Returning To Fitness After 40: What Really Works
By Liz Marsland, LMFIT | Sports Science Graduate & Personal Trainer with 20+ Years Experience
There’s a particular kind of motivation that arrives in your forties. In my experience, reflecting from my own perspective, as well as listening to my clients, this usually comes from the realisation that our bodies & lifestyles have not been serving our bodies so well for the most recent chapter. Moreover, our bodies are no longer able to withstand high levels of stress and still bounce back like it used to.
We tend to notice this at a time of injury, illness, or general awareness over time that we are not performing the way we used to.
We spend some years trying to find ways of helping our bodies push through the way it used to.. and eventually.. we realise it cannot. So, we start to seek for new ways. This is where I come in!
After two decades of coaching women and men through exactly this - the false starts, the setbacks, the eventual breakthroughs - here’s what I know actually works.
1. Ditch the “all or nothing” approach immediately
The number one reason people over 40 fall off exercise programmes is that they start too hard, too fast, feel wrecked, and conclude that exercise doesn’t work for them anymore.
It does. You just need a different entry point.
Your first two to four weeks should feel almost embarrassingly manageable. If you’re finishing sessions thinking “I could have done more,” that’s a good sign - not a failure. The goal in the early weeks isn’t fitness. It’s building the habit infrastructure that fitness will later sit on.
Three sessions a week, 30–40 minutes, leaving something in the tank. That’s your launch pad.
2. Strength training is non-negotiable - especially now
If you’ve been avoiding weights because you think they’re not for you, or because cardio feels more virtuous, this is the most important thing I’ll say: muscle mass declines from your mid-thirties onwards, and resistance training is the most effective tool we have to counter that.
This isn’t about aesthetics (though most people like how it makes them look and feel). It’s about:
Metabolism - muscle is metabolically active tissue. More of it means a more efficient system overall.
Bone density - critical for women approaching and post-menopause.
Joint stability - reducing injury risk across everything else you do.
Functional strength - carrying, lifting, climbing stairs, playing sport. Life things.
You don’t need to lift heavy from day one. You need to lift consistently, with good form, and gradually increase the challenge over time. Two to three sessions of structured strength work per week is enough to make a meaningful difference.
3. Your recovery is part of your training
In your twenties, you could bash out a tough session, sleep badly, eat whatever, and bounce back. That elasticity changes.
Recovery - real recovery - becomes part of the programme, not a luxury added to it. This means:
Sleep. Non-negotiable. Seven to nine hours is where muscle repair, hormone regulation, and cortisol management actually happen. You cannot out-train poor sleep.
Protein. Most women especially are significantly under-eating protein. Aim for around 1.6–2g per kg of bodyweight if you’re exercising regularly. Prioritise it at breakfast, when people tend to fall short.
Rest days. Not wasted days. Days where adaptation happens.
Stress. High chronic stress (cortisol) actively works against training progress. This is worth taking seriously - especially if you’re piling exercise on top of an already demanding life and wondering why you feel worse.
4. Posture and mobility aren’t extras - they’re foundations
Most people who come back to exercise in their forties have spent years at a desk, in a car, on a sofa. Their hips are tight, their thoracic spine is stiff, their glutes have gone on holiday.
Training on top of dysfunction just reinforces it, and usually leads to injury.
Ten minutes of mobility work - hips, thoracic spine, ankles - before a session changes everything. It improves the quality of every movement you do and significantly reduces the risk of the tweaks and niggles that derail progress.
If you’re dealing with a specific issue - a bad back, a shoulder that’s been grumbling for years, post-surgery rehab - that needs individual attention before you throw a generic programme at it. Get assessed. Address it. Then build.
5. Consistency beats intensity every single time
I’ll say this clearly: a moderately challenging workout done three times a week for six months will transform you. An intense programme done for three weeks and then abandoned will not.
The people I’ve seen make the most dramatic changes over the course of a year are rarely the ones who trained the hardest. They’re the ones who showed up regularly, adjusted when life got in the way, and kept the bar for “a good session” realistic enough that they always cleared it.
Progress is cumulative. It compounds. But only if you’re there for long enough to let it.
6. Find something you don’t hate
Fitness culture has a tendency to push one “correct” way to exercise. The truth is, the best programme is the one you’ll actually do.
Do you love being outside? Trail running, cycling, outdoor circuits. Do you prefer being in a group? Classes, small group training. Do you want something efficient and private? A well-structured one-to-one programme.
The format matters less than the consistency. Enjoyment drives consistency. So find what you genuinely don’t dread - ideally something you actually look forward to - and build there.
7. Track progress beyond the scales
Weight is one data point among many, and often not the most useful one - especially if you’re building muscle while losing fat (the scales can stay stubbornly still while your body composition improves significantly).
Better measures of progress:
How you feel climbing stairs or carrying shopping
Sleep quality and energy levels
Strength benchmarks - how much you can lift, for how many reps
How your clothes fit
Consistency (sessions per week, weeks per month)
Mood and stress resilience
Progress is happening in more places than the scales can see. Track the whole picture.
The honest summary
Returning to exercise after 40 is genuinely one of the best investments you can make in the next decade of your life. The research on this is emphatic - regular strength training and cardiovascular exercise in midlife is associated with better cognitive function, lower rates of chronic disease, improved mood, and significantly better quality of life as you age.
But it requires approaching your body with some respect for where it is right now, not where it was. It requires patience that the younger version of you probably didn’t need. And it requires building habits, not just chasing results.
You have time. You have more capacity than you think. And you don’t have to figure it out alone.
Liz Marsland is a Sports Science graduate and personal trainer with over 20 years of coaching experience, specialising in women’s fitness, over-35s, posture and injury rehabilitation, and corporate wellbeing. LMFIT operates across London and online.