Girls who have the guts to lift

JoyElizabeth

If you are really intimidated and can afford it, see if there is a female personal trainer who will work with you. Even if it's just a few times, she will be able to help you find the right weight you should be lifting and will help you with your form and technique. Also, it's another female that will be standing there with you to buffer some of the intimidation.

This is just so true - this was my experience just this morning as I hit the gym for the first time in public with my new trainer!

You see I used to train in the gym when I was 17 and remember being pretty intimidated by the guys there - particularly the ones that were strutting around like roosters and checking out who was looking at them, but I also remember being impressed at the definition of the women, and their confidence just absolutely impressed me (they weren't cocky like the blokes), but they seemed to be just so in charge of their game - I liked that.

Well I've tried to go to the gym a few times since then, but as I got older I always let the intimidation get to me and I'd run back home, even resorting to setting up a full bedroom with my own fully equipped gym. But guess what! It rarely got used except in fits and starts - and mostly it got used as a clothes hanger :-)

I've recently plucked up the courage to have another go for health reasons and I found a lovely little family-run gym that has a very friendly atmosphere and doesn't seem to object to having 40-something women in their midst. That helps. And the people behind the counter are very approachable, are very helpful and supportive, and don't laugh either, and so that helps too.

Then I spoke about my fears on MFP and *Everyone* on here was ever so supportive, and that helped heaps !!!

But still the carpeted lifting area seemed very daunting to me. I would watch in fascination and envy and .... fear & intimidation .... during my own machine workouts - I almost had to physically tell myself to "stop!" thinking like that so that I wouldn't get so afraid. Instead, I listened to the advice of my MFP friends and put on my iPhone headphones and just focused on my machine work till I got comfortable again .... and that helped.

But now I've got a lovely personal trainer called Julie to help me achieve the body sculpting goals I have. We've met a few times so that we got comfortable with each other and what I wanted to achieve, and our first training session was last week at her studio - over an hour's walk away! Now that's just too ridiculous, even for me, and so we arranged to meet at my gym for our first workout session in public. And what do you know! We went straight into the carpeted area - JUST one the very edge.

At first I was feeling very conspicuous, but after she guided me through a few hard super-sets, the least of my problems was who was looking at me and what they were thinking! I did notice a couple of people looking my way as Julie was talking me through it, but I just shifted my focus back to what I was doing with the weights and with my body so that I could get and keep proper form. I also focused on changing my thought process to "They are looking at me because they are so impressed that I am taking this seriously and am trying hard."

As the session progressed I found that we'd moved toward the back of the carpeted area only to find a couple of other women there with their trainers too. And the guys that were there, apart from being outnumbered, were so focused on what they were doing, that even when they looked up and our eyes happened to meet, they simply said g'day, gave me a smile and moved on to what they were doing next. "At least they weren't openly laughing at me", I thought to myself.

The point is that every time I began to feel nervous, I just had to choose to shift my attention back to what I was doing with the lift instead of worrying about what everyone else was thinking - It just showed me that I wasn't concentrating on the right thing.

Funnily enough, by the end of the session, as I walked out through the carpeted area with Julie, I felt a lot more at home than when I first went in there. And because I'd spoken to Julie about my fears, she helped me get over them because she is training me as if I was going into a competition - not that I'm going to do that, but it certainly helped make me feel like a professional and as if I was working out on-purpose. And Julie made sure I didn't have time to laze around in self-consciousness either. So all that helped too.

I'm certainly not through my fears, but I just know that I am on my way to being comfortable in the carpeted area. And just knowing that I have a plan to cope with my fears when I *do* go in there is perhaps the biggest help of all.

I hope that you can gain something from me sharing my experience from this morning, elsewise I've just prattled on and bored everyone to tears, but if nothing else, you can at least know that you are most certainly not in that boat by yourself. And by sharing our experiences through MFP, we can *all* get through the barriers that stop us achieving the bodies of our dreams!

Enjoy your journey.

Kind Regards,

Joy.
:flowerforyou:

millerll

Hi, there! Glad to see you're interested in strength training! I've been lifting free weights for over 30 years and I love it. I got started in high school. My then-boyfriend was a competetive powerlifter and he thought I'd be good at it. He taught me how to lift - and he was right - I was nationally ranked in college.

I am pretty muscular, but that's because I have the body type and metabolism for it. Most women don't get as muscular as I can if I hit it hard. As for getting started, it's OK to ask someone how to do a lift they're doing. Just tell them you're new to it, and most guys will be happy to show you the ropes. Most even get an ego boost out of it! Watch other lifters, and pick out exercises that look like something you'd like to try, then just ask. I do it all the time, and no one's ever turned me down.

As for being laughed at, that won't happen. The only people lifters laugh at are 1) the ones who stand around jaw-jacking and getting in the way; and 2) idiots with horrible form trying to lift WAY too much weight than they can handle and risking injury.

When you lift, do each rep slow - up on a 2 count, and down on a 4 count. Concentrate on proper form, not the amount on the bar. A lift done incorrectly does nothing for you and may hurt you. Better to drop the weight 5 or 10 pounds and do it right. You'll get bettter results and you won't end up in the ER.

Hope this helps. Get out there and go for it! Good luck!

lee112780

Hey! Glad you want to start lifting...I had to stop for awhile, but I'm starting up again. I have also lost more weight when I lifted.
Don't let those guys intimidate you! Use your headphones, and just look like u know what u r doing ; ) The best way to start is to use machines, and you can find lots of work outs in fitness mags like self, ect. Rip out the pages and bring them with u if you want!

StuAblett

I used to do a lot of lifting when I was younger and I'm going to get back into it as well.

I too was really intimidated. I had broken my leg skiing in late November, and I had bought a season's pass, so I was keen to get back on the slopes in January when the cast came off, my doctor told me that I was done for the season, unless I went and lifted some weights and got my strength back, so I joined a gym.

I was very fortunate as the father of the owner of the gym was super helpful and used to be a pro bodybuilder in his youth.

He taught me lots of good habits, the main one was to take you time to learn to do the exercise right, with a light weight, when you could do it right and in control with a light weight, then, and only then should you move to a heavier weight, none of this jerking you body around stuff, use your muscles!! We would start at say 3 sets of 8 reps and then build from there, when we could do 3 sets of 12 reps each, the we could move up the weight, but again, they had to be in control.

We did use machines, but only some, mostly we did free weights, yes they are a bit harder to learn, but I think you get a better workout, as you use all those small auxiliary muscles to keep things in control and balanced.

This book that people are mentioning sounds very interesting, I'll have to check it out!

Just start, find a trainer or read that book or both, but start, strength training is another great way to improve you body and health!

Oh, I just wanted to add, any guy who intimidates you on purpose in a gym is not much of a "Man" in my opinion.

rybo

Back when I was a regular at the gym, it was no big deal to have a girl “work in” on a machine I was using. And to get asked a question or 2 because I looked like I knew what I was doing…even better.
Don’t be afraid girls….or any new person for that matter.

Barneystinson

I recommend "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe. I don't see it brought up very often on these boards, but it's basically a weightlifter's bible.

This along with the New Rules of Lifting for Women, Stumptuous, youtube vidoes, Stronglifts.com, and some of the forums over at SomethingAwful.com have been extremely helpful for me in terms of learning form.

I don't really agree that (Nautilus or other) machines are the best way to go. For one, they're controlling your range of movement. The beauty of free weights is that you're not only lifting the weight, you're working to control your form and posture. Start with dumbbells or a bar without weight added. Or possibly kettlebells. A program like NROLFW or Stronglifts is really great to start with and build upon.

Joyjmb

Totally take a friend! My bf's cousin is an ex-college basketball player who was used to lifting 4x a week. She joined my gym and after our first cardio workout she headed toward 'the basement' - where the weights are. 'What are you doing?' I cautiously asked. 'We gotta go lift.' she simply replied. So, I went with her. She just walked right thru there, grabbed some weights and created a 10x10 area for us to work. We did everything, arms/abs/legs, for almost 45 minutes. The muscleheads just moved around us. We were in! And invincible!