During her freshman year in college, Elisabeth Bradley was inspired to try weightlifting after following a woman on social media lifting a barbell to track her fitness changes.
Then Bradley found herself the only woman in the weight room at San Diego State University.
“I felt like I stood out, and I just thought, ‘Well, I’m going to look stupid,'” she said. Intimidated by a room full of grunting, muscular men, she moved to the cardio area, like countless women who shy away from free weights and machines for various reasons.
But as research continues to grow on the benefits of resistance training, experts say gyms need to make some changes to make them more attractive to women.
Michelle Sehgal, a behavioral scientist at the University of Michigan who studies exercise habits, says making the environment more comfortable and making weights more familiar to women will lead to more use. More representation, in turn, would allow more women to continue.
Why women should lift weights
The National Institutes of Health recommends that everyone (men and women) perform resistance training at least twice a week. This includes a variety of physically demanding activities such as weight machines, resistance bands, or bodyweight 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, a professor of exercise science at Lehman College in New York City. He said some studies suggest that women may even benefit more from weight training than men because it can prevent osteoporosis and age-related muscle loss, conditions to which women are more susceptible.
“The bottom line is, resistance training can solve a variety of problems,” says Schoenfeld.
Why are many women unwilling to
Daisy Arauza, a 30-year-old mother of two in Menifee, Calif., does some Pilates and aerobics at home through videos and online tutorials and wants to invest in a gym membership to help with strength and weight management.
But she said she lacked confidence and didn’t know enough about weightlifting and fitness etiquette.
“I’m very uncomfortable because of my current condition. When you think of the gym, you think of people who are already fitter. So it felt like I had to fit myself into that mold before I felt comfortable working out in front of other people in the gym,” she said.
Bradley said there’s still a stigma around women lifting weights. For years, people have been told that losing weight is the ultimate goal, but some mistakenly believe that strength training will make them look bulky.
Schoenfeld says few women need to worry about building too much muscle because it’s difficult for anyone to gain a lot of muscle, especially women because they have lower levels of the muscle-building hormone testosterone. It’s easy to lower the intensity of your training if you don’t like the results, he says: “It’s very, very easy to lose muscle.”
Gyms and what women can do
A few months after her initial bad impression, Bradley shared her strength-training goals with a male weightlifter in her dorm room, who showed her the bodybuilding ropes. That push inspired her to found Girl Gains, a women’s weightlifting club that now has dozens of chapters at colleges across the country.
“Other things are shoved down our throats, like Pilates, aerobics and yoga, but they complement each other,” Bradley said. “Getting stronger in the gym will help you progress in Pilates. Building muscle will help make you a faster, better runner.”
Advocates say women who start strength training should send themselves an empowering yet realistic message.
Supplemental introductory training sessions can help, Segar said, but a cursory introduction from a trainer wearing revealing clothing won’t.
“For decades, most women have tried to achieve the perfect body, but this has only led to a sense of failure,” she said. Instead of focusing on how exercise makes them feel, they consider how others perceive them.
Women who find community in the weight room work together to achieve their goals, get stronger and push themselves, Bradley said. “One of the things we always say is, ‘You look like you’re having a great year.'”
Women’s gym and childcare
Some women find that they can focus better on exercising when a man isn’t around.
At the women’s-only Goddess Gym in Peterborough, England, Charlie Sturgeon says she’s happier than at a co-ed gym, where she’s had “some really weird experiences where people just stare and make faces and make comments. Here, because it’s only women, it feels like there’s a sense of community.”
Some gyms try to make women more comfortable by offering on-site day care.
Michelle Kozak of Phoenix has two young children and canceled her membership when her gym stopped offering child care.
She felt uncomfortable with hardcore gym culture.
“I don’t want the gym to be my whole personality,” she said. “I just wanted to have some time to prioritize my health.”
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Associated Press reporter Cheyanne Mumphrey in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.
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Editor’s note: Albert Stumm writes about food, travel and health. Find his work at https://www.albertstumm.com
