Doctors want more women lifting weights. Experts say welcoming gyms and education would help
During her first year at university, Elisabeth Bradley was inspired to try weightlifting after following a woman on social media who was following her fitness transformation, weightlifting.
Later, Bradley realized she was the only woman in San Diego State University’s weight room.
“I felt like I was left out too much, and I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to look stupid,'” he says. Shying away from a room full of grunting, muscular men, she moved to the cardio area and mimicked the countless women who avoid free weights and machines for various reasons.
However, as research on its benefits increases, resistance trainingExperts say a few things need to change to make the gym more attractive to women.
Michelle Segar, a behavioral scientist at the University of Michigan. exercise habits, He said that making the environment more palatable and women getting used to weights better will lead to the use of more weights. More representation will enable more women to move on.
Why should women lift weights?
The National Institutes of Health recommends Everyone – men and women – should do resistance training at least twice a week. This includes any activity that requires physical strength, such as weight machines, resistance bands, or exercise bands. body weight exercises like push-ups and squats.
Resistance training has been found to help prevent heart disease, improve long-term mobility and lower blood pressure, said Brad Schoenfeld, professor of exercise science at Lehman College in New York City. Some research suggests that women may benefit more from weight training than men because it prevents osteoporosis and age-related muscle loss, to which women are more susceptible.
“The bottom line is that resistance training is the cure for all kinds of problems,” Schoenfeld said.
Why don’t many women want it?
Daisy Arauza, a 30-year-old mother of two from Menifee, California, does Pilates and cardio-based workouts at home using videos and online tutorials and is looking to invest in a gym membership to help with strength and weight control.
But he said he lacked self-confidence and didn’t yet know enough about weights and gym etiquette.
“I’m very self-conscious because of how my body looks right now. When you think of the gym, you think of people who are already in better shape. So it feels like I have to fit myself into that mold before I can feel comfortable working out in front of other people in a gym,” she said.
Bradley said there’s still a stigma around women lifting weights. Having been told for years that being thin is the ultimate goal, some incorrectly believe that strength training will make them look bulky.
Few women should worry about gaining too much muscle, Schoenfeld said, because it’s difficult for anyone — especially women with low levels of the muscle-building hormone testosterone — to gain significant amounts of muscle. It’s easy to reduce training intensity if you don’t like the results, he said: “It’s very, very easy to lose muscle.”
What can gyms and women do about this?
Months after his first bad impression, Bradley shared his bodybuilding goals with a male weightlifter in his dorm room who showed him the bodybuilding ropes. That support inspired her to found Girl Gains, a women’s weightlifting club that now has dozens of chapters at colleges across the country.
“Other things like Pilates, cardio and yoga get shoved down our throats, but they complement each other,” Bradley said. “Being stronger in the gym will help you improve in Pilates. Having muscle will help you become a faster and better runner.”
Advocates say women who start strength training should do so with an empowering and realistic message.
Supplemental training sessions can help, Segar said, but a cursory introduction by a trainer in revealing clothing won’t do the trick.
“Most women have been trying to achieve the perfect body for decades, and this only leads to feelings of failure,” she said. Instead of focusing on how exercise makes them feel, they think about how they are perceived.
Bradley said women who find community in the weight room become stronger and push themselves by working together on their own goals. “One of the things we always say is, ‘Earnings look good on you.’”
Women’s gyms and childcare
Some women find that they can focus on their workouts better when men aren’t around.
At the women-only Goddess Gym in Peterborough, England, Charlie Sturgeon said she was happier than in mixed-gender gyms where she had “some pretty weird experiences where people just stare, confront, comment. And here, just being female, it feels like there’s a sense of community.”
Some gyms try to make women more comfortable by offering daily care services.
Michelle Kozak of Phoenix, who has two young children, canceled her membership after the gym stopped offering child care.
And he’s not happy with the strict gym culture.
“I don’t want to make the gym my whole person,” he said. “I just want to have some time to prioritize being healthy.”
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AP journalist Cheyanne Mumphrey in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Albert Stumm writes about food, travel and healthy living. Find his work at: https://www.albertstumm.com
