At LOKfit, we ask all our Members to tune in to how they are feeling at the beginning of their training session. It’s a way for us to switch their busy minds to just focus on the hour ahead while assessing their current state of stress. We know how they show up on the day will not only affect their performance in the gym but their recovery after.
Exercise is a positive form of stress. It’s what makes us stronger and ultimately more resilient to stress. We don’t want to discourage women from doing challenging workouts, but we need them to be aware it will add to their load.
The problem isn’t stress itself. The problem is when your body never gets the opportunity to recover from it. For many women, that’s exactly what’s happening.
They arrive at the gym already carrying the weight of a demanding career, family responsibilities, poor sleep, an endless to-do list and the mental load of keeping everything running.
Then they wonder why their body isn’t responding in the way they’d hoped or even worse getting injured.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. And it starts with understanding one simple concept.
Your Body Is Constantly Gathering Information
Every minute of every day, your brain is receiving information about what’s happening inside and around your body.
Have you slept well?
Have you eaten enough?
Are you hydrated?
Have you exercised?
Are you under pressure at work?
Are you feeling anxious?
Your nervous system takes all of these signals into account before deciding how your body should respond.
It isn’t only looking at your workout. It’s looking at the whole picture.
That’s why someone who is sleeping well, recovering properly and managing their stress often responds very differently to the exact same training programme as someone who’s constantly exhausted and overwhelmed.
Stress Comes in Many Forms
When we hear the word “stress”, most of us think about emotional stress. A difficult meeting. An argument. Financial worries. Trying to juggle work and family life. But from a physiological perspective, your body is responding to many different types of demand.
Some examples include:
- Strength training
- Poor sleep
- Under-fuelling
- Long working hours
- Illness
- Menopause
- Excessive cardio
- Dehydration
None of these are inherently “bad”. In fact, strength training is one of the best things you can do for your health.
The key is balance.
Stress only becomes a problem when the total load outweighs your body’s ability to recover.
Imagine Your Body Has a Stress Bucket
This is one of the simplest ways to understand why progress sometimes stalls.
Imagine your body has a bucket. Every challenge you face adds a little more to it. A poor night’s sleep. Another cup of coffee because you’re exhausted. A busy commute. Skipping lunch. Back-to-back meetings. An intense workout. An evening spent replying to emails. Looking after children. Caring for ageing parents.
None of these things on their own are necessarily harmful. But together?
Your bucket begins to overflow. When that happens consistently, recovery becomes much harder.
Why Recovery Starts to Suffer
Your body is incredibly clever. Its first priority isn’t helping you lose body fat. It’s keeping you functioning.
If you’re constantly asking it to deal with one demand after another, it naturally prioritises the systems that help you cope in the short term.
This can leave you feeling:
- Constantly tired
- Wired but exhausted
- Hungrier than usual
- Less motivated to exercise
- Slower to recover after training
- More prone to aches and niggles
Many women also notice changes in their body composition, typically storing fat around their middle. Not because they’re suddenly doing everything wrong. But because recovery has quietly become the limiting factor.
Coping Isn’t the Same as Recovering
One thing we hear a lot is: “I’m coping.”
And often they are. Women are incredibly resilient. They continue showing up for work. Looking after everyone else. Getting through each day. Training when they can. Ticking everything off the list.
But coping isn’t the same as recovering. Recovery is when your nervous system gets an opportunity to slow down. It’s when your muscles repair after training. It’s when your brain processes the day. It’s when your body begins adapting to all the positive work you’re doing. If you’re constantly coping, recovery never really catches up.
More Isn’t Always Better
When progress slows, the instinct is often to do more. Another class. More cardio. Less food. More supplements. Track everything. Optimise everything.
But that’s often like pressing harder on the accelerator when the fuel tank is nearly empty. At LOKfit, we’re much more interested in asking a different question.
What does your body need right now?
Sometimes it needs challenge. Sometimes it needs the kindness of rest. Taking the time to listen to your body is what will make the difference.
Why This Matters Even More During Perimenopause
As women move through perimenopause and menopause, hormonal fluctuations make us even more sensitive to stress. Cortisol (aka our stress hormone) is dominating and means our recovery needs increase further. Our body struggles to regulate blood sugar like it used to and our muscle mass and bone density loss is accelerated.
This doesn’t mean your body is working against you. It simply means your approach needs to evolve. Trying to train the way you did at 25 will no longer give you the results you want at 45.
Instead, success comes from combining smart training with good nutrition, adequate recovery and more realistic expectations.
The LOKfit Approach
At LOKfit, we coach women – not workouts. That means we don’t just ask: “What did you train today?”
We also ask:
How are you sleeping?
How’s your energy?
How stressed are you feeling?
Are you eating enough protein?
Have you recovered from your last session?
Because those answers matter just as much as the weight on the bar.
Our programmes are built around three pillars:
- Strength Training: Building muscle to mitigate its loss, support metabolism, bone health and confidence.
- Nutrition: Fuelling your body so it can recover, adapt and thrive.
- Lifestyle: Supporting sleep, stress management and recovery so your hard work actually pays off.
When all three pillars work together, that’s when real progress happens.
The Bottom Line
Your body isn’t only responding to what happens during your workout. It’s responding to everything that happens before it, after it and in between.
If you’ve been feeling frustrated because you’re doing everything “right” but still not seeing the results you expected, don’t immediately assume you need to work harder.
Ask yourself a different question.
How much stress is my body carrying, and how well am I recovering from it?
Often, that’s where the biggest opportunity for change lies. At LOKfit, we help women build stronger bodies by looking at the whole picture – not just the hour they spend in the gym.
Because lasting results don’t come from simply training harder. They come from training smarter, recovering well and giving your body the support it needs to thrive.