The 3 Biggest Fitness Mistakes Women Over 30 Make
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Women over 30, particularly those that aren’t seeing the results they wanted after starting on their fitness journey, have a tendency to make the same mistake. While going to the gym is obviously better than not going, a lot of the progress can be minimized or wiped out, regardless of how hard you’ve been working out. Can you guess what mistake these women are repeatedly making? It’s when they go to the gym without a plan.
It's frustrating to work so hard at the gym and being disciplined with your eating habits, but not seeing the results. On the plus side, you should be comforted to know that to every problem there is a solution — sometimes, the solutions are simple and painless, and at other times, it’s going to take some effort. Today, we’ll be talking about three of the most common mistakes women over 30 make during their fitness journeys that delay or reverse their progress.
Class Hopping Without a Plan
Change is good, but random exercises without a plan are why you’re not reaching your fitness goals. The first step you need to take is to adopt a structured program that you can commit to for at least 8-12 weeks with a specific goal. Going into the gym without a smart strategy is going to have you wandering around, which creates inconsistencies and positive results with only be brief for the newbies.
How can women over 30 spice up their workouts without stalling their progress? If lifting weights is working for you, but you feel like you need something to energize your routine, signing up for classes like spin or pilates can be really helpful. Add the classes you intend to attend into your structured workout routine, and be sure to treat them like you would an important appointment or meeting.
Abs don’t magically turn someone into a good coach. When attending a class, be choosy about the instructors. A lot of people can easily be duped by trainers with amazing physiques or a lot of followers on social media, but this doesn’t always equate to that person being the right coach for you. Look for coaches that fit your style and keep you motivated to work hard and return for the next class, instead of just trying to make you sweat for the sake of sweating.
Failing to Track Progress
Have you ever gone to the store to pick up a certain item, but when you get back to your car, you realized that you didn’t get the item you specifically went to the store to get? This is often what happens when women go to the gym without a structured plan and try to wing it. In most cases, women overtrain one or two muscle groups, and completely ignore the rest of the body, thus creating an imbalance and poor results — you are bound to forget things, so have a workout plan written down.
Fat loss is not the same as weight loss because some of the lost weight could be lost muscle. If losing weight is one of your fitness goals, it’s important that you remember to NOT put all of the importance on the number you see on the scale. The weight scale is just one tool, but it’s not the end all, be all. You also want to keep track of the non-scale wins, like your energy levels throughout the day, sleep quality, and how your clothes are feeling. If you’re feeling great and your clothes are fitting just right, the weight scale shouldn’t even matter.
Are progress pictures good for women over 30? It depends. For some women, being able to see oneself at the start of their fitness journey and comparing it to their pictures taken months later can offer more motivation to continue. However, if you find yourself being overly critical of yourself, taking progress pictures can be more harmful than helpful. Take note of your reactions when looking at weekly or monthly progress pictures, and if you notice an unhealthily judgmental response, it might not be the best strategy for you.
Following Social Media Workouts
You can find thousands of fitness tips at this moment on social media, but is it a good idea to copy them? Sometimes. If you’re a woman over 30 wanting a workout routine that helps her reach her goals, this can be a good way to do it if and only if she has the skill to do said routine. Be honest with your training abilities because, while the influencer demonstrating the workout may be making the workout look simple, this doesn’t always mean it’s going to be that simple for you. Also, remember that most of these posts are highly edited and stylized to boost views, so always take what you see on TikTok and Instagram with a grain of salt.
Lots of likes and followers do not mean someone is a fitness expert. There is a right way and a wrong way to utilize social media in helping you reach your fitness goals. Before blindly copying what you see an influencer do because she has an amazing physique that you desire to get for yourself, this doesn’t always translate into fitness journey success for yourself. Look into an influencer’s profile and check her education level and if she has experience in training someone like you. In many situations, a lot of the influencers with the most followers and virality on social media were able to get there because of their looks and have almost no experience in training clients like you.
It’s okay to make changes to your workouts, but it has to be strategic. One of the most common mistakes women over 30 make when they use social media for workout ideas is when they’re constantly switching their routines. In a 2022 study (Kassiano et al., 2022), researchers looked into whether it’s advantageous or disadvantageous to make frequent changes to one’s exercise selection, in which they found that both can be true.
Essentially, if you’re someone who easily gets bored with doing the same exercises week in and week out, then you could benefit from changing things, but for it to be effective in helping you gain progress, changes have to be carried out with a specific plan and systematized matter that targets what you’re trying to achieve, namely those with similar movement patterns to those that you’re replacing. In other words, carefully choose the exercises that help you reach your specific goals, instead of just going on Tiktok and randomly doing the routine you just saw an influencer demonstrate.
Conclusion
Improving your fitness after 30 is harder, so stop letting people think that you’re crazy, but this doesn’t mean that you’re doomed. On the contrary, you can still get positive results, as long as there’s a strategic process involved. In other words, flippantly jumping from class to class, going to the gym without keeping track of your progress, and constantly changing your workout routine based on what you see on social media, instead of choosing exercises that specifically hit your targeted muscle groups, you’re not going to see the same results as if you had a smart plan that involves consistency.
About the Author
Julio Lopez is a Navy Veteran, former collegiate athlete, and personal trainer with a Master’s degree in Nutrition. He is the founder of 365 Physique Personal Training and Nutrition, where he specializes in helping busy people build a healthy lifestyle into their schedule. You can find Julio training his in-person clients at Versatile Fitness in east El Paso, Texas and sharing practical tips on social media.
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Kassiano, W., Nunes, J. P., Costa, B., Ribeiro, A. S., Schoenfeld, B. J., & Cyrino, E. S. (2022). Does varying resistance exercises promote superior muscle hypertrophy and strength gains? A systematic review. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 36(6), 1753–1762.
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