In reading a post by Patricia, she mentioned the lack of involvement by other women on this board. I’m one of those lurkers…I check in here almost every day (for a couple of years). I don’t think it’s just this board that suffers from a lack of female participation.
I’m a woman over 40, who has been training for 17 years. I train seriously, consistently, naturally, heavy and hard. I have trained with several different trainers over the years, and still occasionally hook up with some that I enjoy training with. I’ve had both female and male training partners over the years.
When I started training it was to take off weight after the birth of my second child. Didn’t have much money for gym membership, and a friend of mine got us in under her brother’s membership at a Gold’s Gym…we were the only ladies in there, and believe me we weren’t very welcomed. No fancy machines, just benches and weights, so her brother showed us how to do the hard stuff, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve changed my training style and focus on several occasions. I’ve trained for competition (I stink…can’t pose worth a shit, and I hate being in front of people), I’ve trained for strength, which is still important to me. But, as I’ve gotten older, how I feel and performance has become the primary forus of training (aside from the fact that I’m a genuine gym rat and cannot imagine not training). I’m proud of the fact that my performance in things that I like to do like climb, hike, mountain bike, row, and even golf is better now than it was 25 years ago; and light years beyond my peers.
I shall get to the point of this post. Weight trainers are a relatively small community of people, and the different forums have been a wonderful resource for exchanging ideas and comaraderie. The Ladies Forums are basically not what I’m interested in…so repetitive (i.e. I want to get toned, but not big!!! GAG!!!) But, I’ve found it frustrating to post on serious bodybuilding/weight traininer forums, if you are female. For the most part the boards are male, and men, as a general rule, just flat won’t take much advice from women. I have no argument with the idea that women should train like men…but there are times when a man can benefit from training like a women. On too many occasions to count, I’ve offered sound advice to a male trainee seeking advice, to be ignored until another male “sanctions” it. After a time, I just stopped bothering.
For a woman to put on and keep serious natural muscle, she is probably working harder and more consistenly than most of the men at the gym. In fact, I often work out with guys. The one’s who know me, want to share my workout when I’m without a partner. Why? Because they know that if they do my workout with me, they will most likely craw out of the gym.
I’m not whining or ranting; just trying to clarify why more women don’t post…in my case, I just don’t have thick enough skin.
), none of them ever got dissed for being a woman.