Two to three high-intensity workouts a day were once the norm for Annie Walters. She became a self-described gym rat in the early aughts and, for years, would jump into her day with a morning spin class. The evening would finish with a Pilates or an athletic conditioning session. She’d rinse and repeat this routine five days a week.

When she hit 40, though, that time-tested practice suddenly fell flat. Vigorously exercising up to three hours a day, even while eating nutritious meals and getting good rest, suddenly wasn’t supporting her body in the same way it previously had. Low on energy and stamina, Walters recalls constantly feeling exhausted while trying to stick to her regimen.

After three years of battling her body, she decided to work with it. Now, 46-year-old Walters still moves every day — cycling, playing tennis, taking group fitness classes — just at a lower intensity. Recovery is a bit slower, too. But Walters says that she’s better conditioned today than she was in her hustling era. 

“It was just understanding how [to] listen to your body and adapt and be kind to yourself, in the sense that it's not a failure to not be able to do as much,” Walters, Equinox’s vice president of retail, shares.

Jennifer Freel has tried it all. Over the years, she has tested out group fitness workouts, boot camps, CrossFit, and at-home cycling classes. She became a 200-hour registered yoga teacher and began leading her own classes in 2023. And she briefly worked with an Equinox Coach over Zoom in the early days of the pandemic. 

Then came a series of unfortunate events. She injured her leg — then her back. She had two hand surgeries, then suffered even more back injuries. “I [realized] how much more difficult it is to just recover from something that was seemingly a simple setback injury from my 30s, 40s,” she says. “So I’m 53 and now I also see value in kind of taking the slow route. There's no big fix, and I understand now that you have to be consistent.”

She found consistency with Syndee Luxenberg, a Coach at Equinox Encino, when she rejoined Equinox earlier this year. Rooted in the goal of building muscle mass and supporting bone density, their slow-and-steady training plan paid off: Freel quickly became strong enough to easily lift her senior, 65-pound dog and help her dad move from his wheelchair to his bed.

“Did my waist get smaller? Did my hips get smaller? No, but I am stronger, and I feel much better,” she says. “I look at my body, and it's not the same as it was when I was younger — and I kick myself because I wish I would have, you know, appreciated what I had then. But it's also, like, I'm not mad. I'm not upset about it. I embrace where I'm at right now, because today is the day. You know, every day is your day, and you've got to make the most of it.”