To not 'get' the weight lifting craze?

[bellaiceberg]

It's only my own opinion, and I accept we are all different, blah blah.
But I don't get the contemporary obsession with building muscle. Keeping toned and fit? Yes. Strong and capable? Yes, sure!
But basically eliminating natural female curves and softness to a large extent makes no sense to me. For those who are into body sculpting, that's great, but for the general population?

It kind of reminds me of Germaine Greer when she asked why is 'equality' now about imitating men, rather than men meeting us in the middle?
We women do seem to be growing more and more towards the masculine whilst pushing the naturally feminine away somewhat. Strength is something that isn't always skin deep, and our natural bodies perform just perfectly without terrifying hip thrusts and being able to lift up a small car.

Im exaggerating, but I do feel that our culture is becoming more and more weird about women's bodies. Building muscle in theory is great, and we do tend to lay more fat down, but there's a point where it all starts getting weird. Just seen images of a woman with a fabulous figure who was slightly overweight. She had soft curves and looked pretty fit. Everyone advised her to get everything built up at the gym, that her curved thighs and soft (flat) stomach were not 'healthy'.

AIBU to think it is all bollox? That it's gone from a healthy fitness thing towards a fear of the feminine? I know many women dont have curves and are still obviously feminine. I also know that what we term 'masc/fem' is pretty fluid anyway. But I am strictly focusing on weight training here, and the idea that this is the optimal way for a woman to get fit and healthy.

If I look at some instagram accounts where people are into this, I would honestly say it's more of a fashion/vanity project that health related, for both men and women. Whilst some are concentrating on having exaggerated 'booty's', others are desperate to eliminate any softness or curve. As if it is wrong to have any soft flesh at all.

I agree that muscle is as much feminine as masculine, but we still live in a society where our culture teaches boys to look down on anything traditionally associated with girls (from colours ~ pink!, emotional expression, nurturing, softness, intuition, etc). IMHO we have had to imitate men to become acceptable as opposed to men gaining more respect for US.

And yes yes i know people will pile on and say weight training saved their life/the third world/their obesity, etc. But I do think it's bonkers when a perfectly healthy woman is told any softness is unhealthy.

I don't notice this. I do notice that weight loss pics tend to show women who might have converted curves into boyish figures, but the weightlifting results ones just tend to be toned up, they are still very female shaped.

It's very difficult for women to build very defined muscle so I don't think this is one you need to worry about.

Bad luck. You're miles in the minority, though, and there's lots of guidance about doing it safely, which has been followed by millions of people for years, who haven't injured themselves.

I think what you describe as a craze is what I would describe as a realisation that lifting weights has many benefits for women as well as men. I'd far rather do three weights sessions a week than a load of boring cardio on gym machines. I walk every day for cardio and some if the weights I do are HIIT and tabata, etc. Good high protein diet and weights transformed my body shape and I didn't turn into a bloke.

What specifically were you doing? I'm worried about this, as a former gymnast who has had back issues. I had disc issues in my teens and have been worried about doing anything to hurt my back again.

I'm all for weightlifting - think it's good to develop strength to combat osteoporosis and poor posture. However I also have recently found out I have quite bad spinal stenosis, disc degeneration and foramen narrowing for my age, and am wondering how much of that was caused by sport or the gym.

I think there is a lot of unqualified PTs on Instagram giving out bad advice. This lady constantly spams our local community Facebook pages, and from following her Instagram she claims to only use hand weights-- yet every single fucking meal has been calorie counted. Literally every meal has "healthy swaps" or "low calorie versions of xyz" Yes she's absolutely ripped but my god how is it healthy to be encouraging your own insecurities to other women?

Oh I'm so sorry to hear this. I have a bad feeling this could be me soon. I've had facet joint injections of cortisone and Botox () and while my headaches have come away I still have terrible pain in my shoulder blade when turning my head.

I disagree, I think it's brilliant it's finally 'acceptable' for women to be strong and have muscles. As pp said, most women have always actually been strong, as they needed to do physical labour. But at least when I, gen x, was young, we were told that being strong is unattractive and something to avoid. No squats because you get bulky legs! No weights heavier than 0.5 kilo, you will look like the Incredible Hulk!
Being strong is so incredibly good for you.

I don't think lifting weights always makes you look masculine and bulky though, does it?
I understood that to get that very lean, slim, toned look (think Jennifer Anniston back in the day), you need to lift weights.
I do tonnes of CV and Im slim, but not toned in the slightest.

Building lean muscle helps keep you slim and allows you to eat more. Muscle is more dense than fat so people with a lower body fat percentage often look smaller, rather than bigger. 'Toned' is just body fat low enough to show muscle underneath. Easiest way to get that look is resistance training. Resistance training incorporates functional compound movements that mimic things we do in everyday life such as bending, hinging, squatting, lunging, lifting things over your head etc meaning you will be less prone to injury in everyday life. Weight lifting prevents sarcopenia and osteoporosis in old age. I could go on and on.

I don't get any sexist element of 'women looking more like men'. There are plenty of doughy soft men around with nice 'curvy' bellies.

I wouldn't have curves naturally unless I weight lifted, my natural body shape is straight up and down, flat bum, no waist, flabby arms. With weight lifting I have a round lifted bum, wider looking hips and bigger thighs, slimmer arms and a flatter stomach with a more nipped waist. I create all this by adding muscle.

I have hypermobilty syndrome and lifting heavy weights has helped me enormously.

I'm a shapely size 12 with a nice high bum, I competed in my first ever powerlifting meet and am proud of my 1RMs

I like being strong and able to lift things

But you could have done that anyway
I herniated a disc so badly i got cauda equina and had a 5hr discectomy and laminectomy. No idea how. The surgeon said he sees everything from car accidents causing it to lifting wet washing

@pixie5121 the surgeon told me I was fine to lift but not to do anything that involved bend and lift - so bent over rows bad, squats good. And I was better to use a trap bar for deadlifts
Also to think of core as a corset so to make sure I had an absolutely solid core and avoid high impact stuff like step class, running on concrete, jumping off stuff etc

you can't muscle build your way out of looking like a woman because..... you are a woman. You might muscle build your way out of the societal convention of what a woman looks like. I feel like your post is akin to asking why women are allowing underarm or leg hair to grow because it means they want to be more like men instead of being empowered as women.

I can't work out why anyone uses an Olympic bar for deadlifts anyway. Asking for trouble! See so many people round their back.

My mum has had her spine fused twice and to my knowledge has never lifted a weight in her life sometimes its just bad luck unfortunately

I don't agree with you. Most women are only building their muscles within their range of natural capability. Surely that is still as feminine as those women who choose to embrace a softer, rounder or leaner physique? It's all just somewhere within the spectrum of possible female body composition. Lots of men are soft, lean or rounder too but we're not criticising that as being a femine-led trend.

I latched onto the ‘craze’ at 18, I’m 53 now.

ita great for posture, bones, feeling good. I have RA & it really helps.

I lift heavy, I’ve never had big muscles. I don’t have the body type

I’m 42. I lift. My current personal bests - deadlift 105kg, squat 95kg and chest press 60kg. I enjoy it and like upping the weight. I can now lift more than my body weight. It makes me feel good. I also look womanly, nothing like a man. I’m not trying to copy men. I just like being strong. It’s good for my bones!

Having strong muscles, a strong core and understanding good form are all protective against hurting your back.

I am very jealous of your bench! My DL and back squat are the same as you but I cannot breakthrough 45 for bench!

Honestly the only natural curves I have usually anyway are my stomach rolls 😅 I'm not an hourglass, it would be nice but I'm just not and so I prefer how I look lifting weights anyway.

I love doing the weights at the gym. It feels good. I don't go crazy or lift anything too heavy, and I'm still fat. It just feels good in the moment.

Strength training, with free weights, was the best thing I could have done to improve my EDS symptoms. Yes I do still occasionally sublex and yes i do still live with pain every day but the crutches and wrist splints are a distant memory.
I do avoid the machines though, they force me in to an unnatural range of motion and put me at risk of dislocation

I think seeing women lifting proper weights in the gym is awesome. i love it too.

Such a shame you feel like this OP. I’d recommend strength training and it can really help with body image issues as an added benefit. It’s great for endorphins too.

I’m a 56 yo peri menopausal woman who lifts as heavy as I can. I feel absolutely fabulous and look very much like a woman. I’ve got a waist, flat stomach and pretty good arms, shoulders and back. I’ve got baby biceps and I’ve almost lost my bingo wings.

Nothing beats the feeling of lifting heavier than my last PB or doing more reps at a heavier weight. The benefits in my daily life are immense - lifting, bending, picking things up off the floor, balancing on one leg are all a doddle. My posture has improved, like many ppl my glutes were under activated and I’d no awareness of the importance of glutes in posture.

I go to an independent gym now and it’s been transformational for me, mentally and physically. It’s not an environment I ever thought I’d be in. Amazing equipment and the best thing is that everyone is there for the same reason, there’s only a handful of cardio machines. It’s mostly male clientele but I don’t feel out of place, I felt more out of place at my previous chain gym.

What weight lifting craze?
I do see an increase in women taking up weights and not being afraid to "go heavy" for (the untrue) fear of growing massive. I think it's great.

I don't think Insta is an accurate reflection of actual life!

I do lots of weight bearing exercise. I am relatively very strong, very slim and muscular. At 51 I think this is a good way to be.