When You Haven’t Exercised for Years
One of the things I hear quite often is, “I need to get a bit fitter before I come to you.”
And my answer is always the same: you don’t.
You don’t need to get fit before you start getting fit. You don’t need to lose weight first, buy expensive gym clothes or suddenly become someone who loves exercising five times a week. You simply need to start where you are.
I think returning to exercise can feel particularly daunting as we get older. Maybe you were really active when you were younger but life got busy. Perhaps you’ve spent years working, bringing up children or looking after other people. Or perhaps exercise has never really been your thing and now, in your 40s, 50s or 60s, you’re beginning to think more seriously about your strength and health.
Walking into a gym when you haven’t exercised for years can feel enormous.
Everyone else seems to know what they’re doing. There are machines everywhere, people lifting weights and lots of terminology you might not understand. It’s very easy to look around and think, I’m the most unfit person here.
But everybody started somewhere.
And you certainly don’t need to do everything on your first day.
In fact, I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is starting too hard. We suddenly decide, “Right, that’s it, I’m getting fit,” and try to change everything overnight. We exercise really hard, ache all over, feel exhausted and then wonder why we don’t want to go back.
I’d much rather you started gently and came back again.
If you can manage 15 minutes, start with 15 minutes. If you can walk comfortably but haven’t done any strength training, let’s start introducing some simple resistance exercises. If getting down onto the floor feels difficult, we don’t have to start on the floor.
We work with the body you have today.
Then we build.
Little by little, you might notice that something that felt difficult a few weeks ago suddenly feels easier. Perhaps you can lift a slightly heavier weight. Maybe you can walk further without getting breathless. Your balance improves. You get out of a chair more easily. You recover more quickly.
Those little changes are incredibly motivating because suddenly you realise your body is responding.
This is one of the reasons I love strength training. Progress can be wonderfully tangible. Something you once couldn’t lift becomes something you can lift, and there’s a lovely moment when you realise, I’m actually getting stronger.
I also think we underestimate how much confidence is involved in becoming fit.
My role as a personal trainer isn’t simply to count repetitions. I want you to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. I want you to learn how to use equipment safely, understand your own body and gradually become confident enough that exercise doesn’t feel mysterious or frightening anymore.
My yoga background influences this enormously. I’m always interested in how someone moves, not simply whether they can complete an exercise. We can work on strength alongside mobility, balance, flexibility and breathing, and we can adapt things when we need to.
And there will be good days and not-so-good days.
Some days you’ll arrive feeling full of energy and we’ll challenge you. Other days you may have slept badly, had a stressful week or simply feel tired. That doesn’t necessarily mean we do nothing. It might mean we adjust.
Learning to listen to your body without automatically giving up is an important part of fitness too.
You don’t have to become an athlete.
You don’t have to love the gym.
You don’t have to look like anybody else.
You just need to give your body the opportunity to become a little stronger than it was yesterday.
And if you haven’t exercised for five, ten or even twenty years, please don’t think you’ve left it too late.
Your starting point is simply that — a starting point.
Start gently. Start imperfectly. Start with ten minutes if that’s what you can manage.
But start.
You might be amazed by what your body can still learn to do.
Selena
Personal Trainer, Yoga Teacher & Wellbeing Coach
In Flow Wellbeing Studio, Cheltenham
