Why do so many women lift such light weights?

They have three times the muscle building hormones than men. If they lift anything moderately heavy they will end up looking like Mr. Olympia contestants. Many have the astonishing ability to gain muscle in a calorie deficit or in a very short period of time.

I thought testosterone was the muscle building hormone? Hence the reason why most women don't get huge...no?

Gah! I'm an idiot...:embarassed:

LOL...I'm just glad I got to use the gif...it's one of my favorites.

inexperience and bad media.

this really really awful myth that lifting heavy leads to bulk.

it's exhausting. Really it's just plain lack of education or ignorance.

This.

They have three times the muscle building hormones than men. If they lift anything moderately heavy they will end up looking like Mr. Olympia contestants. Many have the astonishing ability to gain muscle in a calorie deficit or in a very short period of time.

I thought testosterone was the muscle building hormone? Hence the reason why most women don't get huge...no?

Gah! I'm an idiot...:embarassed:

LOL...I'm just glad I got to use the gif...it's one of my favorites.

Glad I could help :glasses:

The same reason people tell me that cardio burns fat and that I have to eat 6 small meals a day starting first thing in the morning.

Most people only know diet myths.

I used to do walking lunges with 30lb dumbells in each hand. I'd feel like puking my guts up, but man, I loved how I looked!

A lot of women believe that they will bulk up like a man if they lift weights. Most of us know that isn't true. I can't really say why you see so many women who don't life heavier weights. Maybe they don't know proper form and are afraid of hurting themselves.

A lot of it is ignorance. Knowing where to start isn't exactly easy if you don't have experience and you're trying to figure out how to do it by yourself. i know that was the case for me. Still is, really.

ETA: I've only seen two other women in my gym do anything with weights, besides me. And I've only seen them there on one occasion each.

I'm not afraid to lift heavy, but I have NO clue where to begin. I have some dinky 3 pound weights I use when doing workout videos. They do make a difference, and my arms do get more tired than if I hadn't used them. I'm totally willing to try heavy lifting, but I don't know where to start. I'm very fat but I'm weak. lmao.

There are numerous beginner programs out there that tell you exactly where to start and what to do.

New Rules of Lifting for Women, Starting Strength, Strong Lift 5x5 just to name a few.

I'm not afraid to lift heavy, but I have NO clue where to begin. I have some dinky 3 pound weights I use when doing workout videos. They do make a difference, and my arms do get more tired than if I hadn't used them. I'm totally willing to try heavy lifting, but I don't know where to start. I'm very fat but I'm weak. lmao.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/560459-stronglifts-5x5-summary Start here. It summarizes the SL 5x5 program super well and has links to his videos. Watch the videos. Over and over if needed. If you have someone who can go with you and do the same thing, you can form check each other. If not, you could try to find a way to record yourself and people here are more than willing to help. Plus, there are people in the gym who can give GOOD advice and not just patronizing stuff, which is awesome.

I started lifting in January. I love it so much. I had done it in high school, ages ago, but it had been way too long. Now, my favourite gym days are lifting days. I go up slowly (not nearly at the SL 5x5 pace) and I've kept myself at one weight for weeks on my squats while I focus on my form. So there's flex even in that program. There are also a couple books that get recommended over and over - one is Starting Strength, and I think the other is New Rules of Lifting? I haven't read either, but it's another good spot to start. I also peruse videos at Nerd Fitness too...Staci is amazing, check out stuff on her there.

I don't know. It's awfully fun to lift heavier than you thought you could.

Fear of being too sore the next day. My response to them would be, "Do you have kids? Then you can lift more than 5 lbs, because at one point your child weighed 20+ lbs and you were lifting them." That's just me. Now for me, right now I'm at the 20s for shoulders, but when doing the tricep pushdown I can do 75 lbs. So some of them may literally not know what their different muscle groups are capable of. When I started off with the tricep pushdown I was around 50s and that was after increasing my weights in my first session until I got to those ones. They also don't realize that resistance is good because that is what works your muscle. I could ramble on, but I won't. My question for you is why do most guys I see in the gym only focus on upper body and then they have chicken legs? I don't understand it. They spend all this time bulking up their upper body and the legs look like garbage. I have never understood this.

I see so much weird stuff in the gym.

I'm home on spring break. I've done most of my workouts in a college weight room, where the athletes (both male and female) do pretty decent compound routines. I've learned A LOT (both good and bad) from watching them.

Yet still... The cardio loft upstairs is almost exclusively non-athlete women, and when they come downstairs to weights, they do the hip abductor machines (the only thing that I've ever actually hurt something on by the way...). I never see a non-athlete woman picking up a barbell.... And when they pick up a dumbbell, it is 3 pounds and it is for tricep kickbacks.

The gym at home is even worse... no women at the free weights, only one power rack, and NONE OF THE MEN TRAIN THEIR LEGS. I have never seen one weight lifting man do squats or deads. Not even a calf raise. So odd.

I think, like others have said, it mostly comes down to the media (get toned with high reps low weights) and lack of education. I find heavy lifting to be incredibly empowering and I love feeling strong.