Personal training & Strength Training for women in hitchin
Strength for your body, your life and whatever stage you’re at…
Women's bodies change throughout life, and sometimes what you need from exercise changes with them. You might be returning to exercise after having a baby, navigating perimenopause or menopause, living with endometriosis, noticing changes in your strength or bone health, or simply wanting to feel fitter, stronger and more confident in your body.
At The Ferraro Method, our private personal training studio in Hitchin, we don't believe there's one way women should train.
We start by listening. We get to know what's going on with you, where you're starting from and what you'd actually like to achieve, then build a personalised strength programme around it. Some weeks you'll be ready to push. Other weeks, easing things back might be exactly what you need.
Knowing the difference is where good coaching comes in.
Why strength training matters for women
Weight training isn’t just about lifting heavier weights or changing how you look.
Building and maintaining muscle can support your bones, joints, balance, mobility and everyday strength. It can help you stay active as you get older and make the everyday stuff easier, from carrying children and shopping to gardening, travelling, playing sport or keeping up with the grandkids.
And you absolutely don’t need to consider yourself a “gym person” to benefit from it.
Whether you’re picking up weights for the first time at 25 or starting strength training at 65, we’ll meet you where you are and build from there.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. Strength training becomes particularly valuable as we get older because it helps maintain muscle and strength and supports bone health, balance and everyday physical function. Your programme should still reflect your individual fitness, experience, health and goals.
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Resistance and strength training can be an important part of staying strong and supporting bone health through perimenopause, menopause and beyond. At The Ferraro Method, your programme is personalised and can be adapted around changes in energy, recovery, mobility and how you’re feeling.
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Many women with endometriosis can exercise, but symptoms and individual circumstances vary considerably. We can adapt strength training around how you’re feeling and any advice you’ve received from your healthcare team. If you have concerns about exercising with endometriosis, speak to your GP or specialist before beginning a new programme.
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Absolutely. Many of our clients had little or no strength-training experience before coming to us. We’ll teach you how to perform each movement properly and progress things gradually as your strength and confidence improve.
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No. Strength training can be beneficial throughout adulthood, and starting later in life can still improve strength and physical function. Your starting point simply determines where we begin.
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Yes, once it is appropriate for you to return to exercise. We’ll take into account your recovery, birth experience, current movement and any medical or pelvic-health guidance you’ve received. Where appropriate, we may recommend getting advice from a pelvic health physiotherapist or another healthcare professional before progressing certain exercises
Perimenopause & Menopause Strength Training
Your body is changing. Your training can change with it.
For many women, their 40s and 50s can feel like someone suddenly moved the goalposts. Changes through perimenopause and menopause can affect how you feel, recover and train. You might notice differences in your energy, sleep, strength, body composition, joints, mood or confidence, and the exercise routine you've always relied on might suddenly not feel quite right anymore.
We're also very aware that Andrea, Charlie and Phil are three men talking about women's health. We won't pretend to know exactly what experiencing perimenopause or menopause feels like. What we can do is listen.
We've trained lots of women in Hitchin who are going through this stage of life. We hear their stories and what they're having to navigate. We see the days when they come in feeling great and ready to push, and the days when simply turning up feels like an achievement. That's where knowing the person you're training really matters.
We'll understand what's changed, what's frustrating you and what you want to achieve, then build your training around you. And if what you need from us changes from one week to the next, we can adapt.
Progressive strength and resistance training can be particularly valuable through midlife, helping to maintain muscle and strength while supporting bone health, balance, physical function and long-term health.
But there's another side to it too.
Sometimes the goal isn't a number on the scales. It's feeling strong again. Trusting your body. Having confidence in what it can do.
“I originally wanted help with some health goals... mainly being a woman in my mid-40s, perimenopausal, with a slightly dodgy hypermobile knee that had been causing me ongoing grief. I'll be honest, I'd been put off PT for years after a previous PT experience where I just didn't feel comfortable. Andrea has been the complete opposite. He actually understands my knee, works around it and gives me structured sessions that are building strength and confidence without feeling like I'm about to break myself.
I am definitely not a natural gym loving person, but somehow I actually enjoy my sessions. The biggest thing for me though... I recently went away hiking and didn't have a single pang from my knee. Not one. Which honestly felt like a bit of a miracle. So something is clearly working... and my knee is definitely getting stronger.”
— Female | 45 Year Old ClientReturning to Exercise After Having a Baby
Finding your strength again, whenever you're ready
Having a baby can change your body, your routine and, quite frankly, how much time you have to yourself. And one thing we've learnt from the mums we train is that there's no standard "return to exercise".
We've worked with women who were itching to get moving again, women who felt nervous about what their body could do, and women whose children were several years old before they finally found some time to focus on themselves again.
All of those are perfectly valid places to start.
We hear about the lack of sleep. The juggling. The bodies that feel different. The confidence that's sometimes disappeared along the way. And occasionally just how good it feels to have time that's actually about you.
We'll look at how you're moving now, your strength, previous exercise, any injuries or concerns and what you actually want from training. Then we'll build things up gradually.
The aim isn't to "get your body back". Our 1:1 Personal training will help you feel strong, capable and confident in the body you have now.
The Mums Exercise Club
Every Week Training | Group Sessions £10 per person
The Mums Club came from something we see all the time. Sometimes mums want proper strength training and good coaching, but they also really enjoy being around other women who understand the slightly chaotic reality of getting there in the first place.
Someone's had no sleep. Someone's running late. Someone's telling us what their child did at 3am. And then everyone gets on with some really good training.
That's pretty much the Mums Club.
It's a small-group environment where you can learn to lift, get stronger and be properly coached, without feeling like you've walked into an intimidating gym or that everyone else knows what they're doing except you.
There's encouragement, conversation, probably a fair bit of laughing and a group of women getting stronger together.
You don't need to arrive super fit. You don't need to know your way around a weights room. Just turn up. We'll take it from there.
Personal Training & exercise with Endometriosis
Training that can adapt when your body needs it to
Living with endometriosis can make maintaining a consistent exercise routine difficult. Pain, fatigue and flare-ups don't necessarily care that Tuesday is supposed to be leg day. You might feel ready to train one week and arrive the next knowing your body isn't going to give you the same thing.
We've seen first-hand how frustrating that can be.
Andrea has people very close to him who live with endometriosis, so he's seen outside the gym too just how much it can affect everyday life. The pain, fatigue, unpredictable flare-ups and the frustration of wanting to get on with things when your body has other ideas. That doesn't mean we'll ever pretend to know exactly what it feels like. But it does mean there's a genuine understanding here that sometimes the plan needs to change.
We've had clients arrive wanting to train but needing to completely rethink what we'd planned for that session. Sometimes that's changing an exercise, reducing the load or range of movement, slowing things down or simply having an honest conversation about what feels manageable that day.
That's not a bad session. And it certainly isn't failing. It's us working with the person who's actually walked through the door that day, rather than blindly following what's written on a programme.
Strength training gives us plenty of ways to adapt. We can change load, intensity, exercise selection, range of movement and the overall demands of a session, then build things back up when you're ready. Sometimes adapting is part of progressing.
For women living with endometriosis or other medical conditions, we'll always work within appropriate medical guidance and encourage you to speak to your GP, physiotherapist or specialist where needed.
Women’s Strength Training at Every Age
You're not too old, too unfit or too inexperienced to start
This is something we hear surprisingly often:
"Am I too old to start doing this?"
No.
We've coached women with completely different starting points. Women who've never picked up a weight. Women who've trained for years. Women rebuilding after surgery or injury. Women going through perimenopause and menopause. Women thinking more seriously about their bone health. Women who have simply noticed that things they used to find easy are starting to feel a little harder.
And the reasons they want to get stronger are just as varied.
Sometimes it's wanting to lift heavier in the gym. But often it's much more everyday than that.
Working and juggling family life. Carrying the shopping without thinking about it. Getting up from the floor easily. Gardening without your back complaining afterwards. Feeling steady on your feet. Keeping up with children or grandchildren. Going hiking on holiday. Being able to keep saying yes to the things you enjoy.
That's the kind of strength we're interested in.
Our coaches will meet you at your starting point, teach you properly and progress things when you're ready.
There'll be proper coaching, plenty of encouragement and, because this is The Ferraro Method, probably a bit of banter along the way too.
Why Strength Training Matters for Women
Strength that actually means something outside the gym
When we talk about getting stronger, we're not necessarily talking about how much weight you can put on a bar. For most of the women we train, there's a much bigger reason behind it.
We've heard everything from "I want to stop feeling nervous about my back" and "I want to feel like myself again" to wanting to keep playing sport, feel stronger through menopause, get back to running or simply keep up with the kids.
That's what strength training can give you.
Yes, building and maintaining muscle supports your bones, joints, balance, mobility and physical function. But in real life, that translates into a body that feels more capable of doing the things you ask of it.
And we've watched women who arrived telling us "I'm not a gym person" discover that they actually quite like lifting weights once they're shown what to do and don't feel like everyone is watching them.
You don't have to love gyms. You just might like feeling strong.
Whether you're picking up weights for the first time at 25 or starting at 65, we'll meet you where you are and build from there.
