In this episode of Strength Stories with Ryan Jore, Ryan welcomes Sue Milch and Cindy Newmiller, two longtime members of Granite’s legendary women’s weightlifting group. With 5 and 8 years of consistent training under their belts, Sue and Cindy share how the gym has become more than just a place to get stronger — it’s a lifeline of accountability, friendship, and personal growth.

From navigating divorce to overcoming gym intimidation, these women prove it’s never too late to start lifting, build muscle, and find your tribe.

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What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✅ Why strength training became their go-to for mental and physical health

✅ How group accountability keeps them consistent year after year

✅ The difference between “doing a workout” and knowing how to train

✅ Why protein, planning, and community make long-term success possible

✅ How their views on fitness have changed from the ‘90s to now

✅ What it means to be a beginner at any age — and love it

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💬 Why It Matters

Lifting weights isn’t just about dumbbells and reps — it’s about confidence, consistency, and connection. Sue and Cindy show us how fitness becomes sustainable when it’s fun, social, and tailored to your life stage. Whether you’re starting over, starting fresh, or just curious — this episode is for you.

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📲 Connect with the Host (Ryan Jore):

Instagram: @RyanJorePT

Website: JoreStrengthTraining.com

👉 Enjoying the show? Subscribe, rate, and leave a review wherever you listen!

👉 Follow for more fitness stories and tips: Instagram | Facebook

Ryan Jore 0:15
Hi guys, welcome back to the podcast. Today we have longtime class members, Sue Milch and Cindy Newmiller. Guys, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. So Sue, you’ve been doing the class for five years now, and Cindy, you’re at eight or No, yeah, eight years now, eight. So first question is, who is the real class matriarch?

Unknown Speaker 0:33
Sue, we

Unknown Speaker 0:34
know it’s you like to tell why.

Ryan Jore 0:39
You can elaborate. Yeah,

Speaker 1 0:43
I follow Cindy. Cindy’s always been my person. I go to, and I always wanted to be wanker so, so you’d see, actually, she’s the matriarch. Then, well, to me, she is, yes,

Unknown Speaker 0:55
well, you’re the leader. You’re the true leader.

Ryan Jore 0:58
I say, I feel like the theater club class kind of runs under Sue. It

Unknown Speaker 1:01
does? It does?

Unknown Speaker 1:04
She holds us all accountable for a year.

Ryan Jore 1:06
She does, yeah, and I said, literally, she’s the one who’s got to vote everyone in and let everyone back when they take too long off. And so what made both of you decide that you needed to start lifting weights? Like I said, I know with you, we were coming off of divorce and like, what was it that made you realize, like, I need to start lifting weights?

Speaker 2 1:24
Well, like, say, I was going through a divorce, so I knew I needed to be in the gym for my mental health, but I threw in my name into the into the hat for a trainer, and you were the one, and you started me lifting weights. That was I’d never lifted weights before.

Ryan Jore 1:44
So you used to run, you said at one point, right? I ran, yeah,

Speaker 2 1:49
and I’ve done exercise classes and whatever through the years or whatever, but I’d never lifted weights. So that was the start of me lifting weights. That’s

Ryan Jore 1:58
awesome. That’s been, yeah, almost a decade now, yeah, almost, yeah. And see, I do, I do feel like we should have almost had pat on here as well, because you guys kind of are usually, it’s like, with one usually comes the

Unknown Speaker 2:10
other, but she can’t see that’s true. Because,

Ryan Jore 2:15
I mean, you guys have obviously been at Granite for a long time, the two of you

Speaker 1 2:17
working, well, that’s where we met. We met in the 20 pound challenge, Pat from Jim. Yeah, Pat from Jim. That’s how I got her in. My phone is. So I had had a couple other trainers at Granite that I really liked. Jessica was one, but she left, and then we really didn’t know what to do. We went with another one for a while, and he left. And so we kind of were just doing classes and stuff, which are great. I like them, but I just didn’t feel I was getting the whole effect. Wasn’t losing weight, wasn’t so I’ve always liked to lift weights, but never really knew how exactly what I what day of the week you do your legs, what day you do your arms, what day? So, yeah, so when it

Ryan Jore 3:01
was kind of funny too. And I get this lot from people coming from more of that class background, of like, initially you’re like, you do a set. You’re like, Okay, what I do now it’s like, No, literally, you rest. Like, like,

Speaker 1 3:11
actually, you didn’t rest, yeah, back then, that’s why, I mean, even for me now it’s like, okay, Cindy’s rested for 10 minutes. I’m on one.

Ryan Jore 3:22
I is interesting. Of the idea of, like, it’s, we’ve always been taught that, like, how you got to keep going, going, going. It’s like, No, we’re just gonna work really hard for whatever eight to 10 reps, or whatever it is, it’s like, and then literally, just rest and get

Speaker 1 3:33
ready for the next set. Yeah, that’s, I’m doing better at that. I know, because

Ryan Jore 3:37
you’re not someone that likes to just sit around. No, we kind of had to find you that parking spot on the wall to just like, Okay, I’m just gonna relax your next year.

Speaker 2 3:48
But when I started with you, you started me on weightlifting. And then what was it like a year and a half later that you started the women’s group of the weightlifting so it

Ryan Jore 4:01
was like, what you you Ria, Linda and Jesse, I think, or something somewhere in the wrong. Because I think initially was like, Jesse and RIA wanted to start lifting. Maybe they were 6am it’s been like, seven years now. I can barely remember what the actual

Speaker 2 4:12
start was. So we’re, so did you start the class then with Ryan? Yeah.

Speaker 1 4:17
Oh, okay, so we started, and we were, we weren’t going to stay very long. We’re just going to give it a

Unknown Speaker 4:25
try. So how many years has it been? It’s over five.

Ryan Jore 4:27
Yeah, okay, yeah, it would have been five back in March, because it’s, I think, statute of limitations expired. We can admit kind of what happened during COVID But, yeah, literally, it’s like everything was shut down. Like, eight o’clock. You and Christo would come to my house, like, 905. You and Pat would come from the other side of the house and get your workout in. And, yeah, and then, like Jim started back up. We just kept rolling. And, yeah, yeah, Valerie joined not too long after you guys. And

Unknown Speaker 4:51
also, Valerie’s been

Ryan Jore 4:53
there five years, yeah, okay, it is a group’s pretty consistent, you know, outside of some people who get sick on cruises, apparently. But.

Speaker 1 5:00
Yeah, I would still probably have came to the gym. Well, I mean, Lita, oh yeah,

Ryan Jore 5:08
so and I know, Cindy, you’ve talked about a lot of this, just from just random people I hear you talking to, in general, in class. How does having a group help you, as far as, like, being accountable with your fitness or sticking to it?

Speaker 2 5:20
Oh, it’s everything for me. It’s the socialization, it’s the wrath that I would get from Sue if I don’t show up. No, it, I mean, it’s almost become the most important thing to me is, is coming to the classes is because of the people me too. I don’t ever make up an excuse as to why not to come, even when I’ve out of town or if I can’t make it on my scheduled day. I can’t wait to make the session up to be in there. So, yeah, funny thing, you look forward to it totally, yes, very I mean, I do. I can’t wait from from the weekend, you know, to come in on Monday morning because it’s been since Friday since we’ve all gotten together. Yeah, you

Speaker 1 6:06
got a lot going on, but boy, I tell you same with me. Yep, I just love to go to the

Speaker 2 6:11
gym. I can think of any other class at Granite or whatever that I’ve attended that I can make up every excuse not to go and I don’t go. But this class, I never not attend. What I love too, because

Ryan Jore 6:24
you guys have your consistent groups, because I do see like, each group, like, gets dinners together, breakfast and does all these things. But then you also kind of enjoy when you get to, like, said, you miss, say, a Friday class, and you hop in a random Thursday and you just get to see a whole new group. Yes, hear a whole new thing. And they said, like, all the fives are similar, but, but so different at the same, right? Like, there’s not, there’s not, there’s no mean group or anything like that. But it’s just funny how every group is just such a different atmosphere.

Speaker 2 6:46
It’s really fun to have that different interaction from the different groups that people come in on our class, or that like, you say, like you go into their class and, yeah, I

Ryan Jore 6:54
always hear like, especially the first time someone does like, Sue’s class, I always

Speaker 2 6:59
like, just, there’s a lot of feedback from maybe getting into our class with Sue,

Unknown Speaker 7:04
yeah, we don’t know just anybody, no, but it is. It’s fun.

Ryan Jore 7:08
It’s like, again, like I have people who genuinely look forward to, like, having a travel thing, just because it means they’re gonna hop in a new class and just get to, like, a semi different experience, or just hear new conversations that they don’t hear in their group, and they hear, like, one story that gets told in like, the 6am group, and then it becomes and then it becomes four o’clock and reaches the eight o’clock and just kind of ends up going all the way around. So we go back to how you both talked about how, like, you did more group classes, or you did, like running and stuff like that. So how would you say your idea of fitness has changed now, versus, like, what might have been in, like, the 1990s or something, when there was definitely a different, like, media idea of what, like, what fitness was for women.

Speaker 1 7:45
There’s a lot of jumping around. I know that, and I can’t be doing that again. So it was, it was a whole different thing. You just didn’t know if you were doing things right. And I don’t know, remember those boards you’d jump on and, oh, yeah, yeah, I don’t think I could do those again. Yeah, that’s what’s good with with you, is because it’s individualized. And you know, somebody’s hurting, or somebody’s you’ve always got it picked out. I mean, I’ve been working. I took two days off from my shoulder, yeah? So still, I thought, this is gonna kill me, because I’m not gonna be able to go to the

Ryan Jore 8:25
gym. We’re God, we’ve had, what, three surgeries, I think, at least, since you started doing various things. And

Unknown Speaker 8:31
maybe miss, like, I think it was those jumping around classes.

Ryan Jore 8:35
I mean, honestly, maybe miss, what, 10 classes in five years, very

Speaker 1 8:39
many, because I usually try to make them

Speaker 2 8:42
up. I have, through the years, I’ve had people you know, want to be part of the class. And the first thing they’ll say to me is, well, but I know I can’t come in because you’ve already been doing it for a long time, or you do way more, whatever. And I’ll go, no, no, no, it’s all individualized. He start use, he starts you where, where you need to start. Valerie was one of those. She says, I’d really like to be part of that, but I could never, but know it, we’re all individual training, and I think

Ryan Jore 9:12
it’s honestly one of things I need to do way more of is just showing, like, finding old videos of someone and showing now, or just explaining, like, Hey, this is where this person started, and here’s where they’re right. Because, like, you see someone deadlift, like, you know, Jen Jager did 300 whatever, like, few weeks ago. It’s like, she didn’t start there, you know, but you watch that, you’re like, holy shit, I don’t want to be in that group. Like, that’s really intimidating, exactly. So it’s like, you’re like, okay, yes, you’re you might get there eventually. It’s like, if it’s like, you’re gonna start somewhere totally different,

Speaker 2 9:36
because we’re gonna start based on where you’re supposed to well, and we all each have our individual goals. You know, so then you can customize that whatever. So I think that works out really well, too,

Ryan Jore 9:46
exactly. You’re getting trained for a big, big sheep hunt or whatever. Yeah, yes, it looks a little different. That’s right. So I guess this is very similar question to that. What would you tell someone who’s isn’t. Strength training, or maybe is doing a little bit and just wondering, like, maybe they should be strength training. Like, what would you tell them, as far

Speaker 1 10:05
as starting that journey? I think they need to get a trainer. In the olden days, I remember that you could have a trainer and they would give you a list of things to do and stuff, and you’d go through your list and stuff. But for my knowledge, to go to a gym and start lifting, I wouldn’t even know where to start. So, I mean, everybody starts somewhere.

Unknown Speaker 10:25
Well, we still can’t go to a gym

Unknown Speaker 10:28
by ourselves and do our own stuff. We can’t even do it

Speaker 2 10:32
when he writes it down. We don’t know the names of anything. We don’t know what the weights are, because we don’t pay attention, because we just rely on you. It’s not that we just don’t pay attention. Oh, Ryan will get it. Yeah. It’s even like your grandson,

Ryan Jore 10:44
like, when you when he started, like, we started doing some training, because it’s

Speaker 1 10:48
he had no knowledge, really. He was, well, he had his friend that helped him. But when I think in that generation, like,

Ryan Jore 10:53
they watch stuff on social media and stuff like that, it’s like, you have, like, a base level knowledge, but like, you still don’t know how that all pairs together, right? You might know what a squad is. We’re like, Okay, well, where do you do it, or when do you do it, or how do it, or how many reps, or whatever.

Speaker 1 11:04
Well, they tried to do they had their problem is they do see how heavy they can do it when they’re not ready for that heaviness. Yeah? Shocking that teenage

Ryan Jore 11:10
boys would do, yeah, yes, yeah. I was actually just telling someone there today, like, so when I started lifting in high school, we didn’t have a single teacher that they basically, like our coaches would just say, go lift. They didn’t tell us what that meant. There was no program. We didn’t have YouTube. So basically, my friends that we just, like, fucking maxed our bench five days a week and did shrugs and bicep curls because that’s all we knew how to do. My God, my shoulders would be so much better today if I would have known, like, how to actually strength train and not just, like, max out the same lift five times in a week. And, you know, I literally didn’t do legs until I broke my hand and then it forced me, like, well, we got to do something. So I learned how to squat like, yeah, it’s like, you you just don’t know what you don’t know. Well, back

Speaker 2 11:45
when I started, I didn’t even know anything about weight lifting for women especially. I mean, nobody ever said anything to me that about a woman weight lifting. Now I listen all these podcasts, whatever, and I feel like, oh, geez, I’m a little bit of ahead of the game, because it’s just now become, I think, somewhat in the last probably five years or so, because popular. You know that, or that we’re aware that we should be lifting weights and how important muscle really is so but it’s, yes, I guess, I

Ryan Jore 12:14
mean, there Dennis, you could relate to strength training too. It’s like five years ago they said you could go whole weeks without hearing the word protein, and now you, like, you can write an hour without

Speaker 1 12:22
really, didn’t know what protein really was, you know, until I started my program with you. So

Ryan Jore 12:30
and now you’re a protein machine. Oh, boy. Steven, before us, we were talking about that, like, how you incorporate that more now, because you can’t expand on what you were saying earlier, about just, even just when you go to a restaurant. Now, how different that

Speaker 2 12:45
looks for you, right? I just always make sure that there’s, if I’m a salad eater, I love salad. I could eat it three times a day. So it’s not even about necessarily being healthy or whatever. I just love salads. But I always make sure now that there’s protein in my salad, that there’s meat in it. Where before I really didn’t pay attention. I just looked at what was just a good salad. But now I make sure, and

Ryan Jore 13:07
then you’re shocked when you’re hungry, like an hour and a half later, exactly, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 13:11
So I always make sure that that’s what I look on a menu. Anything that I order has to have protein in it. So,

Ryan Jore 13:20
and that definitely gets easier to like to things you’re starting I was like, you just don’t know what foods have protein or what have carbs. And it’s like, not the you have to memorize everything, but you just start to get a base ID. You can see, like, okay, chicken, turkey, beef, or, you know, whatever, eggs or something. You kind of already have a base idea of, like, you’ve already eliminated half the menu. It just makes your decisions easier, right, right? Okay, what’s going to probably fit my calories? Yeah, I

Speaker 1 13:41
get, I get a lot of my protein in the morning, and then I know how much I’ll need for lunch and how. And it makes it a lot easier. I usually get most of mine in the morning. I think,

Ryan Jore 13:51
I generally think it is easier if you just front load things just kind of like that. There’s just less pressure later

Speaker 1 13:57
in there it is. Get down. This is what then you usually know what you’re going to eat, unless you’re going out or something, I guess. But

Ryan Jore 14:02
well, and sure, and, like, if you’re going out, because, yeah, sometimes maybe you don’t want to have to be like, the biggest protein meal when you’re out with friends, right? Yeah, if you’ve already had like, over half your proteins, like, you can have something that has like, some protein, but you don’t have to make like, this huge decision of something that’s super bland, that’s just for the protein, because I’ve definitely done it. Sometimes you’re like, I’m just gonna have like this plain ass piece of salmon or whatever, because, like, that fits my protein things, even though I want some a little more, like, maybe a burger that have slightly less protein or something. Yeah. So

Speaker 2 14:27
what’s important for me is, is I have to have something in the evening that’s just so important to me, yes. And so my protein is, like, I say, I have a mixture of yogurt with cottage cheese with a scoop of protein powder in it, and then I make, like, chop up an apple or whatever, and maybe even add some walnuts or something. That’s my go to every night, but that’s factored in. Is my protein earlier or, you know, that’s the end of my day. But I put that in at the very first thing, because I’m saving everything for that. Yeah, so and so. I no longer, it’s not like ice cream, because there’s nothing in ice cream, you know? But I love, I mean, that’s just my favorite thing to

Speaker 1 15:13
eat, local berry at night, but I protein in it, yeah?

Unknown Speaker 15:17
Look how we I mean, that’s what we do, is we put

Speaker 3 15:19
that in first thing in the morning, if I, I go buy four or five of them and freeze them. Oh, okay. But that

Ryan Jore 15:23
really is the way to be successful too. Is like, planning on having then you’re not getting to the end of the day and be like, oh shit. Where do I fit this in? It’s like, we’ve already accounted for it, and every other meal now. Can make decisions based off that, right? Yeah, I don’t think I could. I’m not gonna say tainted, but like taint a local berry bullet, like I would just do the protein on the side, like a shot I feel like, and then just have my, oh, but the vanilla protein in there pretty good. Yeah. Like eggnog. I’m like, people that put, like, booze eggnog. I’m like, I want my straight eggnog. I don’t I don’t need the alcohol. Like, just give me my eggnog. So to wrap it up, we have a couple everyone else called these rapid fire questions in podcasts. Expand on these as much you want. They don’t have to be like, a five second answer or whatever. If you need the name of this also let me know. But what is your favorite exercise that you

Speaker 4 16:07
do? As we both roll our eyes exactly what I was expecting. I don’t

Unknown Speaker 16:17
know, really I like them all.

Ryan Jore 16:20
You never complain. There’s

Speaker 3 16:22
no complaints. My favorites, when I can do both arms, yeah? Soon,

Speaker 2 16:27
maybe the monkey bars. For me, that’s your favorite. That should be my favorite one. That’s a good one. Yeah, because it’s Yeah, I like doing the

Ryan Jore 16:33
money. Like, I’ve had so many people like, like, when they’re visiting your guys classes, make comments about that afterwards, like, they’re just so impressed that long on

Speaker 2 16:41
there. I think it reminds me of my being a kid, so that’s why I like to do it. Like, oh my gosh, I did this as a kid.

Ryan Jore 16:49
So then on the opposite side, what’s your least favorite exercise? If you have like, 15, that’s fine.

Unknown Speaker 16:54
Mine is the Versa climber, yeah,

Ryan Jore 16:56
that’s fair, yeah. And I don’t like the step up either, yeah, yeah. That’s that extra favorite machine. The which one I thought you might have said your laptop?

Speaker 1 17:04
Oh, I like that is my favorite. Actually, we got it taken away for a while. It’ll be back. Yeah, that is, and it’s Pat’s least favorite.

Ryan Jore 17:14
Sure, that bodes nothing at all into it being your favorite

Speaker 3 17:16
complaints the whole time. She doesn’t, you know, I never does what she should out of it. Yeah. So, Cindy,

Ryan Jore 17:25
you kind of answered this already, but then my last question is, what’s your favorite protein snack? And yours might be your local berry too, I guess. Well,

Speaker 1 17:31
it kind of is one of my but I I do put that protein in my coffee in the morning, and I just can’t wait to get up and have that cup of coffee. But now I see you’re supposed to drink water before you even have a cup of coffee. That’s the big news. That’s a big thing now, yeah, but I do. I have a half of jar, not a jar, bottle of protein that I put in my coffee in the morning, so that gets me going.

Speaker 2 17:57
That’s, that’s what I switched to. Is instead of, like, cream, or half a half, I use protein, yeah. And I’m like, You, I can go to bed at night waiting, yeah, I get to have my coffee and my Yeah. That

Ryan Jore 18:09
reminds me, because I’m my mom, looks my mom then, yeah, she’s still doing it, and just hearing her tell me that, she’s like, well, you know that Sue just puts protein,

Unknown Speaker 18:18
that’s Sue, that Sue, yeah?

Ryan Jore 18:20
I mean, you just changed your life.

Unknown Speaker 18:22
Well, that’s because sou so inspiration,

Unknown Speaker 18:24
really, yeah, she’s so

Speaker 2 18:27
inspirational in putting your protein in coffee. Yeah,

Ryan Jore 18:30
just changed the game one

Unknown Speaker 18:32
thing at a time, yep, yep. That’s my most favorite.

Ryan Jore 18:35
Awesome you guys. So thank you for coming on and thank you guys for joining us. We’ll see you next time you