Why are so many women SCARED of weights? LMAO.

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  • iuangina
    iuangina Posts: 691 Member
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    I personally prefer to do body weight exercises, so I do a lot of that at home before I hit the gym. I use the machines and free weights about 2 times a week. I have a nice set of weights at home, so I do a lot of that in the am and then hit the gym hard for cardio in the evening.
  • underwater77
    underwater77 Posts: 331 Member
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    It's intimidating for me.

    I would like to, but for now I just try to use yoga, rock climbing, and swimming for some kind of "strength training."
    My friends are returning from Tulum where they started a weightless training and he and his wife are by far the most ripped people I've ever encountered so I hope to start their program when they move back.
  • randrews0407
    randrews0407 Posts: 216 Member
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    I have a number of very slim 'skinny-fat' friends who loathe their flabby (though tiny) thighs and bellies, eat about 1200 calories a day and spend an hour or more doing cardio and don't understand why their bodies never change. I do not ever want to live like that again and I think strength training will allow me to avoid that.

    Ditto. When you look at the results of a person doing something like Body For Life you can see body transformations even when there isn't a tremendous amount of weight loss as a result of lifting. I lost most of my weight with cardio primarily and when I got to my goal weight I still wasn't quite happy but it wasn't that I wanted to lose more, I just wanted to sculpt, so I started lifting. I actually gained weight...retained the same dress size though, I look better now.
  • newhabit
    newhabit Posts: 426 Member
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    Just curious…

    At my gym I’m usually the only woman on the floor w/ weights, I’m the only one uses the Smith machine etc. All of the women are in classes (Zumba, Pilates…more Zumba). Guys are NEVER in classes (with the exception of the 2 or 3 that may go to the spin class). I don’t understand why classes (and the cardio machines) are always overflowing with women but it’s so rare to see one with a dumbbell.

    Please explain.

    Not all women wish to be muscular. They want to have smaller muscles and don't want them to grow. There is nothing wrong with that.

    I have a lot of respect for women at the gym who lift heavy b/c it's very difficult to do. I often praise them for it b/c it's amazing to watch.

    I hope those same women who I praise don't secretly make fun of me when I lift my 10 lbs dumb bells b/c I prefer a smaller physique for myself. I'm 18 % body fat and I have good muscle tone...I just don't want it to grow.

    lifting heavy doesn't give you a large body or gigantic muscles... it actually makes you look better, tighter, more toned. women don't have as much testosterone as men so we won't "grow" gigantic muscles.
  • tropaze
    tropaze Posts: 317 Member
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    I like my Zumba class and it's a must do, but I also love the Muscle Pump classes and Nina's RIP class is a must do, but I can only do her's every other week, she leaves me sore for days!

    PS Everyone saying lifting heavy makes you bulky, that isn't true. There's plenty of women who lift heavy and are not bulky at all!
  • randrews0407
    randrews0407 Posts: 216 Member
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    Coming from a culture promoting machismo (male chuvinism), I've been raised with that idea but since I have a strong personality and a boyish attitude so I refused to accept their stupid ideology. You know what, I'm proud that I did it.

    This soooo sounds like me :wink:
  • toomuchbootyindapants
    toomuchbootyindapants Posts: 811 Member
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    so many are afraid of "getting bulky"....

    *gags a little*

    This thread again. Every other day... I'm getting tired of "defending" or trying to convince others to lift. Thinking maybe it's just easier to leave the whiners out. Don't have patience for it anymore.
  • randrews0407
    randrews0407 Posts: 216 Member
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    lifting heavy doesn't give you a large body or gigantic muscles... it actually makes you look better, tighter, more toned. women don't have as much testosterone as men so we won't "grow" gigantic muscles.

    THIS !!!
  • Catlady87
    Catlady87 Posts: 302 Member
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    I'm not scared of weights, I just don't really know what to do with them, I.e. appropriate weight to start with, reps and sets etc.
    Any advice would be welcome - I do have 2.5kg free weights at home.
  • sdurrahMpls
    sdurrahMpls Posts: 75 Member
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    <---- This girl lifts heavy and I know for a fact she's DAMN FINE! (No she's not me, but I'll look like her in due time. That's a promise).
  • gina0629
    gina0629 Posts: 2 Member
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    I am a Zumba/Aqua Zumba instructor. I encourage the women in my class to use the Zumba hand weights (1lb/2.5lb each) during our classes for added resistance and structure routines to utilize the weights. Any good workout regimen needs to be a combination of both cardio and weights. I also try to help the women in my class learn how to lift the weights so that the muscles they are looking to tone get worked.
  • tropaze
    tropaze Posts: 317 Member
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    I'm not scared of weights, I just don't really know what to do with them, I.e. appropriate weight to start with, reps and sets etc.
    Any advice would be welcome - I do have 2.5kg free weights at home.

    I have the same problem, that's why I goto the muscle pump classes. The instructors are actually the personal trainers at my gym, and they have no problem letting you know when you're not using enough weight!
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    What you gonna do?

    You're fighting an entire industry that's preying on women's fears.
  • MireyGal76
    MireyGal76 Posts: 7,334 Member
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    I think a lot of women (myself included at one point) are unsure of where to start or how to use the equipment and worried that they'll look silly if they have to ask for help (I have to admit, this was a big stumbling block for me!).

    ^^^^^^^ This is it for me. I don't know how to use the weights and I'm afraid of being teased or yelled at by some stranger.

    THIS! ^^

    I don't want to look like a loser in the weights area, especially when there are so many guys that know their *kitten* there.
    God forbid, I may also become the subject of someone's thread too.

    But it's a moot point for me right now, as I have no money or time to attend a gym regularly, so if I'm gonna lift, I'm gonna need to find a way to do it at home.

    ETA: I love muscles on women, and I want more. That has NEVER been a factor... in fact... it's why I've gotten over my fear of looking like a freaking idiot at the gym in the first place
  • DrMAvDPhD
    DrMAvDPhD Posts: 2,097 Member
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    Every single woman I've ever met has been told or had read in some stupid chick magazine that she'll get this big ugly bulky body if she lifts heavy stuff. Most of us believe it because no one ever tells us different (including myself).
  • Sparlingo
    Sparlingo Posts: 938 Member
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    Well, I am interested in lifting, but I can give you the answer of "old me" - Old me would have told you that she really just wanted to be a healthy body weight, and really didn't care one ioda about being strong. Also, with a busy life, she wouldn't have anticipated being able to maintain a lifting routine, but was pretty sure she could keep up some light cardio here and there. So eating less and doing cardio would then give her sustainable results.

    New me will be getting a personal trainer whenever she can afford it (i.e. when mat leave is up and hubby graduates from uni) and is excited to learn to do more lifting than the machine circuit in the gym.
  • ejwme
    ejwme Posts: 318
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    Just look at the bodies of the people who say "lifting heavey will make you bulky". I've never heard a healthy looking person say that. If they look ripped and awesome, they're being sarcastic. If they're skinny and flabby, they've never even tried it so wouldn't know. But 99% of the time it's a couch potato who last sweat during a heat wave in broken AC - never a gym. Where they got it, I don't know, but I wish they'd get back to watching tv in silence and stop lying to impressionable young women.

    Why women listen to them, I'll never know. But I don't understand girlie magazines or chick flicks either. Internalizing that judgmental BS just seems like expensive masochism to me.
  • IronSmasher
    IronSmasher Posts: 3,908 Member
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    Every single woman I've ever met has been told or had read in some stupid chick magazine that she'll get this big ugly bulky body if she lifts heavy stuff. Most of us believe it because no one ever tells us different (including myself).


    <<
    'Chick' magazine.


    Go heavy ladies!
  • DrMAvDPhD
    DrMAvDPhD Posts: 2,097 Member
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    Every single woman I've ever met has been told or had read in some stupid chick magazine that she'll get this big ugly bulky body if she lifts heavy stuff. Most of us believe it because no one ever tells us different (including myself).


    <<
    'Chick' magazine.


    Go heavy ladies!

    See, Chick Magazine says lift heavy and shows the model deadlifting, what, 8 pounds???? A woman isn't going to read that and go push herself with a 45 pound barbell plus additional weight!
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,022 Member
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    Obviously, it's a combination of things ... not knowing how to lift properly, being intimidated to use the "guy section" of the gym, being told that lifting will cause you to bulk up, misinformation from people who have no clue what they are talking about like the one person in this thread who keeps saying she doesn't lift because she doesn't want her muscles to grow ...

    There are also countless "fitness" magazines that continue to encourage women to be weak and insecure by telling them to "tone up" by doing a million crunches a day. I see so much crap on Pinterest promoting "dancer legs" workouts and telling you how to "get long, lean muscles" instead of "bulky" muscles. It makes me want to scratch my eyes out. There is no exercise that can lengthen your muscles. The length of your muscles was determined the minute you were conceived. And "lean muscles" is a redundant term. Muscles are, by definition, lean.

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