An older woman’s gym manifesto

The gym I go to has words of motivation on the wall, but they’re not aimed at me. So I rewrote them.

Recently, as I watched a young man on an exercise machine doing something awful to his neck, I reflected on the way so many older women assume they’ll be out of place in gyms.

They’re convinced that everyone else in there knows exactly what they’re doing, except them.

It’s not true.

Some do know what they’re doing, but plenty are just trying something from their social media feed, and a decent handful don’t have much clue at all.

As I thought about this, I looked around. It’s no surprise that older women — and men too, for that matter — feel excluded from gyms, given the way they’re presented.

For example, on one wall there’s a larger-than-life image of a heavily muscled young man squatting with a hefty barbell across his shoulders.

Have the marketing folk not noticed that on any given day, half the people exercising around him have grey hair?

Next to him is some inspirational blurb:

Dream.

Make changes, not excuses.

Create your edge and run with it.

Be bold, back yourself.

Take chances.

Don’t mistake setbacks for failure.

Keep moving forward.

Be you. Be free.

I started musing as to what I’d put on the wall of a gym for older women…

Dream.

Think about who you want to be and how you want to live in 5, 10, or 20 years. Exercise can help you avoid walking frames, wheelchairs, and lots of pills.

Make changes, not excuses.

I’d keep that one.

Create your edge and run with it.

Whatever that means.

Be bold, back yourself.

I might keep that too. It takes a level of boldness to get strong as an older woman, but strength gives us confidence.

Take chances.

Probably not in a gym. Learn how to do each exercise and what muscles to use, then pay attention to what you’re doing.

Don’t mistake setbacks for failure.

Another one I’d keep.

Keep moving forward.

Instead, I’d say: Keep turning up. Move forward when you can, work around the setbacks, and remember that something’s always better than nothing.

Be you. Be free.

In a gym? Not sure what that one’s about either.

At this point I realise I’ve interpreted what’s on the wall a tad too literally. Presumably it’s meant as a live life to the fullest kind of statement, rather than something that applies to exercise.

But here’s my older woman’s gym manifesto anyway. I’d like to go to a gym that says something like this on the wall (alongside a giant photo of a beaming old woman lifting decent weights):

Think about who you want to be in 5, 10, or 20 years.

Make changes, not excuses.

Be bold, back yourself, and get strong.

Pay attention to what you’re doing. (It uses your brain, and that’s a good thing.)

Don’t mistake setbacks for failure.

Keep turning up. Move forward when you can, work around the setbacks, and remember that something’s always better than nothing.

Pat yourself on the back and feel proud!