Men and their weight room

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  • DakotaKeogh
    DakotaKeogh Posts: 693 Member
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    Yet another whiny hater. Get over it.
  • RECowgill
    RECowgill Posts: 881 Member
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    I was interested in the title of the original post as I know that I often think of the weights area as male dominated - and men are in the vast majority - but (in my gym at least) they're not rude, just focused. I know that I avoid a lot of the free weights areas as I am intimidated by the men - especially groups of men - there. But I'd probably be just as intimidated by groups of women! THey aren't intimidating - but I am still intimidated!! Interesting thread and it doesn't sound like it's put you off so hope it's a better experience for you next time.

    Yeah don't feel intimidated get in there and do your thing! =)
  • Lozze
    Lozze Posts: 1,917 Member
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    For those who have never experienced this count yourselves lucky! I used to think the same, until I moved and my closest chain gym was exactly like this. Young guys staring at women who walked in and drooling, treated like you were doing it wrong and just very intimidating. You rarely saw women in there and mostly on cardio. When a newer chain one opened I switched and was talking to one of the guys there who had gone to the old one and he mentioned how intimidated he'd been!

    Sometimes it's just the gym and the atmosphere allowed to be there.

    OP having read your story, I doubt it was anything to do with your gender, but your young son. People are wary about kids in that the of environment and for good reason.
  • Maaarkk
    Maaarkk Posts: 93 Member
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    I don't think girls should be intimidated by the weights room, but a lot of the time it seems they are. My girlfriend refuses to come into the free weight section unless its about the last 10 mins of my workout and she's waiting for me to hurry up so she can get out of there lol. I know in my gym though that when a girl walks through the weights section you can see everyone staring which is probably the reason they get most intimidated. I think everyone stares because it seems unusual for them to be there. Whereas if they used it more frequently it would seem normal then they probably wouldn't get much/any notice.
  • EvgeniZyntx
    EvgeniZyntx Posts: 24,208 Member
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    Ah, I love these catch 22 situations. If I smile at a woman In the weight room I'm sometime considered as coming on to them and now if the OP is ignored we are rude. Great. The title of this thread and the associated assumptions suck. In my gyms eople are greeted and that's about it. I expect to be mostly ignored - respectfully so.

    Last week I went with my two daughters to the gym, both are total novices at heavy weights and do not like barbells - it's likely neither will get into them for a while. But one spots me. Should I get upset that I'm ignored, no one smiles at me and I get asked when I will free the bench? Am I getting crowded out? Hmmm, maybe I should be more concerned.

    OP - i'd likely respectfully ignore you in my gym, the weight area is small, I'm doing my thing and mostly focus and not try to think about others because quite frankly it is a place where personal space gets squeezed, it smells, we grunt and move things. I would not bring my own 10 or 8 year old there ever (and the fact that they are girls should not be a consideration, they do participate in all my other sports) because of the tightness of that space. Kids always get a smile from me.

    I'd also question weightlifting for someone at 10 - given that their neuroskeletal system is not fully developed and that compression stress is a significant factor in bone modeling - I know from my experience in designing hip prosthesis that functional modeling in children competitive gymnasts, ballet, etc. can lead to (but not necessarily) this type of structural damage. If you do continue, make sure weights are kept reasonable low. Btw, this does not hold for kids with the pediatric need to use weights due to growth or structural imbalance; we corrected a slight congenital scoliosis (18% reduced to 7%) in my second daughter thanks to weight loaded exercises.
  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
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    I have belonged to maybe 6 gyms as I have moved around, upgraded, etc one was a YMCA. Not one of them would allow a 9 year old child in the weight rooms. I dont know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but I could not imagine trying to work out with a large number of children in there.

    Should a nine year old be lifting weights? Ideally, no. They should be playing with other children in their age group. If they are going to lift, they would need very close supervision to avoid injuring themselves or others I would think.

    More and more women are lifting at the gym these days and I do not notice them being treated any differently than anyone else who is going about their business. I dont really pay that much attention tho. There are occasionally both men and women who seem intent on drawing attention to themselves and they usually dont last long or they end up realizing that is the wrong place for that and eventually blend in like the rest of those there to get in their workout.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    Ah, I love these catch 22 situations. If I smile at a woman In the weight room I'm sometime considered as coming on to them and now if the OP is ignored we are rude. Great. The title of this thread and the associated assumptions suck. In my gyms eople are greeted and that's about it. I expect to be mostly ignored - respectfully so.

    Very well said. If my head turns slightly in the direction of a woman I'm a drooling creeper, if i try to correct their form I am insulting their intelligence, and if I ignore them completely I'm rude and possibly intimidating.

    "The only way to win is not to play"-WOPR
  • letjog
    letjog Posts: 260 Member
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    I'd be pissed off if there were kids in the gym too.
    It's bad enough having them screaming in the changing rooms after the school uses the pool.

    9 year olds should not lift HEAVY as it is damaging to their unfused growth plates. Light weights only.
  • Nirlbou
    Nirlbou Posts: 27 Member
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    I was raised by a single mom, and it took me 35 years to get into a gym, I say go, teach him good form, stay under 40lbs to prevent stunted bone development, and expose him to men you want him to learn from, and if those men can't play well with others point it out to him and keep on going. Going once you are in the way. Go everyday, they will get over it quickly.
  • sm1zzle
    sm1zzle Posts: 920 Member
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    I am so tired of men who think they own the weight room! Ugh.

    I have been lifting for years, and am proud to say that I know my $&it! Today I went to a new gym and attempted to show my 9 year old son how to lift for his first time (I am a single mom, and unfortunately do not know any guys who can show him this).

    The men in this room were soooooooo rude. Basically crowding us out, not caring where we were standing, etc. etc. No smiles were to be found and some of them even looked annoyed. (This was not all the guys in the room, some of them were doing their own thing too, and left us alone.)

    I have experienced this before when I was solo, but never to the extent as today when I was with my kiddo. I mean, what is that? Because I was the only woman in the room? Because I was attempting to show my son how to do it? Because we were new faces?

    There's a little bit of that going on in almost every weight room at any gym.
    *kitten* pure and simple.
    Now you atleast you have a real world example of how not to act in life, and you can tell your son "This is not how respectable human beings act."

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