Walking into a gym full of men, weights, and loud music can bring up anxiety and fear in women. Getting injured, embarrassing themselves, and not knowing what to do are all fears I hear a lot when I talk to women about strength training. They know on an intellectual level lifting weights is important and super beneficial at any age, especially after 40, but the thought of actually doing it makes anxiety race through their veins.
There is a way to go from discomfort to comfort in the gym within a reasonable timeframe. This is why women come to me for help. It’s my jam. I was one of those women several years ago and now I’m super comfortable around workout equipment. In fact, working with women in my boutique fitness studio is one of my happy places. It’s empowering to watch a woman transform not just her body but her mindset and attitude towards lifting weights. It’s fun to see her confidence grow with each movement and stretch her comfort zone.
Today I’m sharing my top three tips to get comfortable with strength training in the gym.
Work With a Personal Trainer
Just to clarify upfront, I’m not talking about getting a fitness app that will program workouts for you. While these are great, an app can’t hold you accountable or check your form to make sure you’re doing the movements safely. Working with a personal trainer in person is the best way to get support when beginning a strength routine when you’re new to pushing around weight. Or even if you could use a refresher because you’re in a different season of life.
For example, if you’re pregnant you may want to learn how to strength train while keeping you and your baby safe. If you’re postnatal, you may want a strength training plan that slowly eases you back into your pre-pregnancy fitness routine. If you’re in perimenopause and experiencing joint pain, trouble sleeping, mood swings, and lack of motivation to workout, having the accountability of a trainer to help you create a strength routine for your midlife body might be the safest way to get started.
I have personally worked with personal trainers in the past and it’s been super helpful. My hubby and I did a training session with a trainer to help us refine our skills with a few movements. As two people who geek out on fitness and are pretty knowledgeable about the body, it was super helpful to have someone look at our form and give us cues on how it could be better. We also joined a CrossFit gym and had a certified CrossFit coach make sure we were doing the movements safely to avoid injuries and get the most out of the movement.
A highly qualified trainer will create a progression plan that’s tailored to your abilities and goals. When I’m working with a client, I create a workout template for her sessions and then make adjustments as needed. Sometimes we stick to the planned workout while other days if she’s not feeling well because of menstrual cramps, fatigue, muscle soreness, or joint pain we do a totally different workout. I’m always prepared to help her get the most out of our workout session together no matter how she’s feeling so she can maintain consistency and continue making progress.
Start with Light Weights
It’s important to know what your fitness level is before you begin a workout routine. You need to know where you’re starting so you can map out a strategy to get to your end goal. By the way, your goal might change as you go which is totally normal. Most of the women I work with start with a goal of simply getting comfortable with weights. We do less weight and more repetitions to slowly push their comfort zone. After they start to feel more comfortable, she’ll choose a goal that’s a bit more of a stretch. Or she’ll set a goal and realize it’s too much or she’s not willing to work towards it.
Once you have a starting point, the main focus is getting your form correct. In my professional opinion, this is best done with light weight to not only prevent injury but increase your confidence in the beginning. Celebrating your wins from the very beginning is a key component of finding success. After a few sessions or when you’re ready, you can begin increasing your weight in small increments.
Effective strength routines always have a progress plan in place. As you get stronger and your muscles grow, they want to be challenged in one form or another. It doesn’t have to always be lifting heavier. It can be increasing the number of sets and reps or doing more complex movements depending on your goal.
I get excited when my clients are ready to move on to the next level with their routine. This means the workouts we’re co-creating are not only helping them physically become stronger, but also mentally. This is the time when the fear and anxiety around being in the gym really start to fade and they begin to exude confidence from the inside out.
Create a Consistency Plan
The best way to get good at something is to practice it and keep practicing it until you feel like you’ve mastered it. Consistency is key to honing in on a new (or old) skill. Creating a plan to do at least 1-2 strength workouts for the first week is a great starting point. I encourage my clients to start with two 1:1 personal training sessions a week in my fitness studio. We don’t go super hard during the sessions in the beginning. The first few weeks are all about getting in to the rhythm of carving out time to workout.
To be honest, this is one of the benefits of working with a personal trainer like myself. All my clients pay for their sessions in advance which is an incentive to show up for their training sessions. Of course, I do have some flexibility with rescheduling and canceling sessions but it has to be at least 24 hours in advance. This is to protect my time but I’ve also found that it encourages clients to show up for their sessions even when they don’t “feel like it.”
Doing something for at least five minutes when you’re not in the mood or feeling blah will help you maintain consistency. It’s okay not to be totally into every workout. Sometimes I start an intense workout and after about five minutes I transition into a lighter workout if I’m really not feeling it because of fatigue, menstrual cramps, or muscle soreness. Listening to your body is a key component to maintaining consistency, believe it or not. If you go hard all the time even when you’re sore, you’re more likely to throw in the towel one day and call it quits when your body is wrecked.
The lesson here is consistency doesn’t mean intense workouts all the time. It means creating a strength routine that helps you make progress even on the days your body’s not up to it. The best part is you get to decide what progress looks like for you. It’s all relative to your values, lifestyle, and abilities. You have the freedom to create a progress plan that fits into your life.
Are you ready to explore what a strength routine looks like for you? My Strength Training the Woman’s Way workshop is a gentle introduction to lifting weights with empowerment. See what’s included in the workshop here.