hasn't happened to me; guess i'm just lifting in a place where people pretty much mind their own business and don't pay a lot of attention to what the next guy/girl/gorilla ten feet away is doing. i get the odd grin or thumbs-up or whatever, but that's about it.

as far as 'jealousy', eh. i'm not impressive enough to make anyone jealous, but even so i just don't think it's a big feature of the community rec-centre mindset. every so often we get some random workout hero who does seem to be expecting to attract a large admiring entourage to him/herself with his/her awesomeness, but it's pretty rare. i've noticed that most of them seem to wander around trying to attract attention for a couple sessions, and then wander off into the mystic again. i don't think they get what they want from the places i lift.

we do have some regulars who really are strong, and about half of them are women. i watch them sometimes, and i'm probably not the only one. never been conscious of any obnoxious kind of vibe from anybody, provided they are just regular people getting on with the workout that happens to be a regular workout for them. you might just be lifting in a place with an unfortunate kind of culture to it.

I also lift at home (in the basement). My dog looks at me funny most of the time lol. When I did belong to a gym, I never had guys staring at me. If they did, I didn't notice.

I think the guys staring at you are amazed and probably intimidated