I am the woman in the freeweights section of the gym

vicmonster

Great reminder, love it!
I've had to restart stronglifts twice due to major illness and tend to avoid the "boy" section until I work back up to the big plates at home. Gonna hold my head up high and just go in and bench 80lbs next week!

BeanCounter3

Very helpful! I'm there so early in the morning it doesn't matter much, but when I want to go to the gym in the evenings, I find it very intimidating.

JTick

Fab advice for those starting out, and a great reminder for the rest of us!

sijomial

Great post!

I've been strength training since the 1970's and in many ways the freeweights section can still feel like a 70's throwback, except there is now less hair and medallions...

Come on ladies, give it a go - it's really just a room with people lifting up heavy things and putting them down again.

Event_Horizon975

Yep! It took me a while to get over my fear in the free weight area & was embarrassed to ask for help but knowledge truly is power so got some & worked through it.

Before I knew what happened, I found my comfort zone & started showing the boys up! (with proper form THANK YOU!)

fat2strongbeth

Thanks for posting this!

casmithis

Great post but uh... nope, still too scared!! I know, I'm pathetic. I haven't read any of those books. I'll try to grab one this weekend. maybe it will help. Last resort is liquid courage. Haha, kidding.

Mother_Superior

awesome stufff!

cookseymom3

I LOVE this!! I am so intimidated by the free weights in the gym because of walking into the 'man' cave. Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone and giving some tips to overcome my hesitancy.

Sovictorrious

I'm always the only woman in the free-weight section.

Chieflrg

Bumping for my females on my FL.

Go get yours you...

pearlmullet

Awesome. I get tripped up by the little things too, but it definitely gets better. I recently moved from a family-centred YMCA to a bare-bones weight-training focused place. It's definitely more intimidating, but I love it when I do deadlifts because the owner always compliments me for doing deads at all! I just don't see many guys doing them.

cmeiron

Great post! Bumping for my FL

I've been weight training for a year but exclusively at home, until this week, when I made my first foray into a free weight section of the gym. I was the only woman there. It was exhilarating!!! There's nothing to fear.

greenmonstergirl

Bump...sometime soon I will get up the nerve to get over in that area...

dirty_dirty_eater

I love women in the free weight area.
They stink less than the bros do.

juicemoogan

thumbs up!

Event_Horizon975

I LOVE this!! I am so intimidated by the free weights in the gym because of walking into the 'man' cave. Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone and giving some tips to overcome my hesitancy.

I honestly think many of the men, when they first start, feel the same way. People (not just women) tend to be afraid of being judged. You're probably not alone in the way you feel when you're there. Plug those headphones in and go to work! One piece of equipment at a time, even. xo

pandorakick

Hear, hear!

skeo

Bumpitty bump! Love this! ..and it does make me sad some times, when I see that I am the only female in the weight area of the gym. Would LOVE to see more females stroll in and kick *kitten*, instead of hiding against the wall on the cardio machines and crunch stations.:yawn: :frown:

4leighbee

6. Wear whatever you feel comfortable wearing...
...but don't come back here and complain if you're oogled when you're wearing a bra and booty shorts.



lol ... exactly. Great post. I will add that if you saunter into the weights section like you own it in said bra and booty shorts with a gaggle of ladies and laugh and carry on at a volume that forces us to turn up our ipods, you aren't going to make many friends - whether you have a weight belt on or not, lol. We're there to work.

AyeCorona

Just wanted to add that for the first time yesterday there were 2 other women in the weights section at my gym. And we were the only ones actually doing squats and/or deadlifts. Very inspiring!

lilRicki

Most gyms will give you a tour and a quick tutorial on the weights (if you don't know how to snap the weights on or exactly how a machine works). I love working out with the men, they're looking more at themselves and their form then they are at me.

lilawolf

I'm usually the only female in the weights section. I don't mind. Most of the glances I see are appreciative rather than judgmental or creepy. In the last year, I've had one form correction that was very helpful and one "I'm really impressed!" comment when I put the 25s on my bench :blushing: Other than that, I usually just nod at the regulars and quietly go about my business as they go about theirs.

I would also like to add to the list:
The biggest guy in there is also probably the nicest. I've found this in a couple of gyms, though I am sure that it is not universally true. They are the quietest and most likely to be helpful in my experience.

DymonNdaRgh40

Awesome post MoreBean!!!!:flowerforyou:

Hopefully it inspires more women to give the free weights a try.

Pepper2185

So true! Love this post!

BikerGirlElaine

Oh, am I one of only a handful of women in here?? Hmmm, I hadn't noticed. It's really not a big deal, everyone is there to work.

Sarauk2sf

werd!

Dino_bacon2112

I love this post. Honestly, I have gotten more negative comments (ie, one negative comment) from women than men for being in the free weight section. One woman thought she could "save" me from doing deadlifts. Not on your life, honey.

KCoolBeanz

True story! And I love this :flowerforyou:

str8bowbabe

Hello MFPers. I would just like to post about what it is like to be a woman lifting heavy weighs amongst the men, and how you can overcome fears associated with being a lone she-wolf.

1. Yep, it's almost all men.
There's very few gyms where women dominate the weight room. Some gyms have dedicated women's weight rooms, but from what I've seen they have less equipment. No thanks. I want access to every piece of equipment available. Quite frankly, I think dedicated women's weight section do nothing but foster the environment that the regular weight room isn't for women. It's like there is an invisible barrier that you're afraid to cross- don't be. Where I am at now, I can tell you from watching the guys that there's plenty of men that don't know what they're doing and a educated woman who walks in to the weight room has a leg up on an uneducated man.

2. How to get over the initial fear
Start with the book "Starting Strength". If you read that book in it's entirety, you will have the foundational knowledge to lift weights. Period. You can now go in to the weight room and be more knowledgeable than most of the men there. Also, you can read any of the "New Rules of Lifting" books (including but not limited to New Rules for Women). There is no difference between how men should lift versus how women should lift. Once you've started educating yourself, walk in and start giving things a try. If you're worried you won't know how to clip the weights on the bar or other small details (I know I get hung up on the small details myself) just know that after one single day of orienting yourself with the equipment, you'll know. The maximum uncomfortability is one day. Also, you can always post specific (even stupid) questions here on MFP and save a little face if you want to. If you're REALLY worried, hire a trainer for one session just to walk you through the equipment (after you've done your reading, so that you know what you're looking for)

3. Go in with a plan
Don't just go wander around, have a specific plan of attack. Use the NROL or Starting Strength or Stronglifts to plan your program, and every time you walk in the gym you will know what you're going to do in what order. When you start focusing on your program, you'll be less aware of goings on around you.

4. The men will look, and might even make comments. They're not necessarily creepers.
Just accept it, you'll be a novelty and an anomaly. One of the things that happens in the weight room is everyone has downtime between sets, and people watch other people. Men watch other men, they watch women, women watch men- it just happens. It's one of the ways we learn while we're there. They're not necessarily judging you or undressing you, they're just killing time between sets and observing.

For me, I lift a decent amount of weight, sometimes more than some men, and with good form. It's an anomaly. I *frequently* have men come up and say "Your squats are awesome, I can't get close to that low!" or a guy said to me the other day "I'm jealous, you can do more dips than I can". When I started lifting, I thought all these comments were coming from a place of creeping, but I've come to understand that it's just them generally appreciating what I'm doing, and now I graciously accept the compliments and move on. There are some creepers occasionally ("Hey, I have a really good two person ab workout I'd like to show you") but like 95% of the time it's non-creeping compliments. I genuinely really like the compliments now.

In my experience, you get pretty equal respect when you do equal workouts.

5. With equal respect comes equal treatment
You can't have it both ways, if you workout with the guys you're going to be treated like the guys treat each other. Guys aren't going to run over and offer to help you do things, but if you need help don't be afraid to ask a guy to spot your bench presses in between sets. (Don't ever try and talk to someone during a set. Ever.) If you take up a whole bunch of different equipment at one time doing some circuit workout, you'll get exactly the same annoyed reaction as if you were a man doing that exact thing.

6. Wear whatever you feel comfortable wearing...
...but don't come back here and complain if you're oogled when you're wearing a bra and booty shorts.

7. If you just suck it up and walk in with your head high and do your workout today, your fears will be greatly diminished by tomorrow. Just do it.

Bahahaha I work among all men, in a male dominated industry...the gym is a piece of cake...when I seen the topic I thought you were talking about me.