The Student Room Group

Why don't women lift?

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Reply 200
Original post by Ronove
Your reply was pretty ambiguous. 'Personal preference' implied it was your preference not to lift weights, when I presume you mean that other women choose not to while you choose to lift.


I still dont understand, the title of the thread is 'why dont women lift' to this I replied, its personal prefference. As in, some want to, some dont.
Then I added that I think women that do lift weights look good.
Reply 201
Was in a uni gym today and about 30 people in...about 3 girls was in and all.doing half arsed cardio....says it all
Reply 202
Alot of it is very intimidating. A lot of lifting areas are full of bulky men and there are no women in there and if you don't know what to do you're scared of looking stupid or even hurting yourself. Whereas there are women in the cardio and a treadmill or bike are much more obvious how to use them.

Personally I do lift weights more than I do cardio (although I try to keep a good balance of both) although at first I did more cardio. Getting a session with a personal trainer was beneficial for me because she showed me what I should be doing with things I had no idea about.
Reply 203
Original post by StillIll
Alot of it is very intimidating. A lot of lifting areas are full of bulky men and there are no women in there and if you don't know what to do you're scared of looking stupid or even hurting yourself. Whereas there are women in the cardio and a treadmill or bike are much more obvious how to use them.

Personally I do lift weights more than I do cardio (although I try to keep a good balance of both) although at first I did more cardio. Getting a session with a personal trainer was beneficial for me because she showed me what I should be doing with things I had no idea about.


very few commercial gyms are filled with bulky men.
Reply 204
Original post by The Troll Toll
Hahahaha imagine being so uncoordinated you can't even do a gym exercise without looking in the mirror. I'd rather be a douche than that guy, lols.


wut? brb checking your form is now a bad thing.
Reply 205
Original post by sconter
very few commercial gyms are filled with bulky men.


Maybe bulky is the wrong word, I'm not sure, but at my gym (which is a uni gym not a commercial one) the weight section is filled with muscular men who know what they are doing with the weights etc, and it is intimidating to enter when you are unsure.
Original post by sconter
wut? brb checking your form is now a bad thing.

No, just funny. Like, there are sports that are actually hard to have good form in and nobody uses mirrors for them. Like, Tiger Woods doesn't need them. Ronaldo doesn't use a mirror to check his form when he relies on it to score from 30 yards on a free kick. Peyton Manning never used one to perfect his drop and throwing mechanics. On a weights side of things no geared lifters use them even though that is genuinely hard on technique, and neither do any weightlifters. Yet suddenly when it comes to biceps suddenly everyone needs to look in the mirror to make sure they're bending their elbow correctly. Funny how that works.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 207
I'm sure Arnie can encourage women to lift, judging by his persuasive and eloquent powers of speech:

Original post by The Troll Toll
No, just funny. Like, there are sports that are actually hard to have good form in and nobody uses mirrors for them. Like, Tiger Woods doesn't need them. Ronaldo doesn't use a mirror to check his form when he relies on it to score from 30 yards on a free kick. Peyton Manning never used one to perfect his drop and throwing mechanics. On a weights side of things no geared lifters use them even though that is genuinely hard on technique, and neither do any weightlifters. Yet suddenly when it comes to biceps suddenly everyone needs to look in the mirror to make sure they're bending their elbow correctly. Funny how that works.


Yeah, but when doing those kinds of sports people aren't usually pushing themselves to their maximum capacity in the way they are with lifting (even if Ronaldo makes a free kick badly he's still unlikely to injure himself). On the other hand, when lifting people tend to push themselves to the limit of what they can safely do (assuming they're not one of the low-weights, high-reps brigade) - that's the very nature of lifting. So in order to avoid injuries it's more important to check that you've got the right form.
Reply 209
The only way to check form on dangerous lifts like squats and deadlifts is with a camera...I find the mirror distracting because I tend to look down to check depth rather than keep my head up.

Mirrors are there for pure vanity...I do enjoy a good seated dumbbell press in the mirror as much as the next guy when in a vest.
Original post by Ezekiella
Yeah, but when doing those kinds of sports people aren't usually pushing themselves to their maximum capacity in the way they are with lifting (even if Ronaldo makes a free kick badly he's still unlikely to injure himself). On the other hand, when lifting people tend to push themselves to the limit of what they can safely do (assuming they're not one of the low-weights, high-reps brigade) - that's the very nature of lifting. So in order to avoid injuries it's more important to check that you've got the right form.


That's why I mentioned the strength sports. I taught myself to use a Metal Pro squatter with thin Boss briefs underneath without ever using a mirror, just like every other powerlifter who uses kit. Lifting weights is just really not that challenging technically, and I think it's cute that people tell themselves it is so that they can do curls in front of the mirror and say they're "checking form."
Reply 212
Original post by The Troll Toll
That's why I mentioned the strength sports. I taught myself to use a Metal Pro squatter with thin Boss briefs underneath without ever using a mirror, just like every other powerlifter who uses kit. Lifting weights is just really not that challenging technically, and I think it's cute that people tell themselves it is so that they can do curls in front of the mirror and say they're "checking form."


i dont think its vanity though, watching gives you more confidence in your ability.


:ditto: I think Jodie looks a lot better now since bodybuilding. I know lots of people out there have been making lots of negative comments about her muscles and that she look like a man e.t.c. However she's only about 8st and a size 6-8 which doesn't make her small at all. I particularly love her abs and hope to get my abs out like hers in the future
Reply 214
Original post by Ezekiella
Yeah, but when doing those kinds of sports people aren't usually pushing themselves to their maximum capacity in the way they are with lifting (even if Ronaldo makes a free kick badly he's still unlikely to injure himself). On the other hand, when lifting people tend to push themselves to the limit of what they can safely do (assuming they're not one of the low-weights, high-reps brigade) - that's the very nature of lifting. So in order to avoid injuries it's more important to check that you've got the right form.


You realise that weightlifting/powerlifting have some of the lowest injury rates in sport?
Women don't want to look muscular, if they lose too much body fat with decent muscle mass that'll be the effect.
It's a masculine look, personally I don't like women to be muscular. Fit an well maintained, yes, but not muscular.

I'm not aiming for muscular myself (I'm a dude) but I exclusively do weight training, I just figure I can maintain sufficient bodyfat that it won't show through too much.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 216
Original post by Megaross
Women don't want to look muscular, if they lose too much body fat with decent muscle mass that'll be the effect.
It's a masculine look, personally I don't like women to be muscular. Fit an well maintained, yes, but not muscular.

I'm not aiming for muscular myself (I'm a dude) but I exclusively do weight training, I just figure I can maintain sufficient bodyfat that it won't show through too much.


You can be very small and still pack some muscle and not look bulky. What do you think of the women in the OP?
Original post by desijut
You can be very small and still pack some muscle and not look bulky. What do you think of the women in the OP?

Not a good look, I don't find it attractive at all. I would date a muscular girl, because I think we should all aim to be who we want to be and look how we want to look and so I don't put a huge amount of importance on appearances, but the muscular thing wouldn't be something I'd like. We've all got preferences after all it's a fact of life.

To be honest, overall I don't think it's a good look for some guys even (not in a gay way, I don't quite go that way), like I say, I don't want to be "ripped" at all, strong and healthy yes but not muscular.

Aesthetics are subjective though, as ever.
Reply 218
Original post by Megaross
Not a good look, I don't find it attractive at all. I would date a muscular girl, because I think we should all aim to be who we want to be and look how we want to look and so I don't put a huge amount of importance on appearances, but the muscular thing wouldn't be something I'd like. We've all got preferences after all it's a fact of life.

To be honest, overall I don't think it's a good look for some guys even (not in a gay way, I don't quite go that way), like I say, I don't want to be "ripped" at all, strong and healthy yes but not muscular.

Aesthetics are subjective though, as ever.


Yeah i was going to follow up saying it's subjective.

The thing is, they look muscular, but in normal clothing they will look like your average healthy woman. It's just their bf% is low, if they had a bit more fat on, you wouldnt see the tone, etc.

But each to their own
Reply 219
Original post by Megaross
Not a good look, I don't find it attractive at all. I would date a muscular girl, because I think we should all aim to be who we want to be and look how we want to look and so I don't put a huge amount of importance on appearances, but the muscular thing wouldn't be something I'd like. We've all got preferences after all it's a fact of life.

To be honest, overall I don't think it's a good look for some guys even (not in a gay way, I don't quite go that way), like I say, I don't want to be "ripped" at all, strong and healthy yes but not muscular.

Aesthetics are subjective though, as ever.


Tbh only her arms look muscular. And that's probably only because arm definition is easy to get.

A girl could easily avoid that look. For instance there's a girl in my gym who just does lower body and ab exercises. So she has still has narrow shoulder, thin arms but her legs, glutes, stomach and hamstrings all look lean and trust me she looks good and in no way "bulky" or "muscular".

However, there's only a certain amount of headroom for doing things this way. If she was to continue adding mass to those areas she would just look out of proportion. Sort of like the opposite of the chest, arms and shoulders brigade.

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