NSV Girl in the Weight Room

That girl was me.

At my old gym, it was just one big room with weights and cardio machines combined, so it was never much of an issue to go over and use the weights as I pleased. Now, I'm at my university gym, and it is divided up into several rooms, so that if you want to use the free weights (not weight or cardio machines), you have to go into a separate room. Now, a cramped room full of heavy weights and healthy, young, college-aged bros is intimidating for most people, but perhaps especially for a 5"2 blonde, curvy woman.

But here's what I did. Late last night when there were only 2 men in the weight room, I grabbed the instructor I had become friends with, put on my brave face, and asked him to show me how to deadlift, with proper form, using the barbell/olympic bar, situated in the weights room. Beforehand I had just been using dumbells and cable machines for deadlifts which can be found in other areas of the gym. So the instructor spent a good 15 minutes with me, making sure I had proper form and technique. It was so nice of him because now I feel confident walking into that room and picking up the weight and know I'm doing it right so no man in there can ridicule me. It's still terrifying to walk in there and have to walk past crowds of men staring at the small blonde girl as she carefully treads through the room to get to her spot to deadlift, but it feels like an accomplishment

Now I can further my progress with weight lifting, and now that I know I have proper form, it gives me slightly more confidence to walk in the weights room and be the ONLY girl amongst 10-20 men.