Guys bringing women to gyms: boards.ie H&F vs. popular media

g'em

Here at the Health and Fitness forum I think we do a pretty stirling job of encouraging women to lift more. It's a fairly uphill struggle what with all the misconceptions of why women should and shouldn't lift or trying to battle against the misconceptions of whether a woman "belongs" in the weights area. But then you see articles like this, and I can't help but die a little inside.

So, guys and girls, is our attitude here a little too progressive and - dare I say it - insular? Is the above really the attitude of most guys who go to the gym or should it just be written off as a stupid piece of bum fluff to be picked off and thrown away?

Don't Bring Her to the Gym

By James Fell - Published May 04, 2011 | Askmen.com


I’ll admit that there may be some good reasons to bring along your significant other when you hit the gym, like providing her with the opportunity to do something about the hail damage on her ass, but in my opinion, the costs outweigh any potential benefits.

Convincing her to work out is great, but send her to pilates or Curves instead.

The gym is my version of church, and I’m a deeply religious man in this sense. I don’t want my wife interfering with my prayer sessions, and neither should you.

Sure, you may have a woman for whom these reasons don’t apply. If so, bully for you. Feel free to ignore this advice. If you do take her with you, please remember, no PDA.

For the rest of you, here are six damn good reasons why working out should either be done solo or with a friend who also stands up to pee.

You Can’t Check Out the Babes
Let’s get one thing straight: Ogling women and wandering around drooling with a visible hard-on while at the gym is seriously not cool. They don’t like that. Conversely, I think the occasional subtle glance using the mirror is perfectly acceptable.

If your girl is with you, you can kiss that goodbye.

Seriously, no matter how discreet you think you are, you’ll get busted. And you’ll pay.

She’ll Check Out the Babes and Ask How She Compares
And there is no good answer.

You can be honest, which is a big mistake, or you can get down on your knees and promise on your own soul that she is the most beautiful creature in all the gym -- nay, the world!

And she’ll still think you’re full of crap.

Going to an environment where there are lots of sweaty hard bodies in spandex for her to compare herself to could make her anxious, and this won’t be good for her mood. And, again, you’ll suffer for it.


She’ll Distract You
I’m talking about weightlifting here. If she doesn’t know how to lift, she’ll want you to train her, which seriously takes away from your workout. If you want to go to the gym together, and you lift while she takes a class or jumps on an aerobic machine, then that’s fine.

But even if she is capable at lifting, chances are she isn’t going to be as strong as you or want to follow a similar program.

When working out with a friend, I go with a guy of similar abilities so that we can push each other more effectively. No offense to women, but most of them just aren’t as physically strong as men are.
That’s OK, though, because they make up for it in other ways.

She Won’t Listen to You Anyway
Say you do take her to the gym and decide to train her -- you're going to have to give her instructions.
Let me ask you something: Does your woman like it when you instruct her on how to do something?
I thought so.
It’s a fight waiting to happen. She won’t respect your authority to train her because she’s not actually paying you to do it.

Training your girl on how to lift weights is an emotionally tricky thing with not much upside.
The best way for your girl to get the training she needs is from a certified personal trainer, preferably one that has a degree in kinesiology and a high-level certification (and not just a weekend certification). If this trainer is male, it also helps if he’s ugly. Better yet, she should have a female trainer.

You’ll See Her at Her Worst
Sure, lots of women show up to the gym looking great, but if they’re not some hoop-earring-clad girl just doing the 15-minute-elliptical-yoga-mat-prance-and-stretch combo and instead are actually working hard, then things could get ugly.
And possibly smelly.
Seriously, do you really want to see her pit stains and smell her B.O.?
‘Nuff said.

You Need Guy Time
I talked about the gym being my church, and I meant it.

Admittedly, some of these points don’t apply to me. My wife and I’ve been together over two decades, and I’m allowed to look at other women, and she doesn’t care how she compares to them because she owns every room she walks into. As for the disheveled look after a hard workout, I’ve watched her give birth. Twice.

That stuff about her not listening to me is totally applicable to my relationship, though, and so is this gem of advice:

The place is my home away from home. I live with my wife and kids, and they’re awesome and I love them, but sometimes I just need to get the hell away from everybody. The gym is where family doesn’t intrude, and vice versa. It’s my separate oasis where I go to recharge.

I have a wife who I love with all my heart. But the gym is my mistress, and I love her, too.

And never the twain shall meet.

Fortunately for me, my wife doesn’t just lounge around. She’s got an internationally-recognized black belt in karate, and could quite likely kick my ass.

I hope she doesn’t read this article.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/05/03/dont-bring-gym/#ixzz1ObT4XYNF

Hanley

Strongly disagree on all points.

A real man would leverage her at her worst and the hot girls in the gym to his advantage by making his girlfriend feel inadequate and like sh*t. This would make her train more and look better, and be a more attentive girlfriend.

Since she’s impinging on his ‘guy time’, he’d ensure adequate time off from the relationship to hang around with friends - say Friday and Saturday nights.

As for distracting you, if it’s gotten to the point where you actually pay attention to your girlfriend, it’s already too late for you and you deserve everything you get.

Bottle_of_Smoke

The only things he mentioned that I can see his point is a girlfriend may get jealous of other girls there, and it is a nice place to have your own space. The rest was pure nonsense though. And those examples I agreed with wouldn't apply to a female friend or relative.

I think there's far bigger barriers than the likes of this twat though.

First one is girls don't lift because they are terrified of looking like female bodybuilders. Now whilst we all know a girl weightlifting 3 times a week without juice is never going to look like that, women do really fear looking manly.

Only thing I can think of to stop this misunderstanding would be if a popular well known celebrity with a great body did a campaign showing the benefits of weightlifting.

Other problem is many women don't want to be in a gym with men at all. I'd imagine they'd be even more against the idea of it if the gym meant the positions required for squats and deadlifts.

So its kind of up to the female gyms to push weightlifting on women. As they mostly work for profit rather than results I wouldn't be too confident they'd be helpful enough. Only gym I know pushes lifting heavy on women is educogym and thats more of a personal training company than a regular gym

So the celebrity campaign needs doing. For some reason I suspect lads who lift heavy (therefore have capability to show a girl how to workout properly) are less likely to be the type of guys to have female friends.

I don't want to derail the thread with that comment because I don't mean it as an insult, its just based on myself and lads I know who train like I do

Oryx

I'm confused. How can a guy spout such misogynistic clap trap 'women are weak and needy and eyecandy yadda yadda', and then go on to praise his wonderful wife and family so sincerely, and be sh1t scared of his wife reading the article in case she beats him up?

Either stand up and be counted for your beliefs, James Fell, or stfu.

I too weep inside to think this is the way it is for us. That we are seen as weak, unmotivated pieces of fluff who distract from the serious male work of the gym. I hope his attitude is not typical, but I fear it might be. And the sisters are not helping the cause, as many women I know (and who write for advice here) are afraid of weights and 'bulk'.

As for his argument:
The ogling bit. Any honest man Ive spoken to admits he does, from time to time. A secret, guys? So do we.
Women do compare themselves to other women, and they dont need a man to assist.
She'll distract you? Hell, she might work hard and get stronger than you.
She wont listen? Nonsense. She'll listen to the instructor who is more patient with her than her oh.
See her at her worst? No worse than seeing a male cumface and still loving the guy after.
You need guy time? Yup, and we need gal time. So move over and dont hog the weights.

G86

Sadly, I think the open-minded attitude displayed on boards.ie towards women and weights isn't really indicative of the general rule. IRL, I constantly have to bite my tongue on a day to day basis when it comes to the subject. I used to try and explain it to people, but the main consensus seems to be that if you're a woman and you lift weights then you're going to look like this:rolleyes::

Vegeta

I feel dumber after reading that. I can only speak for myself but I definitely do not agree with that farticle*





*Was going for a melding of farcical article and arrived at farticle, which is quite apt.

Dathai

Just found his twitter. For someone who's authored a book and articles on fitness and weightlifting, he looks like shít.

g'em

Anytime I've been in a relationship with someone who shared my love of lifting I always used to really enjoy training with them and had some of my best sessions when there was some friendly competition going on.

The article reeks of a desperately insecure attitude from the writer but unfortunately I'd hazard a guess that it's reflective of the uninformed majority and not the clued-in minority.

Zamboni

g'em wrote: »

Here at the Health and Fitness forum I think we do a pretty stirling job of encouraging women to lift more. It's a fairly uphill struggle what with all the misconceptions of why women should and shouldn't lift or trying to battle against the misconceptions of whether a woman "belongs" in the weights area. But then you see articles like this, and I can't help but die a little inside.

So, guys and girls, is our attitude here a little too progressive and - dare I say it - insular? Is the above really the attitude of most guys who go to the gym or should it just be written off as a stupid piece of bum fluff to be picked off and thrown away?

http://www.bodyforwife.com/about/

The guy clearly prides himself on being an asshole.
I wouldn't read too much into it anything he writes.

woggie

I would treat this article with the same (lack of) respect that i'd treat one suggesting that women shouldn't be allowed on the golf course/pub ...sure it's nice sometimes to have you're own space, works both ways, but suggesting that never the twain should meet is just ridiculous.
I'd imagine though that the "author" is deliberately trying to shock and provoke people with his arguments, it's just cheap journalism ...any publicity is good publicity kinda thing, I certainly don't think it would jeopardise the chances of any woman who really wanted to work out getting to the gym.

I'm with Vegeta on the Farticle comment

g'em

Zamboni wrote: »

http://www.bodyforwife.com/about/

The guy clearly prides himself on being an asshole.
I wouldn't read too much into it anything he writes.

Jebus, so he's one of those "I lost 50lb and now my penis looks bigger so I'm gonna hate on y'all for the lulz" kinda guys? Give me patience.

Oryx

Zamboni wrote: »

http://www.bodyforwife.com/about/

The guy clearly prides himself on being an asshole.
I wouldn't read too much into it anything he writes.

I tried to view that page but his ego wouldn't fit on my screen.

d'Oracle

That article is pretty funny, in a Ron Burgundy "Its Science" kind of way
I'm not sure its meant to be, but its not exactly something to worry about.

70sbig.com have done a few posts on women who lift recently.
I'd pay more attention to that.



I'd encourage the missus to start some sort of lifting but she has this issue with one of her arms that I am frankly scared to risk on.

That and the fact that she stopped into Ironside to pick me up the other day.

In conversation a few days later she told a friend:

wifey wrote:

Its a mans gym. Its just all men standing around lifting weights and looking at each other lifting weights.

I wanted to dispute this......

itsallaboutheL

There's a girl in my gym that wears knee sleeves.

I call her kneesleeve lady.

What's this about again?

howtomake

Zamboni wrote: »

http://www.bodyforwife.com/about/

The guy clearly prides himself on being an asshole.
I wouldn't read too much into it anything he writes.

Completely agree. Another "writer" who has absolutely nothing to say, except to try to shock people into losing a few brain cells by reading their silly trite nonsense.

Hanley

I know what I want to do with my life now. Make money off dumb people...

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discus

g'em wrote: »

Anytime I've been in a relationship with someone who shared my love of lifting I always used to really enjoy training with them and had some of my best sessions when there was some friendly competition going on.

Err, using yourself as a comparison to the generalisation of women that the author has is not the best for this debate. You - as a competitive oly weightlifter - are in the minority of women everywhere... We're talking <1%.

The article reeks of a desperately insecure attitude from the writer but unfortunately I'd hazard a guess that it's reflective of the uninformed majority and not the clued-in minority.

Are these majorities and minorities you are referring to just within women?

Also I'm not sure how it reeks of insecurity

d'Oracle

discus wrote: »

Are these majorities and minorities you are referring to just within women?

I would have thought that it was very obviously not.

discus

Hanley wrote: »

Strongly disagree on all points.

A real man would leverage her at her worst and the hot girls in the gym to his advantage by making his girlfriend feel inadequate and like sh*t. This would make her train more and look better, and be a more attentive girlfriend.

Agree.

Hanley wrote: »

Since she’s impinging on his ‘guy time’, he’d ensure adequate time off from the relationship to hang around with friends - say Friday and Saturday nights.

Friday and Saturday? Surely you mean Ladsday and Banturday. And since when would any dude hang out with his chick on Ladsday and Banturday anyway?

discus

d'Oracle wrote: »

I would have thought that it was very obviously not.

Clue me in, so. There's a whole matrix of possibilities.

d'Oracle

discus wrote: »

Clue me in, so. There's a whole matrix of possibilities.

Its an article republished from Askmen.com, written by a man advising men about their activities.

G'em was referring to the article.
This was pretty much the only possibility.

Pretty much 4th class comprehension.

G86

discus wrote: »

Err, using yourself as a comparison to the generalisation of women that the author has is not the best for this debate. You - as a competitive oly weightlifter - are in the minority of women everywhere... We're talking <1%.

In fairness, I've the same viewpoint as G'em too. I've never had any problem training with OH's, in fact I've found it's a great common interest to have.

discus

d'Oracle wrote: »

Its an article republished from Askmen.com, written by a man advising men about their activities.

G'em was referring to the article.
This was pretty much the only possibility.

Pretty much 4th class comprehension.

That's a rather snotty post. Considering that I was asking Ge'm for some polite clearance so I could procede with partaking in this discussion, I'm surprised that you've provided 2 posts with nothing but bad attitude.

I understand you are upset on this forum lately, considering you find offence at anyones posts, be it a regular like Hanley or a breeze-in like myself, but maybe you could... tone it down?

d'Oracle

discus wrote: »

That's a rather snotty post. Considering that I was asking Ge'm for some polite clearance so I could procede with partaking in this discussion, I'm surprised that you've provided 2 posts with nothing but bad attitude.

I understand you are upset on this forum lately, considering you find offence at anyones posts, be it a regular like Hanley or a breeze-in like myself, but maybe you could... tone it down?

I'm not upset at this forum at all.
You are basically interpreting something wrongly again there.

But ok. I'm Sorry the next time you ask for the premise of the entire thread to be explained, I will do it in as nice a manner as possible.

matamoros1965

My GF at the time and I used to train in a local gym, we'd go together but she'd go do other things and then come over to say hi every so often and once in a while I'd get a little kiss of encouragement, ahh to be fit and in love!

At another venue in the same chain of gyms, I used to see a couple there in the morning, he was a big guy and she was very athletic looking, after a set, she would come over a wipe his brow, they were so together and they didn't seem to see anyone else in the place but each other. At first, it looked kinda different but after a while, I thought it was cute. An incurable romantic, I am.

gymfreak

I got bored after reading the first few lines of that article. It's just another piece of clueless crap not even worth the read IMO...it's just too big of a generalisation.

squod

''Everything I do is based on science and empirical evidence''...... ''I don’t care if Dr. Moreno has credentials. Nothing he can say or write or quote will change the physical laws of the universe.''

He has a twitter account with a picture of himself on it, topless!
He does come across as kinda arrogant. D'you know this guy reminds me of someone.

g'em

discus wrote: »

Err, using yourself as a comparison to the generalisation of women that the author has is not the best for this debate. You - as a competitive oly weightlifter - are in the minority of women everywhere... We're talking <1%.

so what though? Like i said befire I'm a firm believer that a lot of girls don't lift because of misconceptions, the kind of misconceptions we're trying to break down and that article is perpetuating. I say that in the hope that one girl might read it and think that training with a partner is great fun, not a hardship.

discus wrote:

Are these majorities and minorities you are referring to just within women?

men. I'd hope it goes without saying that I don't include the guys here.

discus wrote:

Also I'm not sure how it reeks of insecurity

on his part, this macho bravado BS. Sorry but in my personal experience a secure man has no such issues with a partner training alongside him.

omniscient_toad

I think gender is only indirectly an obstacle in taking a partner to the gym, in my experience taking anyone along male or female the most important factor was how your focus matched up. If I went with the aim of driving through gruelling sets working towards pb's with the minimum rest between exercises I'm not going to harmoniously get on with someone who's come along to chat and have go on the bike/stepper/treadmill intermittently.

I've encountered the problem with both men and women I've gone to the gym with but unfortunately it seems a more common attitude in women (,as is evident even in this thread there are many exceptions,) largely down to the the usual misinformation (long steady state cardio being all important, weights will make women bulky etc). In many attempts over the years I've yet to convert any girlfriend to regular weight lifting, and after a certain point it becomes less advice and more preaching and chastising. In my own limited experience i've found it's much like nutritional information, a female coworker/friend who has achieved impressive results is much more likely to convince than a partner.

howtomake

matamoros1965 wrote: »

My GF at the time and I used to train in a local gym, we'd go together but she'd go do other things and then come over to say hi every so often and once in a while I'd get a little kiss of encouragement, ahh to be fit and in love!

At another venue in the same chain of gyms, I used to see a couple there in the morning, he was a big guy and she was very athletic looking, after a set, she would come over a wipe his brow, they were so together and they didn't seem to see anyone else in the place but each other. At first, it looked kinda different but after a while, I thought it was cute. An incurable romantic, I am.

Yeah that kinda sounds cute and sickening at the same time. To each their own. I like it when its only me and my mp3 player.

discus

g'em wrote: »

so what though? Like i said befire I'm a firm believer that a lot of girls don't lift because of misconceptions, the kind of misconceptions we're trying to break down and that article is perpetuating. I say that in the hope that one girl might read it and think that training with a partner is great fun, not a hardship.

The reason why I picked you up on that is because unlike most people, you have a true target with nearly every session, and it's likely that your partner is just as dedicated to a particular competitive cause. More than likely, you are well educated in what you train for, and have an extensive training background.

However, most males who go to the gym (take a look in Northwood, or any of the chain gyms) are fairly pig ignorant when it comes to training. Their training is merely what they have seen others do... and as for what they can pass on to a partner, well... let's just say it's less than eff-all!

It's probably better to tell men to leave the partners at home. That way, clued-in guys will still try get their respective partners on the right track... And we'll be saving the average male gym goer from having his significant other doing the following:

1) dumbell punches (with twisting motion, as seen in Sportslink, Santry)
2) minimal ROM on the stepper (as seen in ballymun LC)
3) pink dumbell curls... x50... twice

and so on. At least the girls might go looking for info themselves, and find the light. You know, what most of us in here are all about.

men. I'd hope it goes without saying that I don't include the guys here.

I think I was looking for something deeper, that wasn't there at all... As in, clued-in men with women who weren't interested in gyming versus clued-in men with partners who were also clued-in who they still didn't want them there.... or something. I dunno. That's why I asked.

on his part, this macho bravado BS. Sorry but in my personal experience a secure man has no such issues with a partner training alongside him.

Yeah, I get that... in his case. But there could be a multitude of other reasons why a guy (or girl!) doesn't want their partner training with them.

FewFew

Hah, I'm sorry, I looked away, looked back and half snorted half sniggered when the first thing I read was "You can't check out the babes" HAH!

I guess the guy thinks he knows the audience he's writing for, or else genuinely talks like that, but wow... he's entering stereotype land and not looking back. eep!

Mellor

g'em wrote: »

so what though? Like i said befire I'm a firm believer that a lot of girls don't lift because of misconceptions, the kind of misconceptions we're trying to break down and that article is perpetuating. I say that in the hope that one girl might read it and think that training with a partner is great fun, not a hardship.

I disagree slightly.
The article is promoting a general bad attitude of course; You Can’t Check Out the Babes, Ask How She Compares, She’ll Distract You etc. But none of these misconceptions are the reason why women don't lift.
If you ask any women why they don't lift? They'll most likely say they don't want to get big, or they aren't strong enough, or it's not for girls. The article didn't promote any of those misconceptions. Very few, if any, women, won't lift because they don't want to distract their other half.

I don't think the article was promoting that women shouldn't lift weights ever, just that they should do it with a PT and not their oher half.

Again, the article is completely wrong, but i don't agree that its directly promoting no weights for women. But it isn't helping obviously, as their is nothing wrong with a boyfriend acting as mini-PT

omniscient_toad wrote: »

I think gender is only indirectly an obstacle in taking a partner to the gym, in my experience taking anyone along male or female the most important factor was how your focus matched up. If I went with the aim of driving through gruelling sets working towards pb's with the minimum rest between exercises I'm not going to harmoniously get on with someone who's come along to chat and have go on the bike/stepper/treadmill intermittently.

That's nonsense imo.
Firstly, if you are going for a PB session, you are going to be taking minimum rest, if anything you'll need extended rest. But that's besides the point.

The majority of your time is spent between sets. They is absolutely nothing stopping you chatting with someone during this time, be they male or female, doing intermittent cardio, weights somewhere else, or stretching. It doesn't have to be anything important, but a few words aren't going to drag you out of the PB zone.

Even if you are incredibly rigid about your rest time, explain that you have to knock out another set when the timer beeps. If anything, she'll ask why and you can impart some beneficial knowledge regarding weight training, god forbid even encourage her to give it a shot.

discus wrote: »

It's probably better to tell men to leave the partners at home. That way, clued-in guys will still try get their respective partners on the right track... And we'll be saving the average male gym goer from having his significant other doing the following:

1) dumbell punches (with twisting motion, as seen in Sportslink, Santry)
2) minimal ROM on the stepper (as seen in ballymun LC)
3) pink dumbell curls... x50... twice

Ah come on, tell them not to do it, so they don't do it wrong. GTFO.

Wouldn't a far better article be, one that explains why those type of workouts are wrong. Solve the problem, don't avoid it.

discus

Mellor wrote: »

Ah come on, tell them not to do it, so they don't do it wrong. GTFO.

It happens! Girls go along to gyms with their boyfriends and have expections in their heads - what exactly, I just don't know - but their boyfriend will have them doing muck. So she might last a week or two and then no more. This is all anecdotaly of course, but I can think of nearly ten times that I've seen it happen throughtout college alone.

In contrast, I brought a girl to IP who was fairly impressed with the structure of the workouts etc, and now C2/C1 is a mainstay of her conditioning.

Wouldn't a far better article be, one that explains why those type of workouts are wrong. Solve the problem, don't avoid it.

There's info out there. But if people - girls specifically - aren't exposed to it, they'll have to take whatever their boyfriend says as gym gospel.

omniscient_toad

Mellor wrote: »

That's nonsense imo.
Firstly, if you are going for a PB session, you are going to be taking minimum rest, if anything you'll need extended rest. But that's besides the point.

If anything, she'll ask why and you can impart some beneficial knowledge regarding weight training, god forbid even encourage her to give it a shot.

It is entirely beside the point of the thread so I didn't go into any personal detail about training, I wasn't talking about single rep maxes, I was referring to pb's at a fixed set/rep/rest formula, apologies for confusing you.

As I made clear in the rest of my post I've attempted to encourage partners to "give it a shot" a number of times with limited success and beyond a certain point it becomes nagging and I'll let it go. I'm entirely open to the possibility I'm just remarkably unconvincing but I've found the most success comes from girlfriends encountering another woman who they admire/envy who recommends weight training. It's tended to be less a rational factual explanation of benefits and more a gut level fear of "becoming bulky" or an intrinsic belief that male/female exercise inherently differs.

dartstothesea

If there is some kind of prevailing, narrow mindset preventing women from being more gymnasium-orientated etc, I don't think the problem lies with men who do spend time in the gym. Maybe I give too much credit to them though.

For example, when I see someone, anyone, training in a gym, I don't really bat an eyelid, because, why wouldn't everyone do it? It makes sense to me.
When I see someone that doesn't do something in the way of strenuous physical activity, that is what does not compute.

People who go to gyms will generally hold the opinion that people belong in gyms. People who don't go are generally the ones with the misguided notion that they don't belong somehow.

Compared to guys who go gym, girls (and maybe guys) who don't go to the gym are probably more responsible for perpetuating the idea that girls don't belong there.

Gymgymgym.

Oryx

A long, long time ago, I used your regular hotel type gym with pool/cardio/weights section. Girls used to use the weight machines from time to time, but I don't think I ever saw any use free weights. And mainly girls used the cardio machines. I was only ever shown how to use dumbells and eventually, the smith machine for squats.

I train at home now, so have no idea if that situation has changed. I found a great PT who knows that training wise, the only difference between men and women is our perceptions. I did go to his kettlebell classes which were half and half men/women, and I think now the women are overtaking the men (havent been in a while but see them go in). And its a tough class, no allowances made for 'the fairer sex'. I love that women are doing these classes and finally finding out that its bleedin hard work to develop decent, not big, muscle tone, and that you wont blow up like someone stuck an air line in ya.

I hope that Im right when I think the old adage 'horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow' is changing, it seems more women are getting into tougher exercise, and sweating. I mean, glowing, ffs.

The Guvnor

I've not read the thread.

Apart from the obvious the article is crap, poorly written and obviously done just to antagonise people.

Personally I think I've had at least one female training partner since the late 90's.

FTR - everyone was always treated the same - same exercises, sets, reps the lot.

I have noticed that women cheat less in the gym which is good but does mean your odd sloppy rep won't fly!:D

TheZ

"Women only" sections in gyms did more harm than good in encouraging women to feel self conscious or to only exercise in that space?

Nowadays I think you see less and less women in women only sections and more and more women in free weights section and it is self perpetuating as if women see women in weights section then they feel comfortable in also going into it.

Most classes in gyms (apart from spinning and kettlebells) seem to be mainly women though even though they are open to all. I think gyms could do more to get more men to go to classes and it can be as simple as changing the class name from Bodypump to circuit training.

Mellor

discus wrote: »

It happens! Girls go along to gyms with their boyfriends and have expections in their heads - what exactly, I just don't know - but their boyfriend will have them doing muck. So she might last a week or two and then no more. This is all anecdotaly of course, but I can think of nearly ten times that I've seen it happen throughtout college alone.

In contrast, I brought a girl to IP who was fairly impressed with the structure of the workouts etc, and now C2/C1 is a mainstay of her conditioning.



There's info out there. But if people - girls specifically - aren't exposed to it, they'll have to take whatever their boyfriend says as gym gospel.

I don't deny it prob happens. And not just couples, i often see two guys together doing nonsense workout outs.

But that doesn't change my point, the fact that that happens doesn't mean that the article is right. The right article would be telling guys to stop having girlfriends doing 50 reps with 1kg weights

Mellor

omniscient_toad wrote: »

It is entirely beside the point of the thread so I didn't go into any personal detail about training, I wasn't talking about single rep maxes, I was referring to pb's at a fixed set/rep/rest formula, apologies for confusing you.

I never mentioned max singles, my point still stands for 3, 5 or 20 rep PBs. Somebody there should't affect your workout, not like the article describes

TheZ

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/13/weightlifting-could-change-your-life

Zamboni

TheZ wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jun/13/weightlifting-could-change-your-life

I imagine myself as one of those diagrams showing a body with the skin flayed off, all sheets of taut red-and-purple striped muscles

Glad I'm not the only one