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Women Lifting In The Gym
Let’s talk about women lifting in the gym. I’m going to give you my personal experience, things that have been said to me, and how it’s perceived by me. I’ve been lifting for four years now, and I’ve been actively working on my health and fitness for a total of five years. Since I started getting more serious about my lifting a few years back, and started sharing more of my lifting on my social media I started to notice more and more comments that struck me as odd. They were new to me, as I get more experience as a female lifter in the gym, so let’s talk about it.
I get asked by people fairly often,
“You’re always getting injured, why do you do this?”
“You’re never going to the Olympics, you’re too old, why do you put yourself through this?”
“What is the point of all this?”
These comments are always met with confusion and questions. And these are things people have either said to my face or sent me messages about. More often than not, in those moments those words make me angry.
As a female Olympic lifter I feel like I get these questions far more often than males.
I don’t think people are intentionally trying to be offensive unfortunately how it comes across is, on the lines of rude to me. Olympic lifting is a niche sport, while it’s growing in popularity the vast majority don’t understand what it is that I do in the gym or why I do it. I want to educate people and hopefully see it from my perspective.
When I get injured from a lift, I personally would rather lose a fight with a barbell every now and again. Maybe get a bruise or two, throw out my shoulder sometimes, or cry sometimes, if it all replaces the life I was living 5 years ago. With anything you are doing in life, the pros need to outweigh the cons.
My life 5 years ago include zero exercise, overeating far too many processed foods, being uncomfortable in my body, lots of acne, actually sick a lot, and a dozen other things that provided no value to my life.
Why is what I’m doing now, seem un-normal? If you think that people who make health and fitness an active part of their life, as people who look down on others who don’t, you’re wrong.
Do I think everyone should move their bodies, yes. Do I care how you move your body, no!
We can all agree at this point that all of the science and all of the studies are there to back up what I’m saying.
So when people ask me, why, knowing what my own history is like I take it personally. Knowing what I went through to find where I am now, took a long time. And again, no real judgment on those who do sake me, why, they don’t know my story. But it’ll be my job to educate them. I will continue to get these comments time and time again, throughout my life, I can guarantee it.
At the end of the day, the point of this all is, that if you’re passionate about it if you enjoy it if you’re striving for something great it’s going to come with bumps along the way. If you want to master a skill you’re going to make mistakes.
If your current circle doesn’t like what you’re doing, surround yourself with a community of people who do support it.
So we need to start re-framing our mindset around women lifting and around how we ask these questions.
Instead of “what’s the point of all this?” Why not ask instead, “what is about this sport that you love?” I don’t get asked that ever! It’s always the other.
Let’s re-frame our definition of healthy women, just because they aren’t the yoga-loving girls, society’s definition of what women should look like in the gym. We’re here to lift heavy and love doing it. Why because we LOVE it! Because it empowers us, makes us stronger, healthier, dedicated, and simply just, good.
We are moving in the right direction, I’m starting to see more of the right information out there on social media. More women showcasing heavy lifting, their love for the sport. I want to encourage that more and more.
We learn so much more than just being able to perform a handle of movements when we exercise. It teaches us how to push past our comfort zones so that when we leave the safe confines of a gym doing other seemly scary things in real life is well, less scary.
We learn more from our mistakes than anything else. Our wins in life are our opportunity to celebrate the struggles we’ve had to overcome.
Support female lifters the same we would as men. It’s a love for the sport at the end of the day. An outlet and a supportive community. We could all use more of that in our lives.
