Waiting Until September to Start? Your Body Has Other Plans.

Why Waiting Until You're Less Busy to Get Fit After 40 Doesn't Work

If you're too busy to look after your strength for six months of every year, your body doesn't simply pause until September.

I had a conversation recently with someone thinking about getting started with us at Evolutis.

He knew he needed to work on his strength.

He was conscious of age-related muscle and strength loss. He had some issues with his hips. His job was very sedentary, with a lot of his working day spent sitting down.

There wasn't really any disagreement about whether getting stronger would be good for him.

The issue was when....

His thinking was that March through August tends to be an extremely busy period for him.
So he'd wait until September.

And I completely understood the logic.

But I also had to challenge it.

Because if you're busy from March until August every year, you're effectively deciding that for six or
seven months of every year, working on your physical health gets put to one side.

And after 40, that's not a particularly good long-term strategy.

Your body doesn't know you're busy

This is the part that's easy to overlook.

Your body doesn't know that work is hectic.

It doesn't know that you'll have more time in September.

It doesn't know that you fully intend to get back to looking after yourself when things settle down.
It simply responds to what you repeatedly do.

If most of your working life is spent sitting down and you're not doing anything to maintain or improve your strength, waiting six months doesn't preserve where you are now.

Time keeps moving.

That's particularly important as we get older and maintaining our strength becomes increasingly important.

This doesn't mean you need to suddenly organise your entire life around the gym.
Quite the opposite.

The question is whether you can find a realistic way to make looking after your physical health part of the life you already have.

The real problem isn't always time

This was the interesting part of the conversation.

The more we talked, the more I felt that being busy wasn't really the main issue.

The bigger challenge was changing a routine that had existed for a long time.

And that's understandable.

Most of us become pretty set in our ways.

We have our work routines.

Family routines.

Morning routines.

Evening routines.

There are certain times of the year when we expect to be busy and certain things we've always tended to put on hold as a result.

The difficult bit is accepting that something might now need to change.

Especially when it comes to your health.

At some point, you have to make a decision about where looking after yourself sits on the priority list.

You don't need to find another ten hours

This is where fitness can sometimes feel much bigger than it actually needs to be.

You don't necessarily need to train five or six days a week.

You don't need to completely overhaul your lifestyle.

You don't need your work schedule to suddenly become quiet.

For many busy adults over 40, two or three well-structured training sessions each week can be a very realistic starting point.

That's exactly why our training at Evolutis is built around helping ordinary busy adults train consistently.

We have members from Coolock, Artane, Raheny and surrounding areas who have jobs, children, family commitments and plenty of other demands on their time.

Their lives haven't suddenly become less busy.

They've simply found a way to make training part of the week.

If that's something you're struggling to do, our 6 Week Kickstart is designed to help you get started with the structure and coaching to make training more manageable.

Start by challenging the story you're telling yourself

If you find yourself saying:

"I'll start when work settles down."
"I'll get back to it after the summer."
"I'll have more time in September."

It's worth asking yourself one question.

Is that actually going to solve the problem?

Because if the same busy period happens every year, you'll probably find yourself having the same conversation again next year.

And the year after that.

Instead, look at the week you actually have.

Not the perfect week you'd like to have.

Could you realistically protect two periods each week for training?

Could you sometimes manage a third?

Could those sessions become appointments in your diary rather than something you do if everything else gets finished first?

That's a much more useful place to start.

Fitness after 40 sometimes requires a change in priorities

There's a bigger point here.

As we get older, some of the routines and habits that worked for us previously might need to change.

You might have spent years putting work first.

You might be used to dealing with everyone else's needs before your own.

You might have always thought of exercise as something you'll do when you have spare time.

But if you're already noticing that you're weaker, stiffer or spending far too much of your life sitting down, waiting for spare time isn't much of a plan.

You don't need to become obsessed with fitness.

You don't need to make the gym the centre of your life.

You just need to decide that your physical health deserves a permanent place somewhere within it.

Two or three sessions a week.

Consistently.

Including when you're busy.

Because your body isn't waiting for September.

Ready to stop putting it off?

If you're 40+ and ready to stop putting your physical health off until life gets quieter, apply for our 6 Week Kickstart.

We help adults from Coolock, Artane, Raheny and surrounding areas get started with structured small group personal training in a supportive environment.

The goal isn't to take over your life.

It's to help training become a realistic part of it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is two or three training sessions a week enough after 40?

For many busy adults, two or three consistent sessions each week can be a very realistic approach. The important part is making training something you can maintain rather than repeatedly stopping and starting.

Should I wait until I'm less busy to start training?

If your busy period is temporary, that may seem reasonable. But if being busy is a predictable part of your life every year, waiting doesn't solve the underlying problem. You need a way of training that works during normal life.

What if I have a sedentary job?

That's another reason to think carefully about how much movement and strength work you're getting during the rest of your week. If much of your day is spent sitting down, deliberately making time for your physical health becomes even more important.

What if I've been out of the gym for years?

You don't need to jump straight into an extreme training routine. Start with something realistic, get some structure around your week and focus on building consistency.

Where is Evolutis based?

Evolutis Sport & Fitness is based in Coolock (beside Bargaintown), and we work with adults from Coolock, Artane, Raheny and surrounding areas who want a structured and supportive approach to getting fitter and stronger.