My tuppence worth is that in my experience a lot of people just treat women that lift or want to lift as a little absurd, often to the point of dismissing them entirely.

I had an experience last year of going to a super excellent personal training company with the view to get stronger and leaner. I wasn’t even ‘interviewed’ by a real personal trainer but got an admin staff member who promptly told me what i wanted wasn’t possible and that anyway i didn’t have the ability unless i was a junior olympic triathlete lol! I can laugh about it now but i have to admit i was highly insulted to be written off in such a way. After all she never even bothered to find out my athletic background. For all she knew the unassuming little, slightly podgy blonde girl could have been a junior slalom competitor lol!

So. I think that until the industry accepts women as equals in aspirations and intelligence then its always going to be a rocky ride. If the industry itself doesn’t promote lifting to women in the mainstream how can those few that are really keen ever have the support. The bigwigs of the gym/personal training world need to sit up and start promote female health and looks benefits in a realistic and attractive way, as opposed to try and make as much money off poor fashion mag brainwashed women as possible.

I joined an olympic lifting club too. Turns out there was one at my gym. Felt a bit stupid (with my broomstick antics) but the guys are being pretty terrific about coaching me and helping me along. Lots (and lots and lots and lots) of front squatting and the occasional overhead. Turns out my form wasn’t anywhere near as good as I thought it was. It is finally starting to come right so I can access / work on developing some strength with the movement. Can overhead press more than I can squat with good form at the moment lol. Making progress, though.

It was humbling to go from the main gym weights area (where people often move out of my way now and some come to look at the odd exercise that I’m doing) to the heavy weights area (where I sometimes struggle to squat the women’s bar with perfect form and the lightest dumbbells are right on my overhead press max). Good for me, though. Learning to use the powerrack and getting used being spotted (which throws me off a little). I think the guys are a bit scared that I’ll hurt myself. Can’t wait to develop some real strength – brah!!! lol.

How did the meet go? Did you have fun?

If you haven’t already, do check out the Women’s Strength Training Network that I’ve started on Facebook – precisely for women like you! There’s a link in my sidebar.

I’m relieved to say that I’ve made a lot of progress on the olympic lifts since that video was made. At the beginning of 2010 I joined an olympic weightlifting club and train the oly lifts three times a week with a coach. I have my first meet in a couple of weeks!

Trying to learn to hang clean now. Need to get a stronger front squat and probably slow down the descent because I’m doing a lot of ass planting.

I really loved the vid of you at the Dan John workshop. You both have been a real inspiration to me and I’m determined to learn the olympic lifts and get strong enough to do them respectably. I’ll be interested to read about your progress on the olympic lifts.

You are right that what the gym people think really doesn’t matter. I’m doing this for me and not for them. I think I’m regarded as more of a curiosity than anything else now ‘what on earth is she up to this time?’ I work out at a campus gym and mostly there are 18 year old dudes curling their biceps and bench pressing. And the girls doing endless cardio, of course. I just started 9 months ago after a life of being sedentary and I’m 31… I don’t really mind what the undergraduates think of me.

I might be wrong… But I think more girls have started lifting weights since they have got used to seeing me lift them. Heavier weights, too. The girls are (just) starting to take over one of the sections of the weights room. It really is good to see. I saw a lady try a turkish getup the other day – and I’ve never seen anybody do that before.

Maybe I should take off my headphones some time and… Try to talk to them. I don’t know… I’d like someone to show me how to use the powerrack at some point and how to load the weights on the bar because at the moment I’m doing deadlifts with dumbbells off the reebok stepper and the dumbbells are starting to get unmanageable.

Anyway, you are a real inspiration to me. Thanks so much for the site

At times like this I think of the Dr Seuss quote: “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind”!

Anyone who thinks less of you for trying something new is not worth an iota of your mental energy

Imitating a t-rex with limp forearms and my butt shoved out standing side on to a mirror was good for me. I learned to upright row (first no weight then stupid little weights and now semi-respectable weights). Face planting over and over and over while learning to do a proper push-up had a similar effect. I’m over the fear of appearing foolish now. But maybe its because when I grunt and fail to pull myself up and everybody notices (because I’m the only girl they have seen even try) then I can go feel like a pro on the stationary bike for a while and nurse the wounds to my pride that way.

I’ve found while training in The Netherlands, Greece and France that a few general rules apply that contribute to women still avoiding free weights (also mentioned above):

1. Myths. The inertia of old superstitions and continuous bad publicity since the start of the workout era: outdated “beliefs”, still used by popular media, are still fed to and picked up by the public. It’s like the rule of inertia: only after a prolonged and heavy continuous truckpulling session without giving up will you succeed in pulling the truck free and gain momentum. Personally I think we’re on the brink of pulling the truck free if WE KEEP ON PULLING that is.
2. Bad gymtrainers, brought up in the good old pink weights only for women tradition. Enough said.
3. Good old plain laziness: to use free weights and train hard, you have to sweat, burp, fart and possibly grunt.
4. Marketing (I’m a marketeer myself) No damn money to be made by something you have to do all by yourself is there? Buy the myth, it’s easy!!!!
5. Lots of women feel it’s more fun doing something in groups, it also makes them feel less “looked at”. I guess.
6. Many people regard machines in the same way as free weights: both give you a strength workout, right?

Might have forgotten some, but this is pretty much what I came across in most of the gyms I went to.