Studio · 8 minute read

If lifting weights has always looked like something for other people, we’d love to change your mind. Strength training is one of the best things you can do for your body from your 30s onwards, and your first class is a lot friendlier than you’d expect.

Most people walk into their first strength class feeling a bit out of place. Maybe you’re worried you’ll pick up the wrong thing, or that everyone else knows exactly what they’re doing. Maybe you’ve been telling yourself you’ll start once you’re fitter, once your back settles, once the school holidays are over.

Same, honestly. A beginner class is built for exactly that feeling. You build the strength in the room, so you don’t need to bring any with you.

Why strength is worth your time

From your 30s and 40s, you have to work a bit harder to hold on to muscle, and muscle is what hauls the pram into the boot, protects your joints and gets you up off the floor after a game with the kids. The research on lifting is encouraging. A 2022 review of 16 long-term studies linked muscle-strengthening activity with a 10 to 17% lower risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dying early. The lowest risk showed up at around 30 to 60 minutes a week, which is about one class.

Strength training is also for bodies that people often think are too fragile for it. In the Australian LIFTMOR trial of 101 women after menopause with low bone mass, the group who did supervised strength and impact training twice a week ended up with better bone density in the spine and better everyday function than the group on a gentle home program. They had a coach beside them the whole way. If you’ve been told you have osteoporosis, start with one of our physios, who can build the right program for your bones.

Which class to book

If you’ve never lifted, or it’s been long enough that you’d rather start again, book Strength Foundations. It teaches you how to move before it worries about weight: how to hinge, squat, press and carry. Strength is the next step, with full-body sessions where every level trains in the same room on different weights. And Midlife Strength is designed and run by our physios for women in perimenopause, menopause and beyond.

Not sure which one’s for you? Give the studio a call and we’ll help you pick.

Book Strength Foundations

Before your first class

When you book, tell us about anything on your mind, whether that’s a cranky knee, an old shoulder injury, recent surgery, a health condition or plain old nerves. Your coach will work around it, and there’s a physio down the hall if something needs more than a workaround. If you’re pregnant, start with a pregnancy physio appointment or Prenatal Pilates so your program is built around your pregnancy.

Wear comfortable activewear you can squat in, and runners, and bring a water bottle and a towel. Come 10 minutes early and we’ll show you around and get you set up. Our classes are coached by qualified personal trainers and kept small, so someone’s keeping an eye on your form the whole time.

What you’ll be lifting

Most of what you’ll do comes back to four moves you already do every day. Hinging is picking the shopping bags up off the floor. Squatting is getting up from a chair. Pressing is pushing something up onto a high shelf, and carrying is the kids, the washing basket and everything else. In class you practise them on purpose, using your own body weight, dumbbells, kettlebells and, once you’re ready, a barbell.

How a class runs

Classes are 45 minutes and set up as a circuit. Every coach does it a little differently, but it usually goes something like this:

1. 1Warm-upEasy movement to loosen up, often with a run-through of the moves you’ll be using.
2. 2A look at each stationYour coach walks you through the stations first, maybe a kettlebell squat, a dumbbell press, a row and a carry, and helps you choose a weight for each one.
3. 3The circuitYou work at one station, move to the next, and go around a few times. Everyone’s at their own pace and their own weight, so nobody’s waiting on you.
4. 4Cool-downA slower finish and a stretch before you head off to the school run or home.

Use the little breaks between stations to get your breath back, ask your coach a question, or grab a lighter weight.

How heavy to go, and how it should feel

Your first weights will be light on purpose. The first few weeks are about learning how each move feels, and there’s plenty of time to go heavier.

A good beginner weight is one where the last few reps slow down, but you could still squeeze out two or three more with good form. It takes a while to get a feel for that, which is why your coach chooses your weights with you to begin with. If your technique starts to change just to get the weight up, it’s too heavy for today.

Muscles that burn or shake near the end of a set are working hard, and that’s a good sign. Sharp pain, pain that catches, or pain in an old injury is different, so put the weight down and tell your coach.

Worried about getting bulky? Most of the strength you gain early on comes from your nerves learning to use the muscles you already have. What most people notice first is that everyday things get easier, like getting all the shopping in from the car in one trip or lifting a sleeping toddler without that twinge in your back.

Book a class

The day after (and how often to come)

A day or two later you might feel it walking down the stairs. That’s delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, and it usually starts one to three days after a new workout and settles within five days. A walk and a gentle stretch help. If the pain is sharp and constant, lasts more than a week, comes with a lot of swelling, or your urine is unusually dark, see a doctor that day.

Australia’s guidelines recommend muscle-strengthening activity on 2 or more days a week, and it’s worth giving a muscle group up to 48 hours to recover in between. So two classes a week with a gap between them is a good rhythm to aim for. If one a week is what fits your life right now, start there. Showing up regularly is what makes the difference.

If you’d like numbers to measure your progress against, you can also book a Strength Assessment with one of our physios. It’s completely optional.

The takeaway

You don’t need to be fit, sporty or confident to start strength training. Book Strength Foundations, start light, focus on how each move feels, and come back next week. Stick with it, and you’ll start noticing the everyday stuff, like the stairs with a toddler on your hip, feels easier.