To think some women could lift heavier in the gym?

[Ilostallthepens]

I go to a strength training class a few times a week. It’s almost always all women, class size is about 15. I’m not especially strong or experienced at lifting weights but I notice I’m always lifting the heaviest (sometimes by a long way) than every other person there. I’m also working to my maximum capacity for the 8-12 reps we’re doing. I’m huffing and puffing and sweating doing bicep curls with an 8kg dumbbell in each hand and I look over and the woman next to me is lifting a couple of 2kg dumbbells with no visible effort at all. I see this in a lot of the women there. They don’t seem to push themselves to their limit or even that close to it. I’m talking about women a similar age to myself that have been going to the gym for at least as long as me. I get some people may not want to push themselves to their max effort for whatever reason, eg. an injury, but I’m seeing lots of women seemingly not putting in half the amount of effort that they seem capable of and over a long period of time. So this makes me think the reason must be they don’t believe they are capable of lifting heavier, or they don’t want to lift to their max ability for some reason. Why do you think this is? Have you experienced this? Do you not work to max capacity in the gym? If not, why not?

A class where 8kg is classed as a heavy weight isn’t really a ‘weightlifting’ class though more a class that uses weights! If it works for those going then fantastic but I do think it’s off for the OP to be so judgmental when she is actually using pretty low weights in the grand scheme of things.

The post 2 before yours isnt curiousity at all. Its horrible nasty judgement.

It’s not curiousity. If it was, the OP would ask the people in the gym. It’s an excuse to be nasty about people.

I’m so embarrassed I’ve been using 0.5kg weights for 6 months now daily and they still hurt and feel heavy I can only do 25 repetitions of each exercise. Maybe I’m just weak and it’ll take me longer to progress I tried 1 kg and couldn’t manage at all

You’re exercising so don’t be embarrassed. When you increase the weight though remember to decrease reps so try 1kg for 5 reps initially and then build it up. Good luck!

I mean sure, some may be unaware that they need to lift heavier to achieve their goals. Or they may have different goals. Or they may just not care. They may just want to get their heart beating and their blood pumping. They may have chosen that class because they have an hour to kill while waiting for the next bus, or because it's the only day/time they have away from their kids, or because they fancy the instructor. We can't assume to know what their goals are just because they're there.

When i was younger ( in the 80s) I used to love going to the gym and liftvheavy. It was still quite new for women to be doing that then but there were some fabulous role models such as Rachel McLish, Beverly Francis, Carla Dunlop and more.
For a long time I looked great and kept training up after I had kids. Im 60 now, the menopause got the better of me, depression struck and then just as I'm recovering and my mindset improved and I'm ready to lift. I get a rectal prolapse so I now cant lift heavy RDL's ( my one time favourite) , do certain squats etc.

The OP doesn't know people's life story. Even if people are going for a social occasion, they are off the settee and doing something for their well being.

I would like to point out that “lift heavier” does not make grammatical sense.

it is a comparative adjective. It needs a noun.

Lift heavier weights.

It is really sad to read so much about toning and not wanting to bulk though
it’s not like you’ll lift heavy weights, wake up one day and be fuck somehow I gained 10kg lean muscle
lifting heavy weights leans you out, you have to make a proper effort to gain enough muscle to look bulky

like both of these women lift all the time, neither are bulky

I love to lift heavy, chasing a pb is what motivates me. Lifting in that way isn’t really conducive to a class environment though, unless it’s a very small group weightlifting focussed session. The kind of class you describe seems like a lower weight higher rep type class.

I see very few people (male or female) lifting to their full potential in the gym. It’s a commercial gym though, not a specialist weightlifting gym. I have been to one of
those and it’s a completely different environment.

I love seeing women lift weights. Whatever they are lifting is relative to their experience and goals.

If I see one more person say “lift heavy” I might have to start drinking heavy.

True. Toning means building muscle. It’s not a separate process. You don’t look bulky by accident. It takes years of training and eating the right way. When people say they don’t want to look bulky I feel like saying ‘you should be so lucky!’

Pour one for me too!

Please go ahead! Alcohol ruins your gains though.

Soz, was just trying to sound down with the gym bros.

Exactly this

well guess that is the answer to what OP was asking. All valid reasons, I've taken plenty of classes I wasn't that interested in just because the timing worked, and have also taken classes because I fancied the instructor. Worked out extra hard in that one, mind 😂

but nowadays it is widely known that accidental bulking is a myth and you don't need to be scared of lifting heavy
(come on, we all know what this means and it's not pedants' corner here)

I probably could lift heavier if I wanted to but sometimes we'll be doing a hell of a lot more than 12 reps in the classes I go to. If I push myself too hard I stop enjoying it

I'm not scared of lifting heavy things I don't want to. I do high rep low weights to tone as part of a wider exercise regime for a purpose. I much prefer cardio.

I lift much heavier than most people in my class too - I actively encourage others to push themselves if they show interest in doing so.

However, most look like they will do themselves an injury by lifting too light and flinging the weights around and those people are not there to be encouraged to lift heavy. They are there so they can tell people they ‘lift’ as it is trendy. I don’t comment on their weights as they aren’t interested in listening.

It’s concerning that someone has the headspace to judge others but not the intelligence to
think of reasons 🤣

Don’t worry I was very similar, took me almost a year to get up to 3kg and another year up to 5kg. I was so weak when I first went to the gym I struggled just getting up the stairs.
It’s not a race!! I’m just starting to lift heavy and I’m on year 3 of going to the gym, still very out of condition but still going

I lifted some bottles of olive oil in from the shopping earlier. They were a bit heavy.

Im sat down now. Recovering.

Please let me know when the bulking out happens - been lifting heavy for years and still not hulk like 🤪