Showing up and being “consistent” is important; we all know that by now. But for many women in midlife, consistency and just showing up alone aren’t giving them the results they expect.
You might already be showing up for your workouts, tracking them, and feeling like you’re doing everything right, yet the scale refuses to move, your weights feel the same, and any strength improvements feel sluggish.
This disconnect is usually not about whether you are showing up and putting in work or not; it’s more about whether the workouts you’re doing are designed to stimulate real progress. For women over 35, consistency is wonderful and still a requirement, but it goes deeper than that.
Consistency Without Progression Can Stall Results
If you’re showing up with consistency for the same exercises, at the same weights, and for the same reps, week after week, and your body is feeling comfortable with it, then your body has adapted. When a body has adapted to a stimulus, it no longer sends signals that require it to stimulate any kind of growth or change.
While switching up your workouts constantly isn’t a good idea, it’s also not great when your workouts never change - at least if the intensity within those workouts never changes. Your muscles need a reason to grow stronger, and that’s applied through progressive overload. Sure, you can stay fit by staying the same, but you’ll stop improving. This is where so many women start to feel stuck and frustrated in their workout journey, despite the fact that they are showing up consistently.
Effort Isn’t the Same as Effectiveness
You can do a workout that feels really tough and exhausting, but not be effective. You know those heart-pounding, sweat-dripping workouts that leave you feeling totally wiped? Those can be great for your overall health, but they aren’t necessarily driving strength gains or any other meaningful adaptations.
The measure of a workout’s effectiveness comes from intentional, progressive work that challenges the body in ways that it hasn’t fully adapted to yet. This is the point at which women start to realize that more is not necessarily better at this stage of life - a more tailored, scientific approach becomes the key for continuing to drive results and see real strength improvements.
Repetition With Purpose Builds Results (Progressive Overload)
Consistency will always be important and a key determinant of success when it comes to a strength training program, but it matters most when paired with purposeful repetition. Repeating movements over time, increasing the challenge gradually (reps, weight lifted, tempo), and tracking your progress are how muscles actually adapt and grow. This is progressive overload, and women over 35 see much better results when it’s a key factor in their training programs.
Consistency matters most when paired with purposeful repetition. Repeating movements over time, increasing challenge gradually, and tracking progress are how muscles actually adapt and grow. If you want to see legitimate strength improvements and muscle growth (without getting bulky), progressive overload is the way to go.
Plateaus Happen When Consistency Isn’t Paired With Strategy
Many women in midlife experience plateaus, not because they aren’t showing up and they aren’t trying, but because they are showing up for workouts that aren’t progressively overloading their muscles.
Some signs that indicate that you may be plateauing (despite being consistent) include:
- Your strength is staying the same for weeks or even months (no measurable increases)
- Feeling sore and tired but not stronger
- Your energy and motivation are dropping despite doing everything right on paper
In these cases, adding more sessions to your calendar and/or trying to push harder aren’t usually the answer. The answer is to re-evaluate your plan and potentially switch to one that shows you how to train smarter, not just harder.
How to Make Consistency Count
Assuming that you’re already consistent with fitness, let’s turn that consistency into the results you’re seeking by focusing on these three things:
- Progressive overload: This is the gradual increase in the challenge you place on your muscles to keep your body in an adaptive state.
- Repetition with form: Mastering foundational movements consistently to build a strength base safely and efficiently.
- Tracking progress: Tracking your weights, reps, sets, and other measures so that you can see and measure your progress over time. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Tracking and recording your workouts are a must.
Closing Thoughts
Consistency should be the foundation of any exercise program, but in order for it to be effective for the long-term, especially when we’re talking about women in midlife, it must be built on strategy and intentionality first and foremost. This is the combination that helps women over 35 finally break plateaus and start seeing the kind of results that last.
If you have found that the consistency that used to serve you well in your younger years is no longer working for you, I hope this article helped you to re-frame what consistency should look like and how it’s often not enough to just “be consistent” once you get to midlife and beyond.
Consistency is the foundation, but it must be built on strategy and intentionality. That combination is what helps women finally break plateaus and start seeing results that last.
