The Greatest Challenges Women Face When They Start Working Out (and how to overcome them!)
Ladies, let’s face it – in this society that’s built to impose norms on you, doing what you love and enjoy often ends up being difficult, overwhelming, and sometimes even painful.
Look how easy it has become for society to influence our decisions – if you’re a beginner in the gym, even a remark or question from a friend can stress you, put you inside your head, and make you doubt yourself and the journey you started.
When a woman enters the fitness community, she enters it with the desire to become a better version of herself, and more and more women are turning to the weight room instead of yoga or aerobic classes – and that’s a beautiful thing.
Working out doesn’t only help us reach our body’s full potential and look the best we could. In the gym, we also learn how to overcome obstacles and plateaus, and develop the mental resilience to break through the walls of society’s norms!
Honestly, nothing feels more rewarding than growing past your obstacles on the way to your journey’s pinnacle.
But some of the obstacles you face when you first enter the gym are going to be deadly – and if you don’t know what you’re dealing with, you’ll end up immediately sending yourself back to the comfort of aerobics class and low-intensity cardio sessions.
The worst thing about being new at something is that you don’t even know what you’re doing wrong. And without knowing what the obstacle is, you can’t even hope to overcome it!
That’s why if you’re determined to get the body you want, you’re going to need some help along the way.
Today, we’re going to talk about the four biggest problems women face when they start their fitness journey.
We’re also going to take a look at the quick fixes you need in order to overcome these challenges, so you can lose the stress and be well on your way to bringing sexy back!
Let’s get started.
Problem 1: Not knowing where to start.
Solution: Set a goal and start mastering the basics.
If you don’t know where to begin, you’ve already begun.
We all know exercise has a ton of benefits. From fat loss and shredded abs to healthy hearts – there are plenty of logical reasons why everyone in the world should be exercising.
However, none of these are actually going to get you in the gym if you haven’t first figured out your personal motivation.
For some people, their motivation is to be better looking. For others, it’s the ability to run for miles and not get winded. And for some, it’s the feeling of getting up on the stage and winning a competition.
Motivation is only going to come as a byproduct of your vision or goal.
The vision you have for yourself in the future – one in which you’ve already achieved what you’re now setting out to achieve. This vision is going to be your motivation. If you’re new to the gym, imagine yourself reaching your full potential. How do you look? How do you feel? Describe it in as much detail as possible, and you’ll have no problem motivating yourself whenever you want to.
Take this vision you have for yourself, put a deadline on it, and boom, you’ve just set your goal.
And once you’ve set a goal, you can really get to work!
The whole problem with “not knowing where to start” isn’t that you lack information – it’s that you have so much of it that you’re overwhelmed by it.
When you’re new to the fitness community, the best advice anyone can give you in regards to achieving your goal is to stick to the basics.
With all the hype around weight lifting, everything has been made overly complicated and fancy. The truth is, beginners only need to focus on the high-quality basics if they want to build a solid foundation.
Take your goal, break it down into smaller ones, and start building up momentum. If your goal is to build strength and endurance, you should first focus on mastering basic exercises like the squat and the deadlift. If your goal is to lose weight, you should focus your attention on HIIT training, and tracking your macros.
Beauty lies in simplicity – and so do results. Therefore the best way to start your fitness journey is to find your “why,” set a goal, and then begin mastering the basics!
* Most gyms nowadays host introduction sessions with personal trainers, and they can get you acquainted with proper exercises, form, and technique if you tell them what your goal or routine is. Never be afraid to ask for guidance – everyone is usually very helpful.
Problem 2: Avoiding Weightlifting
Solution: Realize that no routine is complete without strength training.
Believe it or not, a lot of women still disregard all the benefits of strength training because of their fear of turning into the Incredible Hulk.
Social media has conditioned us to think that weights are the enemy, but in reality, your exercise routine would be incomplete if it didn’t include any resistance training!
Not only does weightlifting make our muscles and bones stronger, but it also provides us with a metabolic boost that lets us burn fat for hours after a workout!
In terms of our overall health, strength training helps us lose more weight, develop better posture, build core strength, and have better control of our body awareness.
But whether it’s in bodybuilding – where the goal is aesthetics, or in strength training – where the goal is to get stronger, the major misconception remains among most women in the community!
But let me tell you – the idea that you’re going to be gaining pounds and pounds of muscle just because you’re suddenly lifting weights is nothing but a delusion.
In reality, people who lift are generally leaner. Strength, conditioning, and nutrition experts all agree on this.
So grab those dumbbells, and let’s get to sculpting ourselves lean!
Problem 3: Undereating
Solution: Reverse-dieting and tracking macros.
Within the female fitness community, where the majority of the focus goes towards getting smaller and leaner, undereating is a topic that doesn’t get talked about enough.
To make that worse, a lot of the crazy diets floating around the mainstream have women consuming an extremely low amount of calories every day!
More and more women are also skipping out on meat, dairy, and other forms of complete protein due to their health choices.
To top that off, the media is always debating on whether carbs or fats are worse for our diets, essentially making water the only healthy choice left.
If your body is used to low-calorie diets, you’re probably coming into the gym with imbalanced hormones and low energy reserves.
So if you’re serious about making results, a reverse-diet is a must!
It doesn’t matter if you want to gain or lose weight. If you’re going to be exercising, your body is going to need more energy than usual.
Focusing on whole foods, complete proteins, slow-digesting carbohydrates, and healthy fats will help your body build up the nutrition it needs to grow in strength and endurance!
Start tracking the calories you consume every day. Slowly start limiting the number of processed foods in your diet, and start adding healthier alternatives. Add 100-200 calories to your daily intake every week until you reach a sustainable baseline.
And if you feel like tracking your diet is confusing or unnecessary, you can always hire a coach or dietologist that will help you with your reverse-dieting efforts!
Problem 4: Feeling Self-Conscious or Anxious
Solution: Focus on your body, not your surroundings. Listen to music. Work out with a friend. Realize that nobody was born with abs.
Picture your most muscular guy friend doing yoga – that’s kind of like how you feel in the weight room!
The gym is no stranger to making people feel self-conscious. It’s an environment where you’re supposed to focus on yourself and your form while you hear countless people talking, machines clanking, and weights slamming on the ground.
And with all the dumbbells, barbells, and heavy machines laying around, it’s understandable why a lot of gals feel intimidated when they first walk in.
But even though you have all this built up anxiety about looking inexperienced, or people staring at you, I promise you – all the angst, stress, and pressure in you are completely made up.
Everyone who has ever stepped foot in a gym has felt “out of place” the first time they were there.
If you’re a complete gym newb, you can’t expect to immediately tie your hair into a ponytail and start squatting 45s. It’s only natural that you feel a little uncomfortable.
But the only way you’re going to get the confidence you need to go… is by going!
When you’ve spent some time in the gym, you naturally get used to the atmosphere.
The only reason you’re getting self-conscious is that you’re letting your mind wander around, and you’re not focusing your attention on your next rep, set, or exercise.
That’s why gym regulars who follow routines just get in, finish their workout, and get out… because they’re focused on their body instead of their surroundings. And even those who have made fitness a lifestyle sometimes feel stress – so they bring a friend when they work out (or the next best thing, a pair of headphones).
Everyone in the gym is just like you – they just want to work out and better themselves.
Don’t let your self-consciousness get in the way of you achieving what you want. Don’t let little insecurities and temporary roadblocks keep you from living a prosperous, healthy life.
So don’t hesitate – get in there and do your thing!
To conclude…
Any of these sound familiar?
To me, all of them do.
In my experience, these are a few of the most dangerous roadblocks that come in front of a lady when she enters the fitness world.
But these roadblocks are different than injuries or plateaus.
They’re obstacles that keep you from unleashing both your physical and mental potential.
And while it’s true that going to the gym can be confusing and overwhelming at first…
You now know everything you need to know to eradicate these obstacles and start your journey toward a new, healthier, and better you!
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