I have not been training that long but in the brief time that I have been I have noticed a certain attitude coming from my family about weight lifting.
My partner whilst not saying anything directly to me about it always points out how 'manly' chicks with arm definition etc look.
My brother constantly tells me how to perform exercises and that I should drop the weight because my form isn't perfect. Whilst I am definitely one to focus on form I don't know why he thinks he is expert enough to comment on it. For goodness sake he goes to a gym where all the guys only train upper bodies and look like freaks who are going to topple over any minute lol He also argues about set/reps etc when I tell him that if the guys at his gym trained in a more effective way they wouldn't have to take err enhancers.
Makes me mad and also makes me think that the attitude women have about training is not just a consequence of getting scared they will look huge it comes from society telling them they will look like a man and not like an anorexic model! Sorry but I am so sick of looking at sickly thin 15 yr old models in mags....and I refuse to try and look that way.
I am also sick of getting flack for weight training and its the main reason I do so at home.
[/rant]
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Results 1 to 30 of 51
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04-17-2007, 08:45 PM #1
- Join Date: Oct 2006
- Location: Sydney, Australia-well close enough
- Age: 44
- Posts: 2,436
- Rep Power: 711
Do guys have a problem with women lifting weights?
"The supreme irony of life is that no one gets out of it alive." -Robert Heinlein
"I don't care if it ruins my career; I'd rather be smart than a movie star" - Natalie Portman
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04-18-2007, 01:47 AM #2
I think a woman lifting weights sincerely and with true effort, like a typical man does in a gym, is hawt!
-She thinks independently and knows the truth over what social mores tell her.
-She is a doer who wants to better herself.
-It makes her body more attractive and shapely.
-She is strong and fit enough to do sports and other outdoor activities I like with me.
-Being a sister in iron, she understands that I am not there purely out of vanity.Time To Re-Schedule
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04-18-2007, 02:58 AM #3
Right, because we all know that flappy, flabby arms are DEFINITELY where it's at.
As far as decreasing weight until form is perfected, this is not awlays a bad idea, as injuries can occur when technique is off. But he should mind his own damn business!
I hear this a lot...I have co workers who tell me that they CAN'T lift weights because they will get too muscular, and their huband/BF/whatever won't like that.
Personally, my husband prefers me to have some muscle. He told me that sex with a skinny woman is no fun...too many pointy bits, and that makes it uncomfortable!too bad stupidity isn't painful
The Germans have always had a diabolical streak in them when it comes to their machine's repairability. Krautcars should have a sticker under the hood that says: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here with tools, and a schedule to keep."
"Leave me alone, I know what I am doing." Kimi Raikonnen
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04-18-2007, 03:46 AM #4
Yes, many guys have a problem with women lifting weights. Specifically many men lift weights in order to define their masculinity. I find it completely legitimate but it could put such men in a conceptual problem when they encounter women who also lift weights (and do it well).
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04-18-2007, 03:50 AM #5
- Join Date: May 2006
- Location: Texas: swimming in a way that you can't detect...
- Age: 36
- Posts: 46,471
- Rep Power: 19965
yeah they do, but I find that kind of strange. I don't mind at all. I think weight/resistance training is something to be used by everyone to better their health and improve their physiques.
x2 couldn't have said it better.
also: women who do squats > women with pancake butts
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04-18-2007, 06:12 AM #6"The best-laid schemes o mice an men Gang aft agley." Robert Burns
"You can believe in stones as long as you don't throw them at me." -
"Some say he can swim seven lengths under water and he has webbed buttocks. All we know is, he's called The Stig."
"Some say that his skin is the texture of a dolphin's and that he has his own satellites. All we know is, he's called The Stig."
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04-18-2007, 06:19 AM #7
- Join Date: Feb 2007
- Location: Sugar Land, Texas, United States
- Posts: 2,816
- Rep Power: 644
Most people don't know crap about excersize and dieting and assume your going to get ripped overnight if you even touch a dumbell thats not pink and under 5lbs.
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04-18-2007, 06:58 AM #8
I don't mind it. Do women mind it if men do cardio??
~I'm an egomaniac with a inferiority complex...
~I love this crazy, tragic, sometimes almost magic,
awful, beautiful life.........
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04-18-2007, 07:01 AM #9
AMEN........If you look around the gyms most people have little to no idea what they are doing. I see people all the time doing isolation exercises when they weigh 80lbs. Most men see that women have more dedication than men and will stay true to their goals, also I think it is a lot like a bar, if a women has been working out for a while men are scared of them just like the good looking girl in a bar. All men know the good looking one is a dyke or a bitch with out talking to them
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04-18-2007, 07:04 AM #10
- Join Date: Mar 2007
- Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
- Posts: 345
- Rep Power: 380
Do guys have a problem with women lifting weights?
Who @#$%^& CARES what they think!!!!!
Why oh WHY do women let others define & decide WHO THEY ARE & WHO THEY SHOULD BE?????
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04-18-2007, 07:06 AM #11
It seems to me that your brother is trying to show you support, though maybe not in a great or tactful way, by sharing with you what he knows. My brothers did the same thing to me when I started lifting, after I realized they were sharing with me what they knew because they were happy I had an interest I found that even though not everything they said was true or accurate, I did learn some things from them and now they ask me for my input about training.
Personally, I've had far more encounters with women expressing their distaste of female bb's, then males. I've had female co-workers tell me how ugly my muscles are, how 'stupid' lifting weights is and how I can better spend my time, money and effort doing something constructive instead of wasting it on a gym and lifting.
And at the gym, there have been several times when a gaggle of cardio bunnies gawk at me point and laugh or look me up and down with dirty looks as they walk by me and depending on my mood I either ignore, point and laugh back at them, give them a cold stare or just flash a great big smile.
Bottom line: you'll always find supporter's and hater's of the sport, men and women alike, I think it's important to remain true to yourself. I have yet to meet a female bb that does it because someone else wants her to do it, we do it for ourselves. So keep lifting and to hell what society thinks!
Personally for me, no matter what anyone says or does it will NEVER deter me from going to a gym and lifting heavy @ss weights!! (well, heavy for me anyway)
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04-18-2007, 07:10 AM #12
I was just about to majke an intelligent post, but in retrospect I really can't be ****ed
They say you are what you eat, so I eat chunks of steel and bodybuilders.
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04-18-2007, 07:10 AM #13
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04-18-2007, 07:52 AM #14
I have no problem at all with a woman lifting weights. It's sad that some men aren't comfortable enough in their masculinity.
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04-18-2007, 08:33 AM #15
i totally agree with what someone else has already suggested:
- i have heard FAR more women complain 'about women lifting' then
i have heard from men.
in fact, almost all the men i know support it.
best,
~lifer
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04-18-2007, 08:39 AM #16
The gym I go to is a real bodybuilders gym, and I'm often the only woman in the pit. I've never had a single problem with men giving me attitude. In general I feel they are supportive, and if I occasionally ask someone to spot me, he always does.
There are a few women who spend hours on the treadmill (walking slowly) and I occasionally hear them discussing me and wondering if they'll look like me if they lift weights. And I'm not that ripped!65% fat, 30% protein, 5% carbs = keto.
http://www.eileengormley.com/ Funny science fiction for bodybuilders
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04-18-2007, 08:40 AM #17
- Join Date: Oct 2006
- Location: Denver, Colorado, United States
- Age: 38
- Posts: 1,767
- Rep Power: 7047
I don't normally have problems with guys in the gym. They usually respect me a bit more than the women do. So many women have the misconception that we'll get huge if we lift. I blame a certain infomercial for some of that. Lifting has helped me so much with my own self-confidence.
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04-18-2007, 10:28 AM #18
- Join Date: May 2005
- Location: Cary, North Carolina, United States
- Age: 43
- Posts: 1,782
- Rep Power: 2273
ditto - screw what anyone else thinks. if you want to have muscle, build it. if people don't like it, they don't have to look. maybe you should start carrying a spoon around with you so that when someone says they don't agree with what you're doing or don't like what you're building you can hand it to them and say "here's a spoon, now eat my a$$!!"
(note: i am usually more vocal than most - this approach may not work well for everyone )I may not always be right, but I am never wrong.
Dreamscapes and Chplhillgymgirl: Year 7.
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04-18-2007, 10:31 AM #19
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04-18-2007, 10:33 AM #20
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04-18-2007, 10:36 AM #21
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04-18-2007, 02:42 PM #22
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04-18-2007, 03:18 PM #23
Exactly!
If I ever worried about what other people thought I should or shouldn't be doing I'd never have done any of the things in my life that I enjoy. I've just never been one to give a rats ass about what some call social norms. If it looks like fun and I want to do it, I'm in!
I'm 42 yo and I still lift, ride motorcycles, play lunchtime hoop with the boys and do whatever I want to do. Some people make comments about my sanity and what they consider a lack of concern over personal safety, I just agree with them and carry on. I have learned that it does no good to argue your point because they will never get it.
Maybe it's just my contrarian nature but the more someone says I shouldn't do something, the more motivated I am to do it WELL!
As far as men's preference, I've found that men, just like women all prefer different things. Some men like skinny women, some like muscular, some like heavy, same way women prefer their men.
I would have to agree with your bro on lowering the weight to obtain good form but I've been training my 14 yo son for the past several months and I'm a stickler for form. He keeps trying to add weight and if his form isn't there I make him strip it off.
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04-18-2007, 03:19 PM #24
valby, see this:
These are all characteristics of a stabile, secure, mature, firm human male.
Sadly, many human males are insecure, immature, unstabile, and hardly firm. Part of that comes with age/growing up, part of that never develops.
Such human males tend to seek out physically and mentally inferior females whose inferiority will make them feel a bit less insecure and scared in the big bad world that surrounds them. Such human males cannot cope with the idea of a female (or other males) being better or matching in any way, and SPECIALLY with ideas of women being physically fit, attractive, more shapely or independant. Such a woman could better them, or worse, realise what losers they are and find somebody else.
You understand, that an insecure, immature, unstabile and unfirm person cannot cope with such prospects and will do anything to hold you back.
I agree, it's sad that some men think they have to "proove they're men" in some way or the other, and aren't really sure what sex they are. Since there are only 2 sexes, you'd think it'd be easy enough for them to make sure.Last edited by TurbulentFluid; 04-18-2007 at 03:23 PM.
__________________
Turbo!
Current stats:
67 kg / 167 cm / 25-27 %bf / 28 yo
max lifts:
bb bench press: 7 x 55kg
lat pulldown: 5 x 60 kg
squat: 8 x 60 kg
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04-18-2007, 03:38 PM #25
- Join Date: Apr 2004
- Location: North Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
- Posts: 2,196
- Rep Power: 534
I think that sums it up right there. When are women gonna stand up for themselves and quit letting other people run their lives? I just got an earful from a coworker about two female acquaintances who are miserable in marriages to controlling, manipulative men and they're still knocking themselves out to please the men. It boggles my mind.
I'm the only female on heavy free weights in my gym. I do my thing and ignore everyone else. When my husband's with me, I'm the one instructing HIM on proper form. I actually had a trainer, older guy, come over and compliment me on my squat form. I guess he'd never seen a woman squatting in the cage before.
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04-18-2007, 06:32 PM #26
- Join Date: Sep 2006
- Location: Flower Mound, Texas, United States
- Age: 43
- Posts: 360
- Rep Power: 475
I get a lot of crap from men I work with for being a powerlifting. I often get told Im destroying my body because I am so muscular and that woman should not do things like that. I also get a lot of shocked looks when I walk around my gym in my squat suit and I've even had trainers there tell me I have no business powerlifting and that maybe fitness would be more appropriate for me. Im 5'5" 180 lbs and 20% bodyfat, not exactly fitness material. I've learned to just ignore them, I love lifting heavy and I love building muscle. I would never give that up just because someone else doesn't like it. Its what makes me happy.
Sponsored by APT ProGear
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04-18-2007, 09:13 PM #27
- Join Date: Aug 2006
- Location: The Shadow World, Valhalla, Norway
- Posts: 15,530
- Rep Power: 20267
I don't differentiate at all, to be honest. The same principles apply, which are correct and solid form, dedication and intensity. It's like driving a car, in many ways. It makes no difference to me who is driving the car as to whether I like it or not...same thing with the weights. It doesn't matter to me, as long as they "operate" them correctly...
I personally wish more people in general, not just strictly women, took a more active interest in their health and I applaud anyone who is trying to improve, empower and better themselves.Ongoing Journal: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=106420991
Come here and open your mouth, S103/Syntrax, I gotta take a piss: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=3569901
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04-18-2007, 10:04 PM #28
- Join Date: Apr 2007
- Location: Illinois, United States
- Age: 37
- Posts: 25
- Rep Power: 0
It's been my experience that some guys are just overly competitive (or just flat out insecure) and feel threatened by anyone who's stronger than them - ESPECIALLY when it's a woman. Any other girl ever had a guy try to copy what you were doing, even though it was clearly beyond their capabilities? Silly rabbit, weight training's for everyone!
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04-19-2007, 02:24 PM #29__________________
Turbo!
Current stats:
67 kg / 167 cm / 25-27 %bf / 28 yo
max lifts:
bb bench press: 7 x 55kg
lat pulldown: 5 x 60 kg
squat: 8 x 60 kg
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04-19-2007, 04:31 PM #30
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