Drop the pink weights ladies

A few years ago I had an epiphany at the gym. I looked around and saw

that men were lifting hefty weights and getting results. Whereas women

(generally speaking) were running on treadmills and lifting small

weights without achieving anything. Trainers I worked with assumed I

wanted to “lose weight and tone up”.  They would give me generic

programs consisting of a crazy amount of reps at unchallenging loads

on machines. And that was it. It was boring, it was pointless and I

strongly suspected the boys were having all the fun.

One day I thought sod this! I'm going to train like a man and see what

happens. For many women the idea of training like a man might not

sound particularly attractive. The world at large does not revere a

“masculine” women and it’s impressed on us from an early age that we

are expected to be delicate, to take up little room. Be skinny or be

pneumatic, be fragile, be helpless, for god’s sake don’t be in any way

like a man!

But being a physically strong woman is nothing like being a man. And

as I got into my training I realised that there was nothing

particularly gender specific about lifting weights. Although we are

composed differently hormonally, women and men have exactly the same

skeletal muscle composition, so there is no reason to train

differently. Our hormonal differences mean that it is much harder for

a woman to pack on muscle than it is for a man. Female body-builders

work exceptionally hard to look the way they want to look, so there’s

no way you could look like one by accident.

One of the first things I noticed about weight-training is how

time-efficient it is. Heavy weights at low reps meant that rather than

hanging around the gym for more than an hour, I could get a much more

meaningful workout in around 40 minutes. I also started to look

forward to getting into the weights room to see how I could improve on

my previous performance. Instead of focussing on losing something

(weight), I was making measurable gains (strength) and with this came

a very profound change in the way I related to my own body. Feeling

strong physically is one of the biggest confidence builders

imaginable.

And there’s more: Muscle costs your body more to maintain than fat.

When your muscle mass increases your metabolism changes, with fat-loss

as the happy by-product. As well as strengthening your muscles, weight

training has been shown to improve bone density, this is specifically

useful to women who are more likely than men to succumb  to

osteoporosis in old age. Studies have also shown resistance training

improves the cognitive abilities of older adults, keeping dementia at

bay. It's also a powerful tool for combating depression as brain

chemistry is altered through the release of endorphins and increased

levels of mood-boosting serotonin. On top of all this, after a session

your body continues to burn calories at an elevated rate for several

hours even when you're resting.

Strength, fat-loss, confidence, enhanced mood, longevity, plus a hot

body. Why would anyone cheat themselves out of those benefits?

Squatting, benching and dead-lifting are for everyone. Not just

body-builders. Not just guys.

Mercy