Where Are All the Fit Girls?
February 22nd, 2008 | by Lisa |Tonight, while working out in my gym, I walked around to the different parts of the center and spent some time observing the women there. I discovered some trends, that honestly did not surprise me in the least, but I felt I should share. In my gym, as in most gyms, there are three main areas; the cardio room, the machine (nautilus type equipment) area, and the free weight section. There were women in all three areas, but in drastically unbalanced proportions. The most noticeable thing, the thing that didn’t surprise me, was that the women in each area were distinctly different.
Let’s start with my absolute favorite part of the gym, the fabulous, high-energy, exciting “cardio room” (that’s me being facetious if you can’t tell).
This area has by far, more women in it than the other two parts of the gym combined. As well, this room always seems to have the fattest women. Women usually flock to the cardio room, because that is where they are going to do the aerobic exercises to help them burn fat, right? Why then, are the women in the cardio room always the fattest? Shouldn’t they be the thinnest, with all that “cardio” they do? Hmmm….
Now let’s move over a bit to the “machine area.” In case you are not sure what I am talking about here, this is the place where you find those nautilus machines, such as the leg press, leg extension, chest press, shoulder press, and the all time best two machines ever (facetious again) the leg abductor and adductor machines. In case I lost you, these are the ones where, respectively, you open your legs, think Britney Spears getting out of a car, or close them like…well anybody but Britney Spears would when wearing a skirt. Women love these, yet they actually do relatively nothing to tone legs.
There are usually slightly less women in this area than in the cardio room, and the women tend to, for the most part be in slightly better shape. These women usually aren’t overweight, but also don’t seem to be living up to their full fitness potential. These are your women who want to “tone.” They hop on a machine, put the pin in the 15 pound slot, and do 25 leg extensions…to “tone” their muscles. However, much like the women who are doing cardio to burn fat, and are still fat…most of these women never really seem to be toned, do they?
So, by now your probably asking, where the heck are all the fit girls?? They are in our third section of the gym, the “free weight section.” The area of the gym with the bench presses, squat racks, dumbbells, and barbells. Oh yeah, and the sweaty, grunting guys.
This area of the gym has by far the LEAST number of women out of our three areas, maybe 3 or 4 only. Yet, these are the truly fit women. The ones who are not fat, and look toned. They have round, hard butts, defined shoulders, slender waists, and tight, toned legs. These are the women we all want to look like, right? So, if they are they the women we want to look like, then why on earth are we all not over in the free weight area as well!
These are the reasons I hear from women as to why they won’t venture into the free weight zone:
- Free weights will make me bulky, machines are for toning. Blah! C’mon… look at Miss Thing over there squatting. Guarantee you she doesn’t look like an Amazon! The only way women look bulky is by having too much fat. Anybody think Brandi Chastain is bulky? No she’s ripped. That’s what tons of muscle and no fat will do for you. Looks good to me!
- Those are not “girly” exercises. Okay… now I love being feminine, but I am not buying this whole “girls are more delicate, fragile and weak” crap. If women are delicate, fragile, and weak, why are we the ones that deliver the babies? Women are supposed to be strong and tough.
- The sweaty men will be mad that I am in their way. Not true. I spend most of my gym time in the free weight area, and the men actually go around me. No man has ever given me so much as a dirty look for being there. In fact, the only time the guys talk to me, is usually to tell me they are impressed with how much I lift “for a girl.”
-Those exercises look hard. Well, duh! That is why they work. Nobody ever got better at anything by taking the easy way out. C’mon girls!
- I don’t know how to use them. The one valid excuse. You do not want to jump into free weights if you don’t know what you are doing. Hire a trainer to get you acquainted, or go online. There are experts out there that can give you detailed exercise descriptions. Just make sure it is someone who actually has a certification, not just some bum on Yahoo! Answers.
The point I am trying to make here is that the “buff girls,” or the “toned girls,” or even the “hot girls” are in the free weight area of the gym for a reason. In order to get toned, you HAVE to put on muscle, and lots of it. If you don’t believe me, look at a marathon runner, and you will see that just losing fat is not enough to make you “toned.”
In the near future, I will be making more posts about why I love free weights, and loathe machines. So check back for more info, and get tough!! Start using those free weights (check out the “my training program” link at the top to ”steal” some of the exercises I do).
Happy training,
-Lisa
