I’m sure we have all had those nightmares, seen the commercials, (or had it happen in real life) you are in a hurry to go to the bathroom rush into a stall do your business come out and you realized the bathroom is filled with men.. Staring at you because you pooched it and ended up in the men’s room instead of the woman’s…
At the time it seems like the most mortifying thing that could ever happen to you and you slink away with hot cheeks and your eyes on the ground. You think there is nothing that could make you feel so embarrassed and self couscous…
Until you walk into the free weight room of a gym
When you walk into most gyms you see the women in the aerobics classes jumping around with their peppy ponytails moving to the beat, or hugged up on the cardio machines for hours at a time. You see all the men grunting all over the weights. You might see a daring women do a few exercises on the machines looking carefully at the pretty pictures that show you how to do each move… they look fleetingly around as they move the pin from the 180lb brick down to 20 and then they proceed to do their exercise without much effort, then they spring up and move along.
Now that I have advanced on my journey of getting fit and healthy it irritates me when I see these women… why aren’t more women lifting weights?? Why do they hug the cardio machines in attempts to get a killer bod when really they are just burning away all of their muscle…
It clicked as I walked into the gym at 3:30pm last Friday.
A woman walking into the free weight room of a gym is comparable to the feeling you get when walking into a male bathroom on accident…you DO get stared at. You feel like a leper as men look at you with strange looks on their faces… what is this a FEMALE in here? Thinking she is going to try to hang with the big boys, pump some iron, or rather some little plastic 3 lb weights pssh please! Ok maybe that’s not what they think but your imagination runs wild as you try to step around the testosterone, water jugs and exercise journals.
I’m no stranger to pumping iron… when I was deployed I went to the gym every day with my buddies and they taught me how to work each muscle group how to use barbells and dumbbells and the equipment without pretty pictures. I was pretty much hooked after that, the feeling you get from finishing a set is amazing, knowing you worked your muscle hard and you are building strength… it has to be the most empowering feeling ever (aside from giving birth).
Why don’t more women pump iron if it makes you feel (and LOOK) so good? Sadly the answer is because in reality it’s still a man’s world and while women have slowly woven our way into “man’s jobs” many women are still made to feel intimidated when trying to break out of the mold.
Case in point walking into the gym at 3:30 last Friday. Not the time I normally go to the gym but the only time I had that day to get in and get it done. Normally when I go there is a good mix, women and men on the cardio machines, and a few men using the free weights. When I walked in Friday afternoon it was 180 degree change…
Not one woman to be seen aside from the woman at the front desk. All men, and they were all buff men that look like they take their weight training very seriously. Not really a big deal to me, “I” take my weight training seriously as well, only difference is I’m still bouncing back from what two glutinous pregnancies had done to my body and they weren’t.
It has been awhile since I had found myself in a situation like that, I usually avoid the peak testosterone gym times ( kind of how women try to avoid walking in the dark after a certain time at night sad but true) so I was a little unprepared to deal with it. But I do what I do best, square my shoulders, lift my head and act like I own the place.
On tap were legs, back, biceps, and abs. I started with legs, and I started lifting like a man. Really I always lift like a “man” which to me means I use heavy weights not the dinky 3lb weights (some women have to start there that’s fine but you also have to remember that most women severely under estimate how much they can lift) but today feeling the eyes burning into the back of my head as I make my rounds on the equipment I let my inner man come thru and decide to show off… and lift even heavier then I normally do. I added 30lbs to my leg presses bringing it up to 200lbs.. I added 10lbs to my leg curls bringing it to 60lbs. I wanted to show them that I belonged there just like they did and I could hold my own!
The two highlights of the workout were
1) when the marine was using the 60lb barbell to do exercises right off the rack instead of moving out of the way and doing them over a bench, he was on the side of the rack with 40lb and up barbells, I needed the 50 to do my bicep curls I stand there staring at him while he does his thing completely oblivious to the fact I was there… He finishes looks up and says oh did you need something? Um yes (muscle head) I need that 50lbs barbell you are standing in front of” “oh” he said looking a bit taken aback
2) When the guy was using 20lb dumbbells to do concentrated bicep curls and I asked him how much longer he was going to be using them so I could do my bicep hammer curls I guess I COULD use the 25lb ones if I HAVE to… I never saw a man drop weights so fast :p
I left the gym with all of my muscles screaming in pain, my legs feeling like they had turned into jello.. granted you should ALWAYS feel like you got a good workout BUT I think I took it to extremes (which I realized as I struggled to walk after I got out of bed the next morning)
The experience left me wondering if the real reason women cling to the cardio machines is because they don’t know any better or is it because they are too intimidated to venture into the male dominated world of lifting weights….
And my question to those that are afraid…
We have dominated almost every field there is, Doctors, military, CEO’s, construction, etc… we have forced our way into the work place, fought for our right to vote, clawed our way into being “equal” in life in general yet we still throw our hands up and run away when it comes to having our best bodies ever… just because its male dominated.
And if you think you will bulk up by lifting weights, I can only say you are wrong and leave it at that, it’s a story (blog) for another time…
Bottom line girls, get off those cardio machines and pick up some dumbbells… and if you need some help you know where to turn ;)
