The Gym Divide - Rebecca Conlin, PT @ RWF

I have used many gyms throughout my life, training with men and women. I have trained for sport, for fat loss, for strength and for fun.  It has been apparent to me that in every gym I have used there has always been a male/female divide. Typically males and females have different goals, as in my experience women strive to be as slim as possible and men as big and ripped as possible. Chasing the ideal, cartoon like physique!

So as I wander through the cardio area of my gym, crossing the divide into the weight room, I always get a few glares from both males and females alike. Then I start my chin-ups, dips, rows, bench press etc. I use heavy weights and I work to failure. Often I get approving nods, especially from the man with bigger biceps than my thigh! Sometimes though, I don’t get the right support from my male counterparts, who feel that they are qualified to advise me on what (as a female) I should be doing, simply because they are male.

The type I’m talking about can be divided into 2 groups; the skinny little boys who come into the gym complaining that our dumbbells ONLY go up to 30kg… if you were using 30kg right (full range of motion helps!) you would, at a minimum, have bigger arms than Bambi’s legs! The second group are the old school weight lifters who feel the need to carry my empty barbell to my next station when they have just seen me deadlift 1.5 times my body weight! Full of good intentioned advice, very helpful but unable to change their own out-dated training methods into newer more efficient methods.

Now let’s discuss the 'female' area of the gym, the cardio room. I hear the whispers and I see the stares as you train for hours upon hours on the treadmill… *yawn*. I know you think that I’m going to ruin my body and become the female incredible hulk! NEWS FLASH! It’s impossible!  Firstly, as women, we do not naturally produce enough of the hormone responsible for muscle growth, testosterone. Secondly, skinny is no longer beautiful! Strong and sleek is the new skinny, and to achieve that athletic, long lean defined look you have to lift weights. 

So what can we learn from each other?

I use to train with a pretty serious weight lifter. We will call him Bob. Bob use to lift weights daily, had put on a serious amount of lean muscle in a relatively small amount of time and even considered competing as a figure athlete. On Sunday nights I played football with Bob for a male football team and as much as Bob ‘looked’ in incredible shape, I ran rings round him. Through his bulk he lacked cardiovascular fitness, speed and agility. Bob lacked overall fitness and after considering going into the armed forces had to consciously spend time like any beginner building his cardiovascular fitness up. Bob did, however, teach me the importance of excellent weight lifting technique, the importance of core strength and the key to permanently increasing my metabolism enabling me to efficiently lose body fat. Lifting weights is the key to sculpting your body and achieving your ideal physique. 

For advice on how to achieve overall fitness whilst also sculpting your body into its ideal shape, don't hesitate to contact the personal trainers at Real World Fitness.