swap within the workout, ability to shift workouts throughout the week to best meet your needs that week.

  • Intentional “deload” weeks at weeks 6 and 12 to support physical recovery and mindset/motivation to workout.

  • Only equipment needed: dumbbells, resistance loops, and your body!

  • This group programming/workouts is designed for folks who identify as intermediate-beginners or intermediate experienced with strength training who are seeking evidence based, quality dumbbell based strength workouts and programming that can be done at home with the guidance of two highly qualified personal trainers to support their getting strong AF.

    • If you are a beginner, please join our waitlist for Fitness Academy for Beginners Here!

    • If you require more customization due to injuries or very specific goals or specialized needs, please reach out to Coach Michelle and/or Coach Tina to discuss their availability and options for customized 1:1 remote coaching. Email us at Coach@straightupstrong.com

    Our COMMUNITY is focused on connection with other Women 40+

    The Straight Up Strong community is built right into the app. No need to go to Facebook or another “community” app to be able to connect with your friends who are doing the same program as you AND both your coaches, Michelle and Tina!

    This is the place to ask questions, share videos of your exercises to ask for feedback, share successes and more!

    Coach Tina and Coach Michelle also offer coaching such as tips and suggestions and feedback within the community.

    Everything You Need to Be Successful is Built Within our App

  • See your workouts for the week, past workouts completed, and all of your completed workout stats in one convenient place within the app

  • Community connection in the community forum within the app - no need to go to a facebook group.

  • Option to add additional activities you do to compliment your strength training to your workout calendar! Add in your daily walk, spin class, yoga practice and more.

  • Weekly check in form to share your success from the week, questions and goals for the week.

  • Connect Apple health or Fitbit to the app.

  • Track your sleep, steps, and hydration.

  • We do not ask you for your weight or for progress pictures! While we respect your autonomy to track these for yourselves and/or to seek intentional weight loss and / or body recomposition, these are not the driving objectives of Straight Up Strong.

Join Us in our Straight Up Strong Community!

You know that exercise is good for you. You know that strength training will help build and maintain your bone density and muscle mass which is critical for independence and quality of life as we age. You know that cardio activity bolsters us against heart and lung disease; but even women with the knowledge and experience lifting weights can struggle with finding motivation, staying consistent, and finding workouts and programs that truly understand where they are at and what will support them with being successful.

In Straight Up Strong we understand that women, especially women over 40, are busy and often find themselves putting the needs of everyone around them first, which makes it hard to find the time and the energy to implement a strength routine consistently. 

  • You might be raising children AND taking care of aging parents.  

  • You might be navigating exciting but stressful and time consuming career opportunities.  

  • You might be stuck in a cycle of diet programs that have left you spinning your wheels wondering, what’s the point?  

  • You might have had a negative experience at a gym that leaves you feeling anxious with going to the gym at all, let alone the free weight area.

  • You might have aches and pains or a history of injury(ies) that you have been cleared for by your doctor but are hesitant to strength train because of fear of pain.

  • You might have a whole area in your house with exercise equipment, but it’s gathering dust as you just don’t have the energy to decide WHAT to do for a workout

  • You might have been away from working out for a long time and feeling embarrassed or that it’s too late to go back.

  • You might have been an athlete when you were younger but don’t know how strength fits in your adult life.

  • You might be in a cycle of wanting to be able to physically keep up with your kids/grandkids like hiking, swimming, running, but spend most of your time doing things for your kids/grandkids like driving them to their recreational activities, school, friends’ houses.

If you resonate with any of the above, come join us in Straight Up Strong!

FAQs

  • At least 2 sets of dumbbells and/or kettlebells: a light/moderate set and a moderate heavy set. As you get stronger, having access to a variety of weights will allow you to keep progressing!

    A bench or sturdy surface for exercises like step-ups

    Set of resistance loops

    Set of longer resistance bands

    Exercise sliders or something that can safely slide on your flooring surface

    Optional: exercise ball

  • Yes. This is where your workouts are delivered and how to access the community and coaches

  • No. The programming and workouts are designed for folks who identify as being intermediate level experienced with the basics and foundations of strength training movement patterns.

    If you are a beginner, please join the waitlist for Fitness Academy for Beginners

  • No. This is group programming, meaning it is designed for overall strength and hypertrophy for many folks.

    While exercise variations are provided in the workouts, the workouts are specifically deigned or customized based on the specific needs of each participant.

    If you are seeking highly customized workouts and coaching, please email us at coach@straightupstrong.com to discuss options with Coach Tina and/or coach Michelle.

  • Nope! The mission of Straight Up Strong is to provide you with high quality, evidence based strength workouts that can done utilizing dumbbells at home or the gym. This is a membership for folks who have the foundations of strength training but are seeking community, engagement and well designed workouts to support them reaching their goals.

    While we believe in your autonomy to seek intentional weight loss, this is not a focus in Straight Up Strong.

    We will never ask you for weigh ins, measurements, or progress pictures; however, if this is something you like to do for yourself, please do!

  • There is no meal plan, however, Coach Michelle is a certifed NASM Nutrion Coach and Certified Precision Nutrition Level 1 Coach. She loves to offer support with nutrition, especially in relation to strength training!

    Questions about food and nutrition can be asked in the Straight Up Strong Community forum. For more individualized nutrition support, sessions can be scheduled at Michelle@michellefarrellcoaching.com

  • The monthly membership is ju $79 a month for the workouts, the community and access Coaches Michelle an Tina in the group from!

    You can cancel anytime (no minimum amount of Tim to join) - just inform us by the 5th of the month that you would like cancel the next month and no problem!

    You DO lose access to to workouts and the community and the app when you cancel.

I’m your Coach, Michelle!

Michelle Farrell, Masters of Education, NASM CPT, Certified Pre/Post Natal Coach, PN Level 1, NASM Nutrition Coach, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, 200 Hour Yoga Instructor Certified

Michelle thrives on supporting folk with finding joy in fitness, food, and their bodies. 

Fed up with extreme and unsustainable fitness programs and unsatisfying, restrictive meal plans marketed at people’s insecurities and leaving them floundering on a hamster wheel of yo-yo dieting, she is dedicated to supporting her clients with transitioning to sustainable lifestyle habits. 

Although many clients lose weight, build muscle and reach aesthetic goals that they have set for themselves, Michelle’s focus is on the actual behaviors and habits that make us feel good and making mindset shifts from those that that have been drilled into our heads about the how our bodies should look and the extreme measures we should go to achieve that to getting to the nitty gritty of our whys for wanting weight loss and aesthetic changes, making peace with our bodies and ourselves, and finding joy in our movement and food.  

I'm your coach, Tina.

Tina Tang, CPT-NASM, RKC kettlebells, SFL StrongFirst Barbell, pre & post natal, TRX certifed

I got into fitness super late…age 42!  Before that, I was a Wall Street trader, jewelry designer/business owner. 

At age 40, I went through some unplanned life changes — a difficult divorce and the post financial crisis economy that pushed me to close my jewelry stores.

During that crappy time and for the first time in my life, I turned to working out as my dependable constant. I was going to the gym and taking strength group fitness classes. 

That was my FIRST foray into strength training.
In the pursuit of self enrichment, I signed up for an intensive personal training course.  That was the start of my deep dive into strength training and my passion to help other midlife women.

Over the past 9 years, I've coached over 3,700 sessions, training female clients to their first push ups, pulls ups and compound barbell lifts. Strength is my chosen specialty.

I am a fit at 52 coach and I guide women 40+ to mastering their bodies & strength, Through my one on one coaching and my online group fitness classes, I train women over 40 and teach them how to take control of their bodies by getting stronger and training consistently.