Kimberly, my wife, is leader of our older daughter's Girl Scout troop. They're currently working toward a sports and fitness badge, so Kimberly asked me to talk to them about fitness and exercise.
I brought in a pair of 10-pound dumbbells to demonstrate some of the exercises. (They're the only fixed-weight DBs I have at home.)
The talk was pretty frustrating -- if ADHD were measured like IQ, the average kid in this troop would qualify for Mensa -- but when I got them doing the exercises, something interesting happened.
All the girls wanted to use the 10-pound weights for every exercise. I didn't mind them using the 10s for deadlifts and squats, but I was really nervous when they wanted to do shoulder presses.
That's when the interesting thing happened: All these girls -- 11- and 12-year-olds of all shapes and sizes -- could do shoulder presses with the 10-pound weights. A couple of them could even do series of reps with good form.
After that, out of curiosity, I started paying attention to the people in my gym when they do shoulder presses. I don't think I've seen a single woman in my gym use 10 or more pounds on that exercise.
The gym is owned by an orthopedic practice, so a lot of the people working out there are older than the typical health-club population. And some of the younger people are rehabbing injuries.
Still, most of the people in the free-weight area, young and old, are healthy and fit, not to mention physically mature. Clearly, they're a lot stronger than my daughter and the other Girl Scouts.
I know this isn't news -- it's the biggest point I tried to make in NROL for Women -- but it's still amazing to see how women underutilize their strength.
Reading this book and using the workouts was one of the greatest choices I made to improve my physical being. I cant thank you enough for opening up eyes and seeing truth about weightlifting and working out in general. If it wasnt for NROL4W, I would be wasting my time doing the same 'ol useless exerises and getting nowhere.
If I could only get my friends to understand that a woman lifting heavy weights wont turn you into a lumberjack in a skirt. I know in time, my personal results will be convincing enough!
__________________ Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. - Truman Capote
Hey Lou,
Thanks for sharing and for your very poignant observation!
And since we're sharing - I'm currently working on my dissertation on women and sport, specifically weight lifting (and no, you all aren't my little guinea pigs...well...kind of), and without getting into the boring details, one of the most intriguing things I've found is related to women's perceived barriers to strength gain.
What is so fascinating about this is that some females do not know, probably because they were not taught at an early age, that they can push past their physical comfort zones. That is, the physical discomfort induced by certain types of activity (lifting and sprinting for ex.) actually makes them stop at the point of discomfort, rather than push past it. Thus inhibiting strength gains. There are a bunch of factors both social and psychological (none physiological mind you) that contribute to this, but in most cases they're all related to notions of the "ideal" feminine.
Lou, I think what you've done, letting these girls see for themselves if they can press 10lbs, has probably done them a world of good. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised that some of them in this little group probably measured their success against their peers, and one or two may have pushed themselves beyond discomfort! Nice little case study...
The fun part is that many of these same women who don't press more than 10lbs in a gym think nothing of lifting heavier weights like their heavier toddlers.
I used to teach group exercise classes and had the most trouble trying to get women to grab the next weight up. I can't remember a single incidence in which a woman grabbed a weight that was too heavy for her to safely and properly use.
Kids are pretty darned functional if given the opportunities. Keep this bunch off the couch, and they'll be doing this a lot more (the enthusiasm for exercise is still surprising to me, but then, that's what kids SHOULD do: play).
__________________ No Magic Pill (the log)
My Movember page (yes, I'm slacking on pictures)
I asked my 7-year-old to try overhead pressing my 10-pounder, and she did a couple of reps. I'm so proud
Women have had it drilled into them that dozens and dozens of reps with light weights is the way to get "toned" and "sculpted". Using a 10-pound dumbbell would be difficult with most classes and workout DVDs, when they have multiple sets of 16-20 reps at lightning speed.
I have mentioned before in my log, how the 'exercises' I used to do as a kid would kill me now.
I used to unload 50 or 60 ~ 50lb bags of potatoes, by heaving them up on my shoulder and tossing them down, off the truck to the person waiting beneath.
Or a couple hundred 25lb+ watermelons, etc, etc.
I did all this when I was about 12 years old and maybe around 100-110lbs?
Funny, I didn't think of it as much of anything then, but if I saw a truckload of produce dead stacked now, it would be really intimidating.
There is no freakin' way I could do it!
It is all what you are used to, and what you assume you can do. At the time, I had worked in it all my life, and it was just par for the course. We all did it.
__________________
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If you weren't born drop dead gorgeous, be thankful for the opportunity to develop character first.
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised that some of them in this little group probably measured their success against their peers, and one or two may have pushed themselves beyond discomfort!
Absolutely -- I think that's exactly what was going on. The girls had no frame of reference, so they didn't know if 10 lb. DBs were supposed to be "heavy" or "light." They just knew that the other girls were lifting them, so they should be able to.
I've also seen it when I coach soccer. As soon as there's a challenge that involves something that can be counted -- push-ups, juggles, goals -- the competitive side of these girls comes out.
Media such as magazines have a lot to do with the way women think-I can't believe how many are influenced by this. I am a member of another forum and one thread is about becoming a fitness competitor and they are lifting with 3 lb dumbbells according to info they got from Oxygen magazine. I suspect they will be at for a long time to come lol.
I would like to argue that sometimes stopping when you reach a level of discomfort comes from not liking to be in pain and seeing no reason to do so. Maybe this is more common in women, but I don't see why this has anything to do with being female.
I have worked in a barn and thrown 50 lb bags of feed down a ladder and pushed heavy wheelbarrows, all because the work had to be done and I was the one left to do it. I enjoy the challenge of lifting and, therefore, enjoy pushing myself to lift heavier weights over time, but I absolutely despise running and you can't get me to push past the pain because I get nothing out of it.
The real factor in whether a person (male or female) pushes past the pain is whether the reward or motivation is strong enough. Perhaps boys grow up being teased if they aren't strong enough and girls aren't, thus providing a motivation for keep pushing for boys that is lacking in girls.
I am glib and often claim I don't run (or do any real aerobic exercise) because I am lazy or a wimp. I'm well aware that it has to do with motivation. Before discovering weight lifting I found that the only way I could motivate myself to work hard was to involve some element of danger if I screwed up (gymnastics, horseback riding and martial arts). It has everything to do with motivation and nothing to do with gender.
Carolyn, that's an interesting point. A sports psychologist I used to interview when I worked at Men's Health told me once that 70% of adults have no tolerance for discomfort. He chided me for targeting all the magazine's fitness information toward people willing to push themselves.
I got his point, but it's not like we could produce a fitness magazine for people who don't like to work out. It's like Car & Driver deciding to cater to pedestrians.
Still, I think the point I'm trying to make is different. The women I've observed in my gym don't seem to be making a choice not to push themselves past discomfort. They can't be anywhere near the point where the weights are even mildly annoying. On Monday I saw a healthy young woman doing flat-bench chest presses with 10-pound dumbbells. This is someone who looks like an athlete.
Conversely, on Friday, I saw a pretty big guy with, I'd estimate, a 40-plus-inch waist sit on a bench and do curls with 35- and 40-pound DBs. I'd guess he was working his arms for at least a half-hour, and hardly got off the bench the entire time.
So it's not like one gender has a monopoly on suboptimal training protocols!
Lou-
I understand completely what you are saying. Perhaps the problem isn't so much that woman don't know they CAN push past the discomfort point as much as they don't understand why they SHOULD. In other words, it is a lack of proper training and not an issue with desire. I work in a male-dominated field and I think many women are intimidated to try something when there isn't a "critical mass" of women already participating (I would guess the same thing applies to men). The fact that women haven't been encouraged to get training in these areas means that fewer women are interested in learning more. Keep writing your books - NROL4W is a wonderful tool to beat back the stereotypes. I'm so grateful I found it or I would never have realized how much I enjoy lifting!
I really agree with what carolyn is saying. it never occurred to me that lifting heavy weights would be the key to living in my healthiest, best body. I really didn't have any role models. I still see very few women in the free weight area of the gym, and even fewer who are using a 45 lb bar with plates to bench, squat, and deadlift.
I was very fortunate to pick up a copy of NROL in my local barnes and noble a few years back. even though the book was obviously geared toward men, I had already decided that I wanted to get strong, and I honestly couldn't find a book that was geared toward strength gains for women. all kinds of stuff on fat loss, all kinds of stuff focused on appearance. but nothing that focused on FUNCTION and PERFORMANCE.
was THRILLED to find out about NROLW and this forum. and on the way to improving performance, I also managed to achieve some fun physique goals as a nice side effect of getting stronger and leaner.
An interesting observation
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