i lift in two places: trainer gym once a week, and the regular city rec centres the rest of the time. both are co-op, although mr t does do a women-only group on a different night of the week.

it's never been my thing. i'm not proud of this, but i compare myself more and take discrepancies between myself and other women more personally. and i'm lucky enough to lift in spaces where there isn't much need for a 'safe' place in other respects. people are too down-to-earth at the rec centres to hit on people, and mr t is fierce about not allowing isms of any kind in his own space.

I have only been to one women's specific gym and it was a crossfit location. I enjoyed the trial workout. It was fun to have a few women also lifting and it was a very small location. Worked on a couple of things I hadn't done before, but wasn't something I was interested in paying a membership for since I have my own lifting focus with powerlifting as opposed to the more class/directed sessions they conducted. That and it was a lot of pink as that was their theme, pink iron.

Most of my lifting has been general locations: 24 Hour Fitness and Anytime Fitness. The guys are around, as lately I've been lifting mid-day instead of late at night, which was my old norm. However, they don't notice me much or cause any problems. Only nuisance is the tendency to leave the weights instead of putting them away. I can't just go bench 135 so it's a nuisance having to take that crap off every single time almost.

I have noticed the guys have an easier time talking to each other. There are women around during the day but we don't seem to interact as much with each other. I see more guys lifting in pairs or small groups and they have an easier time interacting. So far at new gym only guy to say anything to me so far it was obvious he was a little awkward cause we made eye contact then he made a "no pain no gain" type of comment. But yeah, far more often than not, they don't interact with me much. And on the plus side, it means that once I get the rack, no one is bothering me to work in or anything. hehehe

The women only gyms I know off are those circuit type ones, so I've never wanted to try. Couldn't do my strength training in one of those. Could just be a UK thing though, never hear of any other kind.

I go to Anytime Fitness which has 2 power racks. So far never had a problem with access. I go at 6am at weekends and after 9am weekdays. So far the guys I've met have be fine, everyone says hello, then just gets on with their workouts.

The gyms only been open 2 weeks though, so things could change.

Happy to belong to a place that isn't too intimidating. But I have been in those places where everyone is just way too intense and they are not fun. It took some courage the first few times to walk up to the Olympic bar but over time I realized, hey! I belong here too!

I have a half rack in my living room. My living room looks horrible now big it's so perfect I don't even care. lol Before I got this I worked out at planet fitness. The only time I ever went to a female gym was almost 15 years ago when I went to Curves for a while.

I much prefer doing this at home. I hated every second at the gym.

I go to a women's only gym. It is one of the closest to my house, on my route home from work. When I was naively shopping around for gyms some months ago at the start of my fitness journey it was purely about losing weight for me. At the time I liked that they had many free classes, lots of cardio equipment, and no stinky men. I've come to find out that I hate the group classes after trying several different ones. Now, I've been slowly weaning myself off cardio and moving into strength training. They have a very limited supply of free weights and no squat rack, but since I'm still in the stages of learning to squat my body weight and BPing 20lbs this isn't a problem just yet.

I feel very locked into the year contract I signed with this gym and don't want to move just yet. They are very friendly and welcoming and since I am the only woman in there weight training I have the limited equipment all to myself.

I go to women's only but picked it for variety of non women reasons: price, amenities and it is 24 hours. LOVE THAT. EXCEPT: the weight room with the racks is locked up after their regular day hours so I have to juggle to get there in time to get my sets in using the racks. The other free weights (dumbbells and fixed weighted bars) are still available.