10 Mistakes Women Make in the Gym

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Replies

  • Myhaloslipped
    Myhaloslipped Posts: 4,317 Member
    I know what you're saying Brower, but "slut" is a term aimed at women and it is intended to shame. What is the equivalent term for a man with multiple sexual partners, perceived or actual? "Stud" for one.

    There is absolutely no reason why words like this should be tolerated.

    I call my male friends sluts all of the time. Pretty sure the writer was just using the term to describe the nature of someone's relationship with particular forms of exercise. It is certainly an eyecatcher that draws attention to the article. I do agree that the way it was written was a bit raw and abrasive, but the points were definitely made clearly.
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    We'll agree to differ. I think language is powerful. For example, the use of the word "boy" to describe a black man. Discriminatory language is pervasive and damaging if left unchallenged.
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    Bump to come back later when I have more time to comment. But I will say that I almost shut down completely as soon as the article referenced "Skinny Fat". This idiotic phrase is one of my pet peeves! And I find it very difficult to take anyone seriously who uses it.
    im not a huge fan of the term either considering is a pretty big oxymoron, but it really is the best way to describe someone who has alot of fat and little muscle[

    "Skinny Fat" suggests that someone who chooses to focus on Cardio, which is ok btw, is somehow less than acceptable than those who choose to lift.

    Different people have different plans--whatever works for them, but they don't needed to be labeled. No one calls lifters "buff-fat" if they have some extra weight on them.
    NO, it is someone who appears thin but has a high level of bodyfat. And "bulky' and "fatceps" are used to describe lifters with extra pudge.
    agreed.

    also another term for this is built-fat. i hear it get used all the time
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    I know what you're saying Brower, but "slut" is a term aimed at women and it is intended to shame. What is the equivalent term for a man with multiple sexual partners, perceived or actual? "Stud" for one.

    There is absolutely no reason why words like this should be tolerated.

    I call my male friends sluts all of the time. Pretty sure the writer was just using the term to describe the nature of someone's relationship with particular forms of exercise. It is certainly an eyecatcher that draws attention to the article. I do agree that the way it was written was a bit raw and abrasive, but the points were definitely made clearly.

    Yeah, the writing style was not so great to me.

    But, that aside, while I do very much dislike people calling women sluts due to their sexuality. I am not against the word as a whole. I mean, sometimes I call myself a slut, as a way to disable the intended meaning of the word, like poking fun at the word or simply saying that what people consider bad (slutty) is not bad. I don't see an issue with using the word, as long as it is not used to insult women for their sexuality or blame them for sexual assault. The word exists, so why not reclaim it.
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    "I don't see an issue with using the word, as long as it is not used to insult women for their sexuality or blame them for sexual assault."

    In an article entitled "10 Mistakes Women Make..."!
  • KeyCat43
    KeyCat43 Posts: 39 Member
    Interesting, thanks for sharing!
  • brower47
    brower47 Posts: 16,356 Member
    I know what you're saying Brower, but "slut" is a term aimed at women and it is intended to shame. What is the equivalent term for a man with multiple sexual partners, perceived or actual? "Stud" for one.

    There is absolutely no reason why words like this should be tolerated.

    I call my male friends sluts all of the time. Pretty sure the writer was just using the term to describe the nature of someone's relationship with particular forms of exercise. It is certainly an eyecatcher that draws attention to the article. I do agree that the way it was written was a bit raw and abrasive, but the points were definitely made clearly.

    Yeah, the writing style was not so great to me.

    But, that aside, while I do very much dislike people calling women sluts due to their sexuality. I am not against the word as a whole. I mean, sometimes I call myself a slut, as a way to disable the intended meaning of the word, like poking fun at the word or simply saying that what people consider bad (slutty) is not bad. I don't see an issue with using the word, as long as it is not used to insult women for their sexuality or blame them for sexual assault.

    All of this.
    We'll agree to differ. I think language is powerful. For example, the use of the word "boy" to describe a black man. Discriminatory language is pervasive and damaging if left unchallenged.

    We just have a fundamental difference of opinion. A lot of words have had the derogatory meaning marginalized when the people it's used against adopt it into their own vernacular. I do it with slut and redneck (I was born in WY and now live in rural CO). There are other examples. Words can be powerful but that power can be eroded. I like eroding powerful negative words rather than letting them fester and grow into something more.

    ETA:
    "I don't see an issue with using the word, as long as it is not used to insult women for their sexuality or blame them for sexual assault."

    In an article entitled "10 Mistakes Women Make..."!

    It wasn't being used in the sexual sense at all, so it wasn't being used to insult women for their sexuality. It was also used to describe men in the article in the exact same way.
  • firstsip
    firstsip Posts: 8,399 Member
    I know what you're saying Brower, but "slut" is a term aimed at women and it is intended to shame. What is the equivalent term for a man with multiple sexual partners, perceived or actual? "Stud" for one.

    There is absolutely no reason why words like this should be tolerated.

    I see what you're saying, but to be fair, the article didn't just say "slut"--it specifically said "workout slut." While I'm not a fan of the article, the singular use of the word slut combined with "workout" very much makes this about something outside of sex, particularly when the paragraph goes on to say that being a workout slut is even more common among men. Sort of like when people colloquially use "shoe *kitten*" to denote their shopping habits, etc. etc. It's, more or less, a colloquial appropriation of the word.

    I'm a huge, huge proponent of watching our words and understanding the power they have, but this might not be the right battlezone for the argument you're trying to make.
  • thickerella
    thickerella Posts: 154 Member
    "It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. "

    Is THIS part true?
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    I know what you're saying Brower, but "slut" is a term aimed at women and it is intended to shame. What is the equivalent term for a man with multiple sexual partners, perceived or actual? "Stud" for one.

    There is absolutely no reason why words like this should be tolerated.

    I see what you're saying, but to be fair, the article didn't just say "slut"--it specifically said "workout slut." While I'm not a fan of the article, the singular use of the word slut combined with "workout" very much makes this about something outside of sex, particularly when the paragraph goes on to say that being a workout slut is even more common among men. Sort of like when people colloquially use "shoe *kitten*" to denote their shopping habits, etc. etc. It's, more or less, a colloquial appropriation of the word.

    I'm a huge, huge proponent of watching our words and understanding the power they have, but this might not be the right battlezone for the argument you're trying to make.

    Yeah, I agree. We do need to pick our battles effectively.
  • logg1e
    logg1e Posts: 1,208 Member
    I've stated my point and I've read with interest and respect other people's thoughts.

    I agree that there is an argument for minority groups to take back derogatory terms. So I guess that means the author is a woman, writing for female readers.
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    "It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. "

    Is THIS part true?

    We should eat all of our daily calories in that hour after lifting, then!
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
    "It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. "

    Is THIS part true?

    We should eat all of our daily calories in that hour after lifting, then!

    That's another thing that doesn't make much sense.
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    Great article. Thanks for posting it. I must admit when I walk into the weight room at the gym I feel completely lost. I pretty much just stick to the weight machines because the free weights and weight bars/benches kind of intimidate me. Especially because that's what all the "big dudes" use and I'm not really sure what to do with them. I have no goals for the weight room and I'm not even sure what would be reasonable goals for me to set in there. I've been using the weight machines on and off for years and never really feel like they're doing much of anything for me and I just recently found out that I have in fact lost some muscle. When I worked with a trainer in the past he had me doing the weight machines as well and when he did have me doing dumbbells they were always the lighter ones. He always told me lighter weights and more reps. I need to find a trainer who will work with me on the "big boy" stuff and will actually challenge me and push me and teach me so then I can learn to do it on my own.

    Some good books to get into heavy lifting are "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe and "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" by Lou Sculer. As for the big guys, just go in there and do your workout and don't worry about them. A lot of the good lifters are actually nice and helpful if asked.
  • MissHolidayGolightly
    MissHolidayGolightly Posts: 857 Member
    "It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. "

    Is THIS part true?

    We should eat all of our daily calories in that hour after lifting, then!

    That's another thing that doesn't make much sense.

    I think he just grossly oversimplified. I know after you workout, your body continues the burn for a period of time. For anerobic exercise like lifting, that period is longer and more intense than after doing aerobic exercise like steady state cardio. So you can and should eat after lifting to aid in recovery rather than produce fat. This is only to an extent though. If you leave the gym and eat Thanksgiving dinner regularly, you're probably not going to lose weight.
  • dixiewhiskey
    dixiewhiskey Posts: 3,333 Member
    True!! (article)
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
    So I could eat like 2 plates of lasagna and a giant milkshake right after my workout and I'm not going to gain fat?
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    "It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. "

    Is THIS part true?

    We should eat all of our daily calories in that hour after lifting, then!

    That's another thing that doesn't make much sense.

    Yeah, that made me raise my eyebrows also. It really wasn't a great article. There are much better articles out there.
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  • Kelly_430
    Kelly_430 Posts: 7 Member
    This made me laugh :D

    I am that girl in the free weights and I always shake my head at the quote un quote "cardio queens"
  • fitandfortyish
    fitandfortyish Posts: 194 Member
    Bump to come back later when I have more time to comment. But I will say that I almost shut down completely as soon as the article referenced "Skinny Fat". This idiotic phrase is one of my pet peeves! And I find it very difficult to take anyone seriously who uses it.
    im not a huge fan of the term either considering is a pretty big oxymoron, but it really is the best way to describe someone who has alot of fat and little muscle

    "Skinny Fat" suggests that someone who chooses to focus on Cardio, which is ok btw, is somehow less than acceptable than those who choose to lift.

    Different people have different plans--whatever works for them, but they don't needed to be labeled. No one calls lifters "buff-fat" if they have some extra weight on them.
    NO, it is someone who appears thin but has a high level of bodyfat. And "bulky' and "fatceps" are used to describe lifters with extra pudge.

    This. I've never heard of anyone refer to a marathon runner (or any endurance athlete) as skinny fat. It makes no sense since they have low body fat. But someone who does a crash diet, or suffered from an ED like anorexia and loses a disproportionate amount of muscle due to poor dieting choices but still reached 'normal' weight, would be skinny fat. They are thin but their ratio of fat to muscle is very skewed.

    Agreed. However the article specifically refers to those who do "too much aerobics" as skinny-fat. Aerobics in my mind is cardio.
  • Deipneus
    Deipneus Posts: 1,861 Member
    I love it. I get tired of looking all over for gender stereotypes and this article conveniently aggregates them in one place.
    Guys are probably the biggest tools in the gym because they're driven by ego instead of logic, but women make their own share of mistakes that are unique to their sex. Women are torn between what they read in Shape or on some insane aerobic queen's blog, their unqualified husband's or boyfriend's pontifications on diet and exercise, or society's conflicting and confounding expectations of what a woman should look like. It's no wonder women can't decide between lifting weights, becoming a Crossfit wind-up toy, doing aerobics until they're thin as a waif from Oliver Twist, or practicing so much yoga that their seven angry and overworked chakras pack up their things and go to Cabo for a weekend of volleyball, sun, and suds.

    Plus, they have a lot of good stuff to sell in the store.

    store.png
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
    "It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. "

    Is THIS part true?

    We should eat all of our daily calories in that hour after lifting, then!

    That's another thing that doesn't make much sense.

    I think he just grossly oversimplified. I know after you workout, your body continues the burn for a period of time. For anerobic exercise like lifting, that period is longer and more intense than after doing aerobic exercise like steady state cardio. So you can and should eat after lifting to aid in recovery rather than produce fat. This is only to an extent though. If you leave the gym and eat Thanksgiving dinner regularly, you're probably not going to lose weight.

    Afterburn is grossly overstated though. And this article takes it to a whole new level.
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
    Bump to come back later when I have more time to comment. But I will say that I almost shut down completely as soon as the article referenced "Skinny Fat". This idiotic phrase is one of my pet peeves! And I find it very difficult to take anyone seriously who uses it.
    im not a huge fan of the term either considering is a pretty big oxymoron, but it really is the best way to describe someone who has alot of fat and little muscle

    "Skinny Fat" suggests that someone who chooses to focus on Cardio, which is ok btw, is somehow less than acceptable than those who choose to lift.

    Different people have different plans--whatever works for them, but they don't needed to be labeled. No one calls lifters "buff-fat" if they have some extra weight on them.
    NO, it is someone who appears thin but has a high level of bodyfat. And "bulky' and "fatceps" are used to describe lifters with extra pudge.

    This. I've never heard of anyone refer to a marathon runner (or any endurance athlete) as skinny fat. It makes no sense since they have low body fat. But someone who does a crash diet, or suffered from an ED like anorexia and loses a disproportionate amount of muscle due to poor dieting choices but still reached 'normal' weight, would be skinny fat. They are thin but their ratio of fat to muscle is very skewed.

    Agreed. However the article specifically refers to those who do "too much aerobics" as skinny-fat. Aerobics in my mind is cardio.

    And that makes no sense. Skinny-fat is an eating problem, not an exercise problem.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    And that makes no sense. Skinny-fat is an eating problem, not an exercise problem.

    I'm not sure there is an official definition- but I've always referred to people who were clearly small/thin and had no muscle definition what so ever and just looked squishy as "skinny fat" in which case it would be a lack of exercise being the problem.

    That has always been- ever since I ever heard the term back in the 90's, the general premise of the expression.
  • eric_sg61
    eric_sg61 Posts: 2,925 Member
    "It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. "

    Is THIS part true?

    We should eat all of our daily calories in that hour after lifting, then!

    That's another thing that doesn't make much sense.

    I think he just grossly oversimplified. I know after you workout, your body continues the burn for a period of time. For anerobic exercise like lifting, that period is longer and more intense than after doing aerobic exercise like steady state cardio. So you can and should eat after lifting to aid in recovery rather than produce fat. This is only to an extent though. If you leave the gym and eat Thanksgiving dinner regularly, you're probably not going to lose weight.

    Afterburn is grossly overstated though. And this article takes it to a whole new level.
    It is not about afterburn. It is refering to the heightened insulin sensitivity that occurs post-workout. If your in a surplus, you will store fat at some points in time. Throughtout the day the body is either releasing fatty acids or storing them, during post-workout the muscles are absoring the amino acids and glycogen at an increased rate. The article is not taking it to a new level, athletes and bodybuilders have known this for decades which is why some eat their biggest meals post workout.
  • eric_sg61
    eric_sg61 Posts: 2,925 Member
    Bump to come back later when I have more time to comment. But I will say that I almost shut down completely as soon as the article referenced "Skinny Fat". This idiotic phrase is one of my pet peeves! And I find it very difficult to take anyone seriously who uses it.
    im not a huge fan of the term either considering is a pretty big oxymoron, but it really is the best way to describe someone who has alot of fat and little muscle

    "Skinny Fat" suggests that someone who chooses to focus on Cardio, which is ok btw, is somehow less than acceptable than those who choose to lift.

    Different people have different plans--whatever works for them, but they don't needed to be labeled. No one calls lifters "buff-fat" if they have some extra weight on them.
    NO, it is someone who appears thin but has a high level of bodyfat. And "bulky' and "fatceps" are used to describe lifters with extra pudge.

    This. I've never heard of anyone refer to a marathon runner (or any endurance athlete) as skinny fat. It makes no sense since they have low body fat. But someone who does a crash diet, or suffered from an ED like anorexia and loses a disproportionate amount of muscle due to poor dieting choices but still reached 'normal' weight, would be skinny fat. They are thin but their ratio of fat to muscle is very skewed.

    Agreed. However the article specifically refers to those who do "too much aerobics" as skinny-fat. Aerobics in my mind is cardio.

    And that makes no sense. Skinny-fat is an eating problem, not an exercise problem.
    It is also a hormone problem.
  • BinaryPulsar
    BinaryPulsar Posts: 8,927 Member
    "It's virtually impossible – no matter what you eat – to gain any fat in the post-workout period, which is roughly defined as the hour-long timeframe after you finish lifting weights. "

    Is THIS part true?

    We should eat all of our daily calories in that hour after lifting, then!

    That's another thing that doesn't make much sense.

    I think he just grossly oversimplified. I know after you workout, your body continues the burn for a period of time. For anerobic exercise like lifting, that period is longer and more intense than after doing aerobic exercise like steady state cardio. So you can and should eat after lifting to aid in recovery rather than produce fat. This is only to an extent though. If you leave the gym and eat Thanksgiving dinner regularly, you're probably not going to lose weight.

    Afterburn is grossly overstated though. And this article takes it to a whole new level.
    It is not about afterburn. It is refering to the heightened insulin sensitivity that occurs post-workout. If your in a surplus, you will store fat at some points in time. Throughtout the day the body is either releasing fatty acids or storing them, during post-workout the muscles are absoring the amino acids and glycogen at an increased rate. The article is not taking it to a new level, athletes and bodybuilders have known this for decades which is why some eat their biggest meals post workout.

    It takes time to digest food and have it running through your blood stream. It's not what you eat post workout. It's what you eat through out a day.
  • juliewatkin
    juliewatkin Posts: 764 Member
    I mean... the main points of the article make sense in terms of things woman are afraid of in the gym. But all in all, the article is poorly written and the person who wrote it sound extremely closed minded and relies mainly on stereotypes of men ("men are driven by ego, not logic in the gym") and woman, as well... the article is overall extremely insulting and almost shaming to both sexes.

    I've a long time member and poster on t-nation and most of their articles are not well written. Their site exists to sell their product so much of what is written should be taken with a grain of salt.

    That's not to say the article doesn't have elements of accuracy and entertainment but it's really just a bit of fluff.

    This is much better and not about women but about men and women and getting stronger. It also talks to different training for different goals such as marathon running.

    http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/everything-you-know-about-fitness-is-a-lie-20120504