Why are so many women SCARED of weights? LMAO.

I am scared of Zumba. You will never see me in a class at a gym of any kind. You MIGHT see me on a weight machine, but, this female prefers to work out alone, where she can concentrate on correct form and no one cares how she dresses.

I love my videos, I cycle alone, where I can be alone with my thoughts, concentrate, push myself or not, listen to my body. I do not need a gaggle of females or testosterone loaded men to inspire me, I just need the closet full of clothes I can't wear.

And I prefer weights over cardio any day, but the fact it that they just don't burn fat on me, so I have to do either cardio, or weights, or an all-over body routine (my favorite is cardio sculpt). Or I can add weight to tae bo, step aerobics or whatever.

Either way, I really don't see the point of having to GO anywhere to workout.

I love doing weights but all the women that I know say "oh no I just don't want to bulk up and look like a man" I lift weights and I look very much like a woman. I lift weights and I do alot of other workouts including zumba and look I have lost 20 pounds. I have only 3 pounds left to lose until I weight what I weighed in high school.

It's not that I am afraid of weights or anything. It's more that I don't know how many reps to do, how to do the exercise, how much weight. My gym charges $50 for someone to show you. The other thing is when I do a class the instructor is there to follow. I do a body pump class which is weights in a group setting. I am trying to learn all of the weight exercises and then I will do free weights.

As mentioned before, Starting strength, Strong lifts, and New Rules of Lifting for Women are all great resources for your particular insecurities. I used NROL and loved it, the graphics are good, the theory in the book is good, and if you still have questions you can google or you tube any move. I am also a BP instructor. If you have quesitons on your form, pull your instructor aside for pointers on the moves you're doing in class. During training we are taught form, and during quarterly releases they promote the importance of form, hopefully you have an BP instructor who can provide you with pointers. Finally, if you are still unsure and can't afford 1 or 2 sessions with a trainer to check your form, you can always take a video while performing the move in the weight room and post it in the Bodybuilding forum on here asking for critique. I do this more often than not because I do some moves that the guys in my gym don't do. (eg snatches, hack squats - really any squats lol, hamstring raises, amongst others).

I also want to note that for safety reasons several of the moves that we do in bodypump are not the full range of the move you would do in the weightroom. for example, we simply call them deadlifts when in actuality they are more of a romanian deadlift.

I LOVE my strength training/weight lifting. . I am inches slimmer than I was when I was at my healthiest weight, years ago.

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.

LOL

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.

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.

<---- 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).

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!

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

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.

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).

<<

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'Chick' magazine.


Go heavy ladies!

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.