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?

How do you tone?

There's a real misunderstanding on this thread. If you are doing strength training then the main goal of strength training is to increase your strength. The way to do that is progressively to increase the weight you can lift (there is more than one way to do this, if for some reason simply aiming to lift the maximum weight each time is not possible).

If you are in a strength training class and you are not attempting to increase the weight you can lift, then you are not following the principles of strength training. There are various other forms of exercise that may be more suitable for you if you're not interested in strength training.

The outraged responses to pointing out that strength training is about getting stronger through resistance and weight training are quite strange. It's not about being judgemental, it's simply observing that some people are doing it wrong. If you don't want to build strength then do something else. Cardio and HIIT, for example, are both great forms of exercise. Pilates is amazing.

The other thing that perturbs me slightly is the rejection of the principles of strength training. Being strong is good, working your muscles has a vast range of other brilliant health benefits beyond strength. To be honest, if judgements are being passed on this thread, it's at us who do strength training and are supposedly doing something that women shouldn't be doing.

Strength training is massively important as women age, we should be lifting heavy. The research indicates this **

I didn't start this thread.

This is like those threads where someone erroneously states how they make their lasagne to be met with THATS NOT AUTHENTIC, when they dont really care whether its 'authentic' they just like their lasagne their way.

It is a shame if the only think that puts people off giving it a go is an outdated notion. If they are happy where they are great but if the only reason they aren’t increasing weight is because they think it will leave them with a bodybuilder physique then it is sad.

strength training is great for women and we need to be tackling the misconceptions so people aren’t put off unnecessarily

Strength training sounds tedious as hell. But If people do things ‘wrong’ then so what? Seriously why does it affect you?

Nobody is saying you shouldn’t do strength training. To be fair, nobody really cares. Why are you so determined to ‘educate‘ everyone?

By being so dismissive, you are actively putting people off from trying to get fitter. Those of us who are overweight are self conscious enough without knowing that people are judging for not doing it properly.

If you would rather tell people they are wrong than to encourage them to go in the first place, then that is mean spirited.

I asked Copilot what the benefit of Bodypump was. It said studies showed it improved Bone Density and reduced the risk of Osteoporosis, it also said it had better physiological benefits than the equivalent length cardio class. Splendid as that’s just what I need.

Most of us are not idiots. We know that it would take a lot of heavy lifting to bulk up and that it’s super duper for your health, just as I know that eating too much chocolate is not particularly healthy. My own experiences in the past when I have significantly increased weights - and this was with a trainer not Body Pump - is that I ended up with injuries that meant I couldn’t exercise at all for long periods. So I would rather stick to my feeble teeny tiny weights that still feel heavy to me, although I know I of course should do better.

Oh and in 30 years of gym going I have never seen 0.5kg weights used in any class and pink lady weights died out in the 90s.

Did you actually read the OP? She wrote about women in strength training classes who aren't bothering to do actual strengh training, which involves lifting progressively heavy weights.

If you can't lift heavy weights, then don't go to strength training classes. No one is judging you for not going to strength training classes! Work out an exercise programme that's good for you. There are various options at a gym that aren't strength training classes!

Stay in your own lane, mind your own business etc. etc. If people don’t go for the results you think they could achieve or don’t even want to that’s up to them. If they’re wasting time or money in your opinion it’s their money, not yours.

What is putting people off is the insistence from posters that everyone must do it right or else they get judged.

But again, how does it affect you? It’s their time and money, it makes no difference to you in the slightest. Please explain why it matters? If you are serious about helping women by informing them, there really are better ways of doing it

The only reason you should be doing it right whatever the weight is so you don’t injure yourself!

I don’t care what weight people lift, but I don’t want people being put off by the idea of being bulky

This.

Oh and in 30 years of gym going I have never seen 0.5kg weights used in any class and pink lady weights died out in the 90s.

I travel frequently for work and always go to local gyms - tiny weights (true, maybe not 0.5 but 1 kilos) are very much still there and you can find various 'toning' classes all over too.

Of course, the best exercise is still the one you do and even Tracy Anderson style workout (where you just wave your arms around without any weight) is still better than sitting on the sofa.

Would you rather people be put off from even trying because of the comments on here?

I wouldn’t want people to be put off for any reason.

but from this thread the main reason people will be put off is from people like the OP who think they are better because they can lift slightly more than someone else.

Thank you. Perfectly worded.

I’m an instructor and I teach several strength classes. Most of my participants are women. I agree with you- I would say only about 10% of my ladies really push themselves in terms of what they can lift. Sometimes it’s a confidence thing, but I think some women think big weights = big muscles and they’re worried about looking ‘bulky’.

I encourage them to go heavier, and give plenty of +ive feedback when they do- this works with the ones who are lacking confidence. As for the ones who worry about looking like Arnie- I explain why this is unlikely to happen but many of them still choose to stick with the lighter weights so I leave them to it. It’s their workout and they get to choose how to do it! I’m just there to teach/monitor technique and to encourage progression if it’s what they want.

My membership isn’t much more than that but I’m on a legacy membership. I think it’s around £90 a month otherwise. There are 8-10 reformer classes a day. Maybe 4-5 spin classes. 6 or 7 S&C classes, lift club, yoga, Pilates, body pump, etc. probably 40+ classes a day from 6am to 9pm. I’m lucky enough to live right next door (<1 minute walk) and I pretty much live in there.

Please don’t let this put you off. My gym is just a chain gym and it’s genuinely friendly and inclusive and everuone I’ve met there has been friendly and welcoming.

wishing you all the very best for your treatment and recovery

I think I could imagine myself being one of the light weight people.
I would make sure there was some resistance and I was feeling my muscles tire, but I don't see myself ever getting into weight lifting more than the most basic level to get some health benefits.

It's just not my thing, so a half arsed weights class might seem better than none at all. (I like running, but can understand some people just really hate running, trying to run, the idea of running... That's me with strength training!)

IMO ‘tone’ isn’t a technical word in fitness terms but as a word it is used a lot in gyms and studios and names of classes. What people usually mean when they say tone is ‘visible muscle’, but subtle- not big muscles. Looking lean basically. The way to achieved a ‘toned’ look is to grow muscle while burning fat so that muscles are visible.

But again, how does it affect you?

I bet most of us have opinions about many things that don't directly affect us.

@Dozer A good Pump instructor really should be giving plenty of cues on safe and effective form! Part of the problem is that you don’t have to have other fitness quals to do Les Mills training so there are instructors who have qualified in the programme but haven’t studied anatomy/physiology etc which I think is shoddy and shows how £ motivated Les Mills are!

I got a Level 3 PT Diploma before training in Les Mills programmes because I wanted to feel confident I knew what I was teaching and why, and how to help participants move safely and get good results! Also participants often have questions about specific moves, muscles or injuries and I wouldn’t fee confident answering those without at least a Level 2 Fitness qualification.