I live in America. I like it, but in my opinion, we do not pressure our women into being strong and confident.

When I scan the magazine racks at the grocery store or the dentist’s office, the pictures suggest that we value two things in our women: breasts and razor sharp clavicles. Well, three things: STDs seem to get a lot of press as well…good grief.

You might call it a wretched case of extremely backwards priorities. The heartbreaker for me is so many of the girls I know, including my own sisters, buy into the stereotypes. In fact, they aspire to them in some cases.

Tuesday night kettlebell class

Every Tuesday night I teach a kettlebell training for beginners class. (I also throw in a bunch of other stuff, but it’s called a kettlebell class.) It’s  basically a “get really strong” class. 90 per cent of my students are female. When they first meet me, we shake hands, exchange names, and then they immediately tell me how weak and out of shape they are. I show them the kettlebells and demonstrate movements with a light weight.

“Oh, I can’t do that.”

When I tell them that we’re doing to do deadlifts they often say “Oh, I’m not in shape enough to do that” or “My back can’t handle that.” My response to these questions is always gentle, but pointed: “Says who?” Most of the time these lovely people can’t figure out where they got these silly notions. It’s because women are taught to underestimate themselves. It sinks in and they start to believe it.

Slowly my class has become – I don’t advertise it this way – my lab for the sole purpose of making women stronger without them realizing it.

Required pressing, required reading

Three months ago I began with a class of eight women. Every single one of them told me that they did not want to press overhead because it would give them big shoulders. In the second week I taught them the kettlebell press and the bottoms up press (turning the kettlebell upside down).

I now begin every class with everyone working on their favorite movement for ten minutes. Every single one of those women chooses the press nine times out of ten now. Some of them are pressing more than the men I see in the gym. Nothing makes me happier. There is nothing more fun for me than when the light flashes in their eyes and they realize I can do this. It’s the same process as the I’m-weak indoctrination, but in reverse: it sinks in and they start to believe it. And when they start to believe it, do not get in their way.

At the end of my classes, I write this URL on the board: http://gubernatrix.co.uk/. It is all that I do for required reading. I even make the men read it, which they are usually happy to do, especially when they realize that Gubernatrix is way stronger than they are. Good information is good information. And that’s all I am trying to give these women.

The change doesn’t occur because I am a genius or because I know something about strength training for females that nobody else does: it’s simply because I say the opposite of what society usually says.

I say:

1. Gain 10 lbs of muscle and you will be sexier than you can imagine

2. Lift as heavy as you (safely) can and you will be more confident

3. You are stronger than you think

4. Ignore your clavicles (most men aren’t looking at them)

5. Being strong does not mean sacrificing femininity

6. I know a five-foot-nothing homecoming queen who deadlifts 315

7. When someone tells you what you “should” be doing, ask yourself why

8. If you are not getting the results you want, something needs to change

9. You are stronger than most men I know

10. Perceptions will only change if enough of us work together to change them

It won’t happen fast, but it can happen. Every time I step into my class there are more women in it. It is because word gets around that it is fun to be strong. That there are people out there who say that women aren’t supposed to be weak, submissive, and that clavicles are seriously overrated.

Go get ‘em.

More from gubernatrix

• Ladies who lift
• Strong is beautiful
• A girl’s guide to choosing a kettlebell
• The toning problem: why women are missing out when it comes to weight training

Let’s break the false link between building muscle and becoming less feminine.

Women have muscles, it’s a physiological fact, and if we want to do anything useful or impressive with them and look sexy to boot, we’d better start training them!

Here is an incident that happened to me recently. I was talking to a bloke in the gym about the fact that I was training for strongwoman and I happened to mention that I would like to put on a couple of pounds of muscle.

He said, with a grimace, “Really? But you don’t want to lose your femininity, do you?”

So putting on a couple of pounds of muscle is going to make me lose my femininity, is it? This is typical of the casual ignorance displayed by many people about muscle building. I’m an athletic-looking size 10, I weigh 136 pounds. What difference is a couple of pounds of muscle distributed around my body going to make to my appearance? I doubt most people would even notice.

Me (right) and Caroline Pearce, aka ‘Ice’ from Gladiators. Note the tragic loss of femininity experienced by these two strength training females. Don’t let this be you!

I’m not trying to dictate what men or women find attractive. Long hair, cute bob, big tits, curvy, athletic, muscular, long legs, nice bum, spiky hair and tattoos, tanned and outdoorsy, pale and interesting… there are so many ways to look sexy and feminine.

A powerful woman needs powerful arms! I bet POTUS isn’t complaining…

Muscle, whether you realise it or not, plays a huge part in looking feminine. Pertness of bum? Gluteus maximus, baby! Shapeliness of calf? A toned gastrocnemius, of course. ‘Michelle Obama’ arms? Bi’s and tri’s my dears, not to mention the delts.

And you can’t build muscle using 3lb pink dumbbells. Your handbag weighs more than that! The weight’s gotta be heavy.

(Not convinced? Read Why lift weights? for a simple answer to that question.)

The truth is that for some people, any mention of muscle building is an automatic no-no. This merely reveals ignorance about the human body and the importance of muscle.

Although we can use muscle to scuplt particular parts of our bodies into nicer shapes, this isn’t the primary role of muscle.

In fact, everybody needs to be concerned about building muscle, since we spend most of our lives slowly losing it and becoming more and more frail.

Even this poor girl has muscles, but wouldn't you agree she could do with some more?

We all have muscle in the first place and we all need it in order to lead active, healthy lives. From the way some women talk, you’d think they didn’t even possess muscles!

But they do, and they are neglecting them because of this pernicious link.

For most people, building additional muscle doesn’t happen automatically, it has to be done deliberately (especially after your early twenties). What we do build automatically is fat. It’s very easy to get fatter, more difficult to build muscle.

But building muscle helps us to lose fat. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so the more of it we have, the more we can burn excess calories. Muscle also takes energy to be built in the first place, energy that would otherwise be stored as fat. This is true for both men and women.

These days most people want to look lean and athletic, with less fat. The way to do this is to build muscle but still in the eyes of many people this is only deemed acceptable for men. No wonder so many women spend years dieting unsuccessfully or acquire dangerous eating disorders that keep them weak, malnourished and either too skinny or too fat.

Why do guys like this picture?

So back to the guy who so baldly expressed his opinion on my femininity. Of course, we know what’s really going on here. We know that the image he has in his head is of a female pro-bodybuilder on stage under the lights with all the fake tan, dehydration, flexing and so on. He has equated this snapshot image (which doesn’t even reflect the everyday reality of a pro-bodybuilder, let alone anyone else) with general weight lifting of any kind undertaken by a woman – and moreover has decided that this is not what he finds attractive.

(Incidentally, there is an issue about people associating weight training with bodybuilding but not other sports. You might be talking about strongwoman or weightlifting, but it is the bodybuilder image that immediately appears in people’s minds and not, say, the slim and athletic Marilou Dozois-Prevost who graces the top of this post.)

What’s odd is that Random Gym Guy is quite admiring of my figure as it stands at the moment – a figure which has been developed over several years by muscle building and heavy weight training.

So there’s a serious disconnect between the evidence of his own eyes and his preconceptions and prejudices about ‘muscle building’ and ‘femininity’.

Apparently I have reached some mysterious boundary where I look good at the moment but if I build a smidgen more muscle I will suddenly turn into a she-hulk!

Two female bodybuilders: the difference is DRUGS, not lifting weights

With pictures like the one on the right, I guess it is not surprising that people get hugely distorted views about women and muscle. The media love to dwell on the ‘freak’ aspects of any activity but it is drugs not weights that are the cause. Just say no, kids.

(The original female bodybuilders still looked feminine. Read more here about what went wrong. Clue: it wasn’t lifting weights!)

Ironically many men will find particular bodies attractive that have been built by careful dieting and weight training – but they don’t realise it. This is about education, about breaking that seemingly automatic link between the desire to build muscle  – for health, looks, performance or whatever – and loss of femininity.

Allyson Goble, trainer at Bodytribe Fitness, tackled this thorny subject in our recent Women’s Strength Symposium. She comments that if masculinity is defined by strength and muscle building, does that mean that femininity must be the opposite: weakness and fat? Femininity = weakness? Surely we are past that in the 21st century.

The truth is that you can look very feminine (whatever that means to you) and also build muscle, lift heavy weights and generally enjoy yourself.

Here is some of the positive testimony from Allyson’s discussion.

Katydid: “As a person who has gone through challenges with eating disorders and body image for a very long time I’ve found weightlifting and being a powerlifter, and the resultant strength to be the best medicine in the world.”

Louisa: “Until I started weight training, with fantastic results (not only because my body shape improved but because I felt more confident and got a buzz out of it), I really didn’t believe how good it would be for me. I have never really worried about getting bulky. I know I look better and feel fitter than I have for over 20 years. However, people around me do ask if I’m not worried about bulking up. And I have struggled to get my husband to understand that I’m not going to end up looking like a female body builder on steroids.”

Allyson: “Girls deserve to have strong muscles and bones and ligaments and tendons, etc. AND look good in their undies too!”

The beautiful and be-six-packed Allyson Felix

Men care what you look like – they are visual creatures after all. But men also care what you think you look like.

Lack of confidence in your own looks is not sexy. Obsessing about whether your bum looks big is a real turn-off.  If you have a nice bum from squatting, be proud of it! If you have a great six pack from training and dieting, show it off. I am a big fan of the female six pack myself, I think it is super sexy!

So back to where I started. You might be wondering, ‘why do you care what Random Gym Guy thinks anyway?’

Well, I don’t, as he’s just some random guy down the gym. But what about the men who do matter in our lives? I know from discussions on the Women’s Strength Training Network that many women do have these issues with their other halves. We can’t just say ‘well I don’t care about your feelings’. But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Louisa, who was quoted above, says “I have struggled to get my husband to understand that I’m not going to end up looking like a female body builder on steroids.” Time will prove Louisa right, and perhaps her husband will get used to her having a bit more muscle than before.

I know that my perception of muscle on both men and women has changed, the more I have been around it, seen it, and most of all, experienced the amazing things you can do with it!

This is why I am committed to changing perceptions, and why I believe that eventually a cultural shift will occur and women will no longer be considered less feminine because they have muscles and can use them.

More from gubernatrix

Girls and Strength Training: Are We Able To Shift Our Perceptions? How Else Are We ‘ABLE’? By Allyson Goble

Women’s Strength Training Network

Strong is beautiful

The toning problem: why women are missing out when it comes to weight training

All the fabulous photos by Helen Armstrong

Earlier this year I was approached by a young woman called Chantelle who had been lifting weights for a few years, loved it and now wanted to share her passion for lifting heavy things with other women.

Chantelle wanted to set up a series of weight training workshops for women only – and this is why:

“Like many of the women reading this, I train alone and have made very few friends in my weights room in all this time…I could say that my girl friends think I’m insane for lifting weights, or think that it’s not for them; that the guys in my gym think I’m a freak for lifting so don’t talk to me, or stare because I have bad form.  What’s missing from the analysis is what I’m doing and who I’m being….

I learnt almost everything I know from fantastic internet bloggers like Gubernatrix and Stumptuous, but have never passed any of this on, or given anything back.  I think I just worried about ridicule or rejection. Realising this made me decide to turn my passion for weights into action.”

You can read the full story in an article Chantelle wrote for the recent Women’s Strength Symposium called Turning passion into action. As you’ll see from the comments, this idea generated a lot of interest.

In the meantime, Chantelle got right on with organising two workshops and enlisted myself and personal trainer Ade Abudu to develop and teach the sessions.

The workshops are described below and I have also included some of the feedback we received. This is not to make us sound awesome (no, really) but to show that the concept and format really works.

I can safely say that a few of those brave souls who turned up were a bit sceptical, suspicious and otherwise unsure whether this was really what they wanted to be doing on a Sunday morning. But by the end, everyone was smiling!

Philosophy

Right from the start we knew we wanted to hold the workshop in the weights room itself. The idea was to help to demystify this space, break down the barriers (psychological, emotional, physical) preventing women from entering it and train on proper equipment.

Hiding away in a studio lifting plastic bars was not the plan!

We also wanted to hold the workshop in a normal, commercial gym – rather than a weightlifting club or Crossfit box – because we wanted people to be using the kind of equipment that they will find in their own gyms. Our workshops took place in LA Fitness.

We decided to teach the big, compound free weight exercises such as squat, deadlift, bench press and so on. We didn’t want to do ‘girly’ versions or avoid the ‘heavy’ equipment.

“I would never have been brave enough to try barbell lifts without this opportunity, and after this I was emboldened to go down to my local council leisure centre and ask if they have a squat rack.”

We wanted the atmosphere to be positive and enabling. We wanted participants to have fun but also to be pushed further than they would push themselves on their own. What better opportunity to challenge yourself when you have a supportive group of like-minded women around you?

“it was very non-confrontational and I didn’t feel that I was being tested or looked down on which made me more willing to really try things out”

We held two workshops, two weeks apart, and we encouraged people to come to both. In the end, for the second workshop we had a mix of those who had been to the first workshop and some who were newcomers.

Workshop content

In both workshops, we started the session in a studio so that we could all get to know each other and do a warm up together.

We also looked at squat technique to make sure that everyone was comfortable with the movement and had no major issues before we headed to the weights room.

I find that women generally have good movement, balance and better flexibility than a lot of men to start off with, so it is delightfully easy to teach movements like the squat! None of the participants failed to perform a decent bodyweight squat within twenty minutes, which was very impressive.

We then moved into the free weights area where we split up into smaller groups and worked on back and front squats, deadlift, bench and overhead press and inverted rows.

The weights area was being used by normal gym punters as well; we didn’t have the room to ourselves. This was both good and bad – the atmosphere was that of a normal gym day, but we did somewhat hog the equipment! Still, kinda funny when a bunch of women chuck the hapless bicep-curling bloke off the squat rack…

I’ve found in the past that the gym instructors I’ve worked with have been very reluctant to put weight on the bar (or even give me a barbell), even when I’ve clearly been perfectly capable of lifting more. In our workshop, despite the fact that most participants had never squatted with a barbell before, everyone worked up to lifting with a good deal more than just the bar.

At the end of the second workshop, we finished off with a group bench press session where everyone went for a personal best! This was great fun and ideal to try for a best when you have a group cheering you on.

“I really liked the bench press and being encouraged to try heavier weights. That Ade thought I could do more gave me the confidence to push myself harder.”

What particularly pleased me was the fact that people were willing to attempt a lift and fail! I have heard from many women that one of the things they are most nervous about is failing a lift in front of other people – and this used to be a big issue for me as well. In the workshop we made a point of getting people deliberately to ‘fail’ a squat just to feel what it is like (and to see the safety bars on the squat rack in action!). When it came to the bench press, people were so confident and ‘up for it’ that they really didn’t mind going for a heavy weight and not getting it. Knowing that they had pushed themselves to the limit was more rewarding.

It was fun, as you can see from the pictures. We didn’t force people to smile while heaving weights over their head!

Chantelle wanted to give people something to take away both as a reminder of the workshop and also as a spur to further action. So every participant got a free workout journal with a workout programme developed by Ade which covered all the exercises we had learned in the workshop. Chantelle also printed out an exercise technique handout so that participants had something to refer to when trying the movements on their own.

“Great instructors, good content, and great vibe from all participants”

I don’t know how many people went away from the workshop and started lifting immediately. I have been in touch with one or two whom I know are getting into their lifting with enthusiasm, which is fantastic. For others, the experience may work its magic in the background and may have a less tangible but still postive effect.

The aim was not to turn out an army of female powerlifters but to give women a positive experience of proper lifting and introduce an alternative to the ‘cardio bunny’ model that we are used to seeing in the gym.

“It was a really positive experience and I don’t honestly think I know of any way it could be improved, sorry!”

I personally was monumentally stoked to be part of this project. I came away from each workshop absolutely buzzing. It didn’t feel like teaching, it felt like training with a group of friends.

I plan to put on more of these in the near future so watch this space!

Symposium – a meeting or conference for the public discussion of some topic especially one in which the participants form an audience and make presentations

Gubernatrix is hosting an online symposium on women and strength training on March 8th, 2010, which is also International Women’s Day. You can access the symposium here, pre-register on the forum and introduce yourself. The symposium itself opens on 8th March.

Strongwoman Joan Rhodes chucks a man over her head for fun (photo from Life magazine)

The purpose of this symposium is to share experiences, generate ideas and inspire people to take action – to change perceptions of women’s strength, bust myths, get more women lifting heavy and generally break down barriers to strength training for women.

How will the symposium work?

I have invited several writers/strength athletes to compose a ‘think piece’ on a particular issue or challenge, to generate discussion.

These will be posted at the top of the forum thread for people to discuss within the thread. People may want to start new threads if discussions seem to be taking off in a certain direction. It’s up to you the participants to decide where you want the discussions to go.

What’s the big issue?

As most of you know, I have been lifting heavy weights for years, as a powerlifter, olympic weightlifter and even strongwoman.

But in the ten years I have been lifting I have seen very little progress in attitudes towards women strength training. The same myths about ‘getting bulky’ persist, year after year; women are still given bad advice in gyms and magazines; the free weights area is still an intimidating environment for most women.

I know that there are many women out there who would not only benefit from lifting heavy things but would really enjoy it too. I want to find ways to make weight training more accessible for women.

Understanding the issues

Putting the issues out there in a discussion forum should lead to some real insights into what motivates women with regard to training, strength, muscle, personal empowerment.

Of course you don’t have to be a woman to benefit from this kind of discussion – or indeed to take part! Since strength training is so male dominated, men are a very important part of the discussion and can have an immensely positive impact. Guys, we look forward to your input.

Taking action

I am lucky enough to have access to an incredible resource, women across the globe who are having fun and getting stronger, defying convention and forging their own paths. I have met you through this blog and through the Women’s Strength Training Network I set up on Facebook.

I hope this symposium encourages people to put their heads above the parapet and make a small difference in their communities. This could involve anything from encouraging friends to start lifting, to starting an all-women lifting group, writing about strength training, running workshops or even just be able to explain to people how beneficial and empowering strength training can be and cut through all the negative perceptions.

So do come along and take part at http://gubernatrix.co.uk/forum. You can drop in on 8th March at any time and join in the discussions. You will also be able to access the forum in the days following the symposium to see what was said and to continue the debate.

The aim is fourfold:

Be a source of support for women who are ‘out there’ strength training, usually in a male-dominated environment.

Lots of us are or have been the ‘only woman in the weights room’ and while most of the time we just get on with it and enjoy it, sometimes it is nice to have other women to chat to about strength, or simply to know that there are other women doing what we are doing. It’s hard not to feel like a freak sometimes – but there are more of us than we think! The group will demonstrate this clearly.

Highlight inspirational feats of strength by women and positive role models for female strength – not necessarily elite athletes either!

No matter how internally driven you are, it is always good to see inspirational people doing amazing things. From elite athletes pushing the boundaries to ‘ordinary’ people overcoming obstacles to achieve their goals.

Something I hear about from men in particular is the difficulty of finding postive role models to show their partners or female friends, and to combat the many myths about strength training for women that abound. Guys, this group is your answer!

Raise aspirations and standards in women’s strength training.

Women have the potential to be very strong but most women – and men who train them – have little idea what they should be aiming for. Someone once said to me that the biggest problem with female athletes is male coaches – and he was talking about the low expectations that some coaches have for female strength. So without getting too gung-ho, let’s explore what some objective strength standards are (I’ve done this elsewhere on this site but let’s expand that discussion) and back it up with experience and evidence.

Get more women into strength training

This group is primarily for women who have already decided that they want to get stronger. I’m sceptical about attempts to proselytize to so-called cardio bunnies; I don’t want to force anyone to lift weights who doesn’t want to.

That said, there are messages about the benefits of strength training that are being lost. If more women knew that strength training would strengthen their bones and joints, help them lose fat, make them fitter and more mobile and generally improve their quality of life for decades to come, maybe they’d give it a go. There are many people out there pounding the pavements who don’t particularly enjoy it but think it is the path to good health. Maybe they’d prefer weight training…

Discuss!

In the next few days and weeks I’ll start some discussions on these and similar topics in the group and I do hope you’ll join in – and start some of your own.

I’ve disabled comments on this post because I hope that if you have thoughts to share you will post them on the group site.

More food for thought:

• The toning problem: why women are missing out when it comes to free weights
• Why do most women still avoid the free weights room?
• Strength standards for women

Louise Fox deadlifting more than 3 times her bodyweight

I am always enormously impressed by the ladies who compete. Not only are they awesomely (and naturally) strong – some with strength I can only dream about – but they are all lovely and inspirational people.

Meet some of the girls

There’s Louise Fox, the petit powerhouse with a triple bodyweight deadlift; champion Patricia Kim who has a smile for everybody; Mel Golding who always looks fabulous with great hair and nails even when pulling 150kg; Helen Isaac who when she’s not lifting is taking all the official photos for the event; the incredibly strong Mary Anderson, who warms up with your max deadlift; young Kirstie Freeman and Gaby Bennett, teenagers who are in the gym pulling big weights instead of trying to imitate the latest train wreck celeb; and the amazing Pat Reeves who at 64 and with bone cancer which is currently in remission, still turns up and lifts at every competition. And many more I haven’t space to mention!

I’m in awe of these girls but it is great to compete alongside them and learn something every time.  The ladies’ contingent is also very supportive – we always cheer each other on, even our closest competitors.

Most of us train with or alongside men, so getting to lift alongside other strong girls is good fun. In fact it’s a pity that the nature of a competition event means that we don’t get to see as much of each other’s lifts as we’d like, since we’re often warming up or getting into the zone when others are lifting.

Getting into lifting

Like a lot of guys, many of us migrated into powerlifting from bodybuilding-style training or just from being in the gym. We discovered that we were kinda strong and that we liked it. Some of us were encouraged to start lifting or competing by someone else. I got into lifting on my own but it didn’t occur to me to enter a competition until the owner of the gym I was training in suggested it.

18-year-old Kirstie benches at the European Championships

If you give more women the opportunity or the encouragement to get into serious lifting, you might be surprised at what you start. Leaving women to the machines or the treadmill isn’t going to light that spark.

Women won’t necessarily jump at the chance to ‘do powerlifting’. The two women interviewed in the video clips above, Patricia Kim and Mary Anderson, both say that they weren’t particularly keen to get involved in lifting when they first started going to the gym. It’s not something most women see themselves doing at first.

I read posts from anguished boyfriends online bemoaning the fact that their women don’t want to train the same way as they do. And I have some sympathy – it’s hard to find the role models, it’s tricky to find pictures of ordinary but healthy-looking women lifting.

However, show a woman some real pictures, start talking about the kind of weights that girls like them are lifting and you may find the curiosity piqued, the competitive hackles rising.

Many of us girls are interested in finding out how strong we are, how strong we could be, how far we can push ourselves. If this quest leads us to the sport of powerlifting, or any other strength sport, that’s a bonus. The bug can take hold surprisingly quickly.

Gubes flips tyre during strongman event

Challenge

I’ve started doing strongman-inspired events (more on this in my next post) not because I harbour an ambition to ‘do strongman’ as such but because I want to continue to challenge myself in different ways and this seems to be a route that is fun and rewarding – to my twisted mind anyway.

One thing that I notice is that all the female lifters I meet have a quiet confidence about them. This goes for all sportswomen, actually, but we’ve chosen the path of strength.

I am wary of trying to speak for the other girls but I think most would agree that we’re not trying to be like guys, nor are we trying to be overly girly. We’re just being ourselves, but a stronger, more confident version of ourselves.

More from gubernatrix

• Strong is beautiful
• First powerlifting meet
• Strength standards for women
• A weighty topic

I can’t let this post go by without a shout out to my e-friends at Bodytribe, who hosted a powerlifting meet on the very same day that us UK girls were competing at the World Drug Free Championships. Out of 37 lifters at the meet, 17 were women, a very encouraging number. Read about it here.

I love strength training. You know it, but I’ll say it anyway, I bloody love it. It’s one of the most happy, positive things in my life. I like knowing I’m strong and I’m only getting stronger.

Why the sudden strength affirmation?

Well a number of things have occurred in the last couple of days. My wise friend Andrew asked me to give a talk on ‘women and strength training’. Then my tovarisch Chip Conrad posted an essay about gender strength (an extract from his book which you should seriously consider buying). Plus a couple of forum conversations I had all combined to get me thinking about this notion of strong women.

We are all aware of the issue, I expect. I’ve talked about it many times on this blog: the mismatch between the stereotypical bodybuilder-inspired image of a weight training woman which every chick thinks she will turn into, and the reality of women who do train with weights.

Chip sums it up in his piece, like a man who has been to this land before and knows how to communicate with the natives but still carries a revolver, just in case:

“Physical strength is held as a male trait. Wait… drop it. Do not throw anything at me yet. If this isn’t true then why is the common stereotype of a strong woman riddled with words like ‘butch’, ‘bulky,’ ‘steroids’, or any number of terms that have very male connotations? And why are women’s ‘fitness’ magazines so bent on perpetuating a soft, helpless version of a woman who should only do petite Pilates moves or move little colored weights around that weigh less then a kitten? And why does the cover always feature a waif-ish model who looks like a 12-year old boy with make-up on as some sort of icon to what a ‘fit’ woman is?”

I don’t disagree with this. But since it isn’t news, I suspect, to any of you, I want to go beyond the magazines and media images and examine exactly what happens when you do train.

Personally I have had nothing but positive reaction to my ever developing strength abilities. Either that or I’ve just grown completely oblivious to any negative reactions. But I think it’s the former.

The point being that there’s a difference between what images people associate if you fling the term “strong woman” at them, and what they think when you are standing in front of them.

Yeah, no-one looks their best in the middle of a max deadlift, but I’m cute when I smile!

I find that what people see in front of them starts to modify the mental images. Here’s a real living breathing person who looks normal (apart from the weirdly fluffy hairdo), saying she lifts this and presses that and heaves the other. And she looks pretty happy about it. Maybe the media fed images aren’t true after all.

Obviously the light bulb doesn’t always go on immediately as the media images are very powerful. But a seed has been planted.

Numbers

To a certain extent, it’s a numbers game. There aren’t enough women lifting weights in gyms across the land for any other images to take hold.

Most people don’t see women lifting heavy in the gym. They don’t believe it happens. They don’t know how it happens. Therefore you can stick any image you like on the cover of a magazine and people won’t know whether it is true or not.

Men who say women don’t work hard in the gym haven’t done some empirical study of the phenomenon. They’ve just never seen it happen (or more specifically they’ve not seen women training hard in a particular way which they class as ‘real training’; busting a gut in spinning class or yoga apparently doesn’t count).

However once people see women training with weights properly, I find that they start to get it. And they like it! I’ve had nothing but positive vibes from people. I’ve been accepted and respected by the ‘meatheads’ at every single gym I’ve belonged to – yeah it takes a few weeks but it happens eventually.

Who’da thunk it? Reality wins!

Men

Let’s talk about what men think for a second. Hey, most of you reading this are men anyways.

I am sure we’ve all seen the comments: the claims that women don’t work hard in the gym, women with muscles and six packs are ugly, women shouldn’t lift weights because it’s not ladylike blah blah.

Here’s the truth about women’s weight training: men are, on the whole, pretty impressed.

I’ve never had so many compliments on my physique or attitude as when I’m training. Seriously, if you care about such things, squatting heavy is a guy magnet.

I don’t care if the interest is flirty or technical – both are fine by me. If the interest is technical, I’ve got rather more to say, but I’m not fussed.

Yeah, the world isn’t perfect but there’s plenty of spare respect to go around. Women can choose to dance around in their panties on youtube and pander to male chauvinist images of what they should look like, or women can respect themselves and pursue what they think is right for them (and if that is dancing around in your panties, why not consider competitive pole dancing?).

Pretty girls are everywhere, strong women are rare! I’ll never stand out as being pretty (I have a brilliant mind of course but that doesn’t show up in a club) but put me in a squat cage with a pair of black leggings on and I’ll show you who’s your daddy.

Women

In all the years I’ve been going to the gym I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of women who have come up to me and asked me about training. This bothers me. In the past I’ve just shrugged my shoulders and carried on with what I was doing. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

Am I even leading the horse to water though? Or am I just leaving it in the dusty street to find its own way to the water trough (which is surrounded by thirsty bulls slurping all the water and farting).

Before I lose you all in that metaphor, what I mean is, have I myself done enough to create the opportunity for women to ask about strength training and actually get to do it properly? Not doing the dumbbell shoulder press on a swiss ball exercise that the PT gave them but getting under an olympic bar in the squat rack.

Perhaps the wise friend who has asked me to give a seminar is on the right track. Let’s give some talks and start some women-only sessions round the power cage!

Heroes

When I think back to what got me into strength training, I don’t remember it being anything external. There wasn’t anyone that I wanted to be like or become, it was just the way I felt inside when performing a feat of strength (at that time a relatively wimpy feat, but still a feat).

Women don’t have physical strength heroes in the way that men do. Women don’t have the pressure to be bigger, stronger and tougher the way that men do. This has its advantages (men don’t escape unscathed either) but it does mean that women are less likely to explore feats of physical strength as a method of self improvement, empowerment and happiness – especially when becoming strong is apparently contraindicated for beauty, if we believe the magazine images.

There’s no particular reason why men should be the protectors and women the carers. The roles can be interchangeable.

Beauty

‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
- John Keats’ talking urn

We can ask ‘what is strength?’ and try to define it for ourselves.

We can also ask ‘what is beauty?’ and try to define this for ourselves, since many of us (all of us?) first stepped inside a gym because we wanted to be some kind of beautiful.

I’m not talking about inner beauty either – or not just about inner beauty. I mean real, visceral, gorgeous, physical beauty made even more intense by its truth.

Call me sceptical but I look at magazine images and although I can see that they are put together pleasingly, they might as well be pencil sketches for all the relationship they bear to reality (and that’s not being fair to pencil sketches).

For me, strength is a vital component of beauty – physical as well as metaphysical and intellectual.

We shouldn’t get hung up about images of beauty or what other people think is beautiful or not beautiful. We need to know what beauty looks and feels like for ourselves.

Need a hero? Watch this great video. And then go here.

More from gubernatrix

• Strength standards for women
• The toning problem: why women are missing out when it comes to weight training
• Is it really about looks?

Written for gubernatrix.co.uk by Andrew Stemler of Crossfit London. Andrew was the first person to teach me kettlebells and I have benefitted from the infamous ‘hosepipe’ technique (mentioned below). Andrew has written a great kettlebell training guide which is available in the shop. He is also originator of the i-Course (all the Crossfit skills in one day) and the Elite Fitness Manual. Over to Andrew >>

Choosing the right weight of kettlebell  is easy.

There are just two rules:

1. Avoid ones that are stupidly light
2. Avoid those that are stupidly heavy

But thats too stupidly obvious.

Start off thinking about the basic moves you will be doing. You will be swinging and snatching, so get something that you can swing in one hand – a bag, a dumbbell from a gym, a patient cat – and see how it feels (swing it forward to about chest height and let it swing back).

Start light and work your way up. Find a weight that is challenging but fun (refer to rules 1 and 2). I find this tends to be between 8 and 16kg.

Ideally you will learn to snatch a kettlebell with a really light weight. On the Crossfit London i-Course we use a ring of hose pipe. Once you have the technique, I’ve seen most women happily snatch between 6kg and 8kg. At this early stage, people seem to be happy snatching what they can press a couple of times but it can be nice to practise your first few snatches on something light (note, not stupidly light).

The problem is that if you buy too light a bell, you quickly need another; too heavy and your form goes and you injure yourself.

A difficult choice. The reality is that you need a bell to swing and one to press and snatch. This probably means two bells.

If you are terrified by weight, a 6kg and 8kg could be a starting point. I’ve spoken to one very annoyed girl who bought a mini pack (a 1kg, a 2kg and a 4kg). She gave them to her four year old and bought an 8kg and 16kg.

My gut instinct is an 8kg and a 12kg for most women, but you could need access to a 4kg and 10kg dumbbell as well.

I suppose the real point here is this:

Do you understand what a particular weight means to you? Can you visualise 3kg, 5kg, 10kg and what basic moves you can do with those weights? If I made you squat with 30kg are you happy or sad?

So get to know how you feel about different weights. At the worst, if your 15 kg child rushed at you wanting to be picked up, can you do it?

It’s the weight, not the tool that’s important. Understand what you can lift, and the other decisions become easier.

Thanks for that, Andrew! Here is a video clip from Andrew on the kettlebell snatch: how to punch up through the movement in order to catch the bell before it whacks you on the wrsit, and how using a bit of hosepipe will help you get the technique.

I agree with Andrew’s suggestion of two kettlebells. At the moment I only have a 14kg and it is not suitable for all exercises. I’ve been trying some of the more adventurous kettlebell exercises from the Bodytribe Strength Rituals DVD and find 14kg a little heavy as a learning weight for some of the exercises. On the other hand I could handle a larger weight for exercises like swings, cleans or windmills.

More from gubernatrix

• Steel competition grade kettlebells
• Andrew Stemler’s kettlebell training guide
• Advanced kettlebell exercises on the Strength Rituals DVD

I have been to many circuit classes in my time and in every class the women are allowed to do ‘girly push ups’ – push ups on your knees.

This is fine for beginners and it is a fact of life that the vast majority of women, myself included, start off with a real disadvantage in upper body strength compared to men.

However I’ve also noticed that after months or even years of circuit training most women are still doing girly push ups. The progression isn’t happening.

Is this the fault of the women? Not entirely. It’s also the fault of the instructors.

In ten years of attending circuit classes at various establishments across the country I have only ever come across one instructor who has made an effort to get his female participants to progress to the full push up as soon as possible.

Was he a boot camp instructor? Was he a tough military type? Nope, he was an aerobics teacher.

Luckily for me, this was the first instructor I ever encountered. Within a few weeks of attending Stewart’s class I was managing full push ups – and I’ve never looked back. I can now knock out 50-plus good push ups in one go. Stewart is probably responsible for my entire strength career as the full push up was the first exercise requiring real strength that I ever mastered.

For me, the lesson is obvious. If instructors don’t encourage their female clients to aspire to full push ups from the word go, few will ever make the progression. They will get used to doing push ups on their knees and won’t build the strength to move on.

The way Stewart taught us was to focus on push ups right at the end of the class. We had already done our aerobic workout and were doing work on the mats, so there was no need to get a conditioning effect from the push ups – and hence no need to make them easier.

Stewart would insist that every single person in the class (and we were all women) attempted full push ups. He said that one full push up is better than four girly push ups – and he’s right! He gave us the following technique tips:

Keep your body ramrod straight. Imagine trying to open a jam jar using the point of a knife under the lid. Your body is like the knife, acting as a lever. The straighter you are, the better the leverage.

Try to pull your belly button up to the ceiling. This will keep your core straight and strong.

Try to push evenly through your whole body. When people are attempting push ups for the first time, they often push with their arms first and sort of snake up to their feet. But you should try to move your whole body upwards as one (think of the knife), pushing with arms and feet and pulling with belly button.

Put your hands on the floor not on the mat. You waste energy pushing into the mat which is a soft giving surface.

Another useful detail was that we started by lying on the floor and pushing up, not starting in the top position and lowering (which is what most people naturally do). This is a great way to train the push up since if you can master the push off the floor, you can do the whole thing.

Having a practice session at the end of class is a useful way to get people to progress. Naturally if the object of the circuit class is to get a conditioning workout you will need to let people do girly push ups initially in order to get the aerobic benefit. But you also need to include an opportunity to build the strength and technique to do full push ups, otherwise it doesn’t happen.

Another tip for instructors: I’ve seen time and again women complaining about push ups because they can’t do them, and each time instructors just give in and let them get away with box push ups or whatever. But aren’t you being paid to improve people? Of course women will complain about having to do push ups if they can’t do them, it’s only natural. What they don’t realise – and what you should realise – is that they are capable of doing them. They just need training and practise. You need to open up that door for them, just like Stewart did with me all those years ago.

The final word, of course, must go to the ladies. You can do full push ups. They are hard but once you learn them it is relatively easy to maintain the skill. Come on, put the guys to shame!

More on this

• Fun with press-ups!
• 100 pushup complex (video clip)
• Crossfit push up development video clip
• How-to: Handstand push up
• Bodyweight or bust!

Many people are turning to indoor climbing for fitness. They may, or may not have ambitions to climb regularly on rock but the indoor climbing environment is a fun adjunct to a gym routine.

Rock climbing however is quite technique dependent. I meet a lot of women who say “oh I couldn’t do rock climbing, I’ve got no upper body strength”. There are two answers to that: 1) rock climbing is a great way to build upper body strength, and 2) there are many techniques you can use to overcome deficiencies in upper body strength.

Top UK climber Dave McLeod comments that when he coaches beginners

“always the most dramatic image for students is when someone who is obviously very much weaker than the rest (often a female climber in a group of strong young guys) makes climbing steep ground look effortless through applying momentum and lower body muscle groups.”

This article deals with these issues. It is written from a female perspective but applies to anyone who lacks a bit of climbing strength.

Female climbers

Lynn Hill, Lisa Rands and Lucy Creamer are some of the female pioneers in climbing and they have demonstrated that women can climb just as hard and high as men. Lisa Rands in particular, known for steep highball boulder problems, has always been marketed as climbing problems ‘for guys’. Which is nonsense of course; there aren’t little labels next to routes say ‘for guys’ or ‘for girls’. Men and women climb the same routes. But not always in the same way.

If you refuse to be intimidated right from the beginning by routes that require a lot of strength you will learn how to climb them. The top teenage girls today are climbing steep, hard stuff because no-one’s told them they are not supposed to! Insanely talented British junior Kitty Wallace climbed F8a in Kalymnos (high overhanging limestone) at just 14 years old.

But what about the ‘ordinary’ climber? Well, a rising tide lifts all boats and the fact that the standard of women’s climbing is rising all the time lifts the rest of us as well. Climbing is a predominantly mental game and you have to believe that you can make the moves.

Sometimes though, it is hard to get started. You see your male fellow beginners managing to haul themselves up routes that you can’t even start and it is easy to get discouraged. Strength can be built but it takes time – the strength will come if you climb regularly. In the meantime, there are plenty of techniques and tricks you can utilise to compensate for deficiencies in strength.

Use your legs and feet

A very common issue among beginner and even intermediate climbers is forgetting to use your legs and feet properly. For women this is especially important as we tend to have much stronger legs than arms.

Having your bodyweight over your feet and using your legs to push upwards is a very solid, strong position. It is usually more efficient than reaching up at full stretch with your arms and pulling yourself up. In situations where men might just reach up and pull, women can often complete the move using techniques such as these below.

Laybacking

Laybacking is leaning back with straight arms off an edge or corner while keeping the feet high. This takes some of the pull off the arms and allows you to exploit the strength of your legs

Laybacking is most often utilized to climb a crack or an arête, where there is a long edge to lay back off. However I have also used the technique just as a way to get my feet up to a decent foothold, in situations where someone with better strength or longer limbs has been able to reach up and pull.

Here is Lynn Hill laybacking a flake. Note the straight arms and how high her feet are. Both of these techniques make the movements easier and less strenuous.

Laybacking can seem scary at first but it is a very solid position. The trick is to keep your feet high. When the feet are low there is more downward pressure and your feet are more likely to slip.

Heel hook

The heel hook (and toe hook) is brilliant and makes many a steep route or problem suddenly do-able. It takes a bit of practice to learn how to pull with the heel or toe but is worth it. This is when flexibility – where women often have an advantage over men – can really come in useful; the higher you can get your foot, the more it can help you to pull up.

In this picture the climber is using a heel hook to take the weight off her left arm. She can then use the heel and the strength of her leg to pull upwards, rather than trying to pull off her arms on tiny holds.

The heel hook can be used to get a bit of a rest or take the weight off while you place gear or clip. Heel hooks are also useful when you are trying to reach a hold, perhaps off to the side. Hooking a heel or a toe can provide a secure counter balance while you reach out with the opposite arm to grab the elusive hold.

Heel hooks are often used to top out a boulder problem (climb onto the top of the boulder). If you’ve managed to get your hands on top of the boulder but you can’t find any footholds for your feet to step up, throw a heel over the top of the boulder and use it to help pull you up.

This can be tricky at first. I have had trouble with this in the past (I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to topping out) but it is less to do with strength and more to do with technique – learning how to use the heel in the most effective way and learning how much you can pull on it.

I find that getting used to the position itself is half the battle. Topping out, especially on a slopey top, can make you feel vulnerable and having three limbs out of four above your head is an unusual position to be in! But it is worth the effort – the extra pulling power of the foot together with the fact that you have less bodyweight hanging below you means that pure strength is less of an issue.

Rock over

The rock over is a great technique for slabs or easy-angled routes. You are essentially hauling your body over so it is directly above the foot that you are rocking onto. The movement is sideways not upwards. Once you have rocked over, you can then use leg strength to push up into a standing position.

 
Rocking over onto a foothold

In these pictures you can see that I start (left hand picture) in a laybacking position with my left foot on a foothold. I haul myself sideways not upwards until my bodyweight is over my left foot (right hand picture). I am now completely solid on that left foot and can stand up to reach the top of the boulder. I could even take my hands off the wall and I wouldn’t fall.

Again, the rock over can be used where others might simply pull up. If you can get your foot up and onto a reasonably good foothold, you can rock over with confidence and when you stand up you will be much higher than when you started. The important thing with the rock over is not to try to stand up until your bodyweight is right over the foot that is pushing. If your bodyweight is not far over enough you will probably fall.

Keep your feet on

Strong climbers often climb with barely any footwork at all, swinging around and pulling up impressively. Don’t let this put you off – you don’t have to climb like that. It is almost always better to keep your feet on the rock or wall.

Modern climbing shoes have amazing grip and you can use pressure to ‘hold’ yourself via your feet and take a little bit of pressure off the arms. You also want to keep your bodyweight as close to the wall as possible. This will make you less likely to swing off and will also increase your reach.

Hips

The key to keeping your body close to the wall is your hips. Keep your hips in and the rest will follow. A very common problem with beginners is allowing your hips to hang away from the wall. This puts more pressure on your arms, moves your centre of gravity out into space and generally results in a sudden failure of grip followed by a fall.

Turning your hips into the wall also gives you extra reach with the arm closest to the wall. In the picture below, Alex Johnson is turned right into the wall for maximum reach. She is actually utilising a technique called the ‘drop knee’ or ‘egyptian’ which is a more advanced technique than some of those described here but is essential for steep rock.

Alex Johnson from Bishop Bouldering

If you look at her left foot and knee, you will see that instead of her knee and her foot facing outwards, she has actually pivoted her foot around so that the toe is pointing inwards and the knee is also dropped inwards. This gives her an extra foot or two of reach on the left side and also provides a reasonable foothold through the pressure being exerted outwards. You really have to do it yourself to understand just how useful this move is!

Here is another, simpler example of turning your hips into the wall.  This climber isn’t doing any fancy pivoting, he is just climbing turned to the side, rather than facing the crag. This gives him a bit of extra reach and his centre of gravity is nice and close to the rock.

It is easy to complain about lack of reach but in fact there are not many routes that are completely ‘out of reach’ for all but the lankiest of climbers. Yes, smaller climbers may sometimes have to work harder or be more cunning but most reach issues can be conquered. Watch a good climber with a similar reach to see what techniques they use.

More tips

Try to keep your arms straight as much as possible – it is much less tiring. If you need to pause, whether to clip or rest, hang off a straight arm.

A good cue to remember, especially when climbing outdoors on real rock is: if you can’t move your hands, move your feet.

Conclusion

Although a great deal of noise is made about strength in climbing, the biggest advantage is technique. Steve McClure, one of the UK’s most successful sport climbers, points out that he is not the strongest climber by a long way but he succeeds because he works out the best position for his body to be in:

“You can climb in two different ways: you can be super-powerful and burl your way up it or you can be super-technical and find the perfect body position to make every move as easy as possible….I haven’t got the build or the time to get super-strong so I’ll try and use my head if possible”

Treat climbing not as a competition in strength but as problems to be worked out (that’s why boulder problems are so called after all!) and you are much more likely to succeed.

Further reading

• Climbing beginners – top 5 technique basics – thoughtful principles from Dave McLeod
• Rock climbing techniques explained – basic techniques
• Bishop Bouldering - some of the world’s best bouldering and great photos by Wills Young
• Online climbing coach – great web project from Dave McLeod, for all levels of climber