You Don’t Need to Be Fit to Start

There seems to be an unwritten rule that a lot of women believe when it comes to fitness:

You should get yourself into decent shape before joining a gym.

And some things that we say over and over before actually starting like…

• I’ll start AFTER I lose 10 pounds.
• I’ll start AFTER I walk for a few months,
• I’m going to look up that program that I saw (again) and reach out SOON.
• I’ll definitely sign up next month.

What’s interesting is that we don’t apply this logic to much else in life. 

Nobody expects themselves to become a good cook before taking a cooking class. Nobody believes they need to know how to play tennis before stepping onto a court with a coach. Yet when it comes to fitness, countless women convince themselves that they should already be in shape before they start working on getting in shape.

Somewhere along the way, fitness became something people felt they needed to qualify for.

The reality is much simpler than that.

Fitness isn’t a reward for people who are already healthy. It’s a tool that helps people become healthier.

That distinction matters because it changes how we view the starting line.

Many women spend years looking at the finish line instead.

They focus on where they wish they were rather than where they are. They compare themselves to women who have been exercising consistently for years and assume they’re too far behind. They see someone confidently lifting weights or completing a challenging workout and forget that those women were beginners once, too.

Nobody starts strong.

Nobody starts confident.

Nobody starts knowing exactly what they’re doing.

Every person who has ever built a healthy lifestyle started with a first workout, a first class, or a first uncomfortable step outside their comfort zone.

The women who ultimately succeed aren’t necessarily the most athletic or the most motivated. They’re often the women who stop treating fitness like a test they have to pass before they’re allowed to participate.

Instead, they allow themselves to be beginners.

That’s an important shift because beginners are allowed to ask questions. Beginners are allowed to make mistakes. Beginners are allowed to move more slowly than everyone else. Beginners are allowed to learn.

And learning is exactly what fitness should be.

A good coach doesn’t expect you to walk in already knowing how to exercise.

A good program doesn’t expect you to arrive in peak condition. 

The entire purpose of coaching is to help bridge the gap between where you are today and where you’d like to be.

In fact, some of the most successful members in any gym are the women who started with the greatest doubts. They’re the women who worried they wouldn’t fit in, couldn’t keep up, or were too out of shape to begin. Looking back, most of them eventually realize the thing holding them back wasn’t their fitness level.

It was their belief that they needed to be further along before they started.

The truth is that nobody gets stronger, healthier, or more confident while waiting.

Those things happen through participation.

They happen by showing up to the first class.

They happen by learning a new movement.

They happen by taking small actions repeatedly over time.

If you’re waiting until you’re fit enough to start, there’s a good chance you’re waiting for something that only happens after you begin.

You don’t need to arrive stronger.

You don’t need to arrive lighter.

You don’t need to arrive more confident.

You simply need to arrive.

The rest can be built from there.