What I Would Do If Starting to Workout After 30

There’s no question that you’re no longer the same as when you were in your 20s. Nowadays, you’re falling asleep as soon as you hit the couch after work, soreness is now the norm, and your kid just told you he has to do a science project that’s due tomorrow! Back in your 20s, late night fast-food, no sleep, and skipping workouts were never a problem because you were able to rebound, effortlessly. Since you now have way more responsibilities from your career and having kids, this comes with having less free time and much more stress. Life has changed for you, and it’s time you accept you have to change your approach to fitness.

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Having been a personal trainer for over a decade, I’ve worked with a bunch of clients who come with the same issue. As someone who’s 43, myself, I have first-hand knowledge of what it’s like for folks in their 30s and 40s that want to know how they can get in shape when they don’t have a lot of free time, so here’s exactly what I would do if I were starting my fitness journey at this point in my life.

Trying to Train Like a 20-Year Old

When you’re already a busy person in your 30s or 40s, stop thinking that working out more is automatically going to mean better results; unfortunately, I see this all the time. At this stage, you’re already tired because of work and being a good parent, so trying to train at “beast mode” levels, all the time, is going to wear you out even more, and it’s often what leads to inconsistency and eventually quitting on a workout program. What I would do is to construct a training program that emphasizes the exercises that yield the best results. That said, make sure you set a clear goal for yourself and schedule two or three workouts each week on your calendar, while treating each like an important meeting that you cannot skip.

Are you the kind of person that’s always looking to feel exhausted after a workout? If so, stop! Most doctors, chiropractors, and physical therapists who specialize in sports injuries make most of their money off 30- and 40-year olds who try training too hard at the gym. While it, admittedly, feels great to push yourself and be drenched in sweat, doing this all the time increases the chances of injury. A smart training plan is one that builds up your body, instead of focusing so much on tearing it down. This means workouts that progressively increase in intensity (record your progress in a training log to make this process simpler) and give your body the opportunity to recover — this is why I like having my clients come to train three times a week (i.e. Monday, Wednesday, Friday) because it gives them a chance to recuperate.

Social media can be a great source for offering ideas to energize your workouts, but you still have to be smart about it. While in your 30s and 40s, don’t try comparing yourself to young influencers, as this often leads to more frustration, impatience, and burnout. When I’m constructing my clients’ training plans, I’m always cognizant of their stages in life, goals, and limitations (like training experience and past injuries), then putting together challenging workouts that best produce the results they want without having them do exercises that are too advanced or use too much weight. Focus on yourself, instead of others, and know your limitations.

Focus on Nutrition

Two things about Americans is that we love good food and we love having lots of it; unfortunately, that’s pretty much the reason almost 7 out of 10 Americans are overweight or obese. A lot of folks in their 30s and 40s that workout make the same mistake of thinking that junk food is earned because they trained hard. It’s great that you had a good workout, but diving right into a bag of chips or making a pit stop at the drive-thru, literally, cancels out your progress. With my personal training clients, I teach them to focus more on balancing consistent exercise and good eating habits, while allowing for flexibility with a cheat meal every 7-14 days.

If I was to start my fitness journey as a 30- or 40-year old, I’d stop waiting to be “motivated” to eat healthy and simply start TODAY! Think of it this way, if you’re waiting on motivation to eat healthy, so you can kickstart your healthy lifestyle, do you honestly anticipate feeling that motivated to carry on for several months? This is the exact conversation I once had with a client before she started training with me. In the real world, to make progress in reaching your fitness goals, you have to build on nutrition habits that you can stick with for the long term, even when work and home life has gone berserk.

Liquid calories and mindless snacking are the silent, yet devastating, saboteurs of fitness goals for those of us in our 30 and 40s, so one of the most important things I would do if I were just starting my fitness journey is to keep a food diary. This is, actually, one of the most eye-opening tasks I give to my new clients because they never before realized how many extra calories they’ve been inadvertently adding to their daily intake since they’re mostly focused on their full meals and blind to the little snacks they consume in passing. Try out keeping a food diary, either in a notebook or using an app, like MyFitnessPal or FatSecret, and track everything you eat and drink, while being completely honest.

Training Around Your Schedule

The most common reason why folks have trouble with working out on a consistent basis is their lack of time. With my online clients, who don’t have a predetermined set time for their workouts like my in-person clients, we take a good look at creating flexible training options into their schedules that functions around their work schedule, errands, and family responsibilities. For their super busy days, I have a set of shortened workouts that they can do in 20-30 minutes, some that can be done at the gym and others to be done at home. The key is establishing consistency and getting as close as possible to eliminating any opening for excuses to skip a workout.

Setting specific days and times for workouts on my calendar is one of the first things I would do if I was just getting started in my fitness journey after turning 30. However, it’s one thing to include workouts in your schedule, but it’s another thing how seriously you take these sessions. As I tell my clients, the only way you can be sure to make progress in reaching your goals is to schedule the training where it still fits around work, family, and other obligations, and making sure they learn to prioritize fitness and healthy eating without it taking over their lives.

If you think the only way to get in shape is to spend hours and hours at the gym, that’s not true. When you’re a busy person, that’s never going to be possible, so if you’re just getting started with your fitness journey, focus on maximizing efficiency and keeping workouts between 30-45 minutes. What I do with my clients is utilize compound exercises that hit a number of muscles, instead of just targeting one, thus reducing the training time; for example, the barbell squat works the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and groin muscle, which would be four different exercises if you isolated each one, individually. Essentially, fewer exercises on your training plan while hitting more muscle groups, ultimately this means spending less time in the gym!

Conclusion

Busy people in their 30s and 40s don’t have the freedom to spend nearly as much time in the gym as most of the young fitness influencers you see on TikTok and Instagram, meaning that trying to copy their workout routines is not going to benefit you. This is precisely why, as a 43-year old, myself, if I was just getting underway with my fitness journey, I would start with a smart training program that takes into account my goals, experience, and limitations; having a nutrition plan that I like and has the flexibility to adjust to real world events; and finding the best way to fit this into my schedule. Nobody ever said that being a busy professional was going to be easy, but this also doesn’t mean that having a lot of responsibilities at work and home dooms you to poor health.

If you want to know the easiest way to get started with your fitness journey, sign up for my FREE 5-Day Fitness Reset email course by CLICKING HERE.

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.