Environments associated with exercising and the gym can be intimidating

If you asked me, I would tell you I am not a feminist. I am a female and I do support females and women's rights, but I am not an over-the-top feminist.

However, going to the gym can be such a daunting task for me and so many people as well. It’s not that working out is extremely hard or scary to do. It’s the environment that is associated with exercising that is intimidating.

I’ve been in the gym, working out, and being active since I was about five. I know that a lot of the time when I go to the gym I can feel very overwhelmed and insecure about being there. So much of gym culture is associated with “gym bros” and male ideas around.

When the gym feels like the place where a certain type of person should be there, it makes it hard for others to want to go.

I know that I’ve always enjoyed a good workout and lifting heavy weights, and there are so many stories out there about how it is so beneficial. Being a female I know that it is so hard to maintain my ideal shape and physique.

I could spend hours and hours working out, running, being active, and eating healthy, but I never see a lot of progress. This is why I emphasize going to the gym and working out for myself but also for the people around me because every little bit helps.

It can be so hard to go to a gym where you may be judged by how you look or how much weight you can lift. In the Gender Discrepancy in the Weight Room, honors thesis by Colby Norris he talked about how being in a gym that is very masculine is hard for women.

“It was found through an observational study that there were four times more men than women in the weight areas of gyms… women cite a lack of knowledge, a fear of judgment, an unwelcome attention from men as causes of discomfort in a gym,” said Norris.

Norris wrote the facts that women feel when going to the gym. It’s a no-brainer, that there are more men than women in the gym. You could go to any sort of gym and no matter what area you are in and see that that is a true fact.

It’s hard to be in a space where you feel uncomfortable being there and are possibly people giving you unwanted attention.

However, there are many places in the gym where I feel comfortable being myself and working out. Not all gyms are overly masculine and have a lot of great spaces for everyone to work out. There seems to be a time when people just need to get past the ideas and situations around going to the gym. Embracing the uncomfortableness of the gym is better overall. It gives you power and strength over your own body, mind, and certain ideas around the gym.

I went and talked with Stephanie Saxe who is a coach at the Old Town Athletic Club here in Fort Collins. She definitely mentioned and agreed with me on how the gym is portrayed these days. However, she had a lot of great things to say that definitely made me feel more confident and reassured me that going to the gym is worth it. Saxe is a CrossFit coach, and that is for sure a male-dominated area, and she said talked about coaching and seeing how women work in this area.

“Women are more badass than men at my gym, women are more mobile, flexible, and put in the work to get better.”

For us to be at the top working hard is just something we’ve gotta get used to. As Saxe mentioned women put in the work because they want to be better. If I can go to the gym with the mindset of I’m here for me and me only I shouldn’t be worried about what others think of me or how the gym culture is so male-dominated. I think, changing the mindset of everyone going to the gym would help to make it more comfortable for women.

“We have to be careful we don’t inadvertently stigmatize a group of people or blame a group of people. We all need change.”

Stephane Coen talked about this in the article titled, Study Explores how Gender Defines the Gym, by the University of Western Ontario on phys.org.

There are many other factors that go into making an atmosphere a safe place for everyone not just for women. The gym is such a place where people are so vulnerable in their activities. That everyone just needs to be excepting of how much weight someone is lifting or what their body type is or how much weight they have. We need everyone to accept all people who are going to the gym.

I’m not going to lie, but I have noticed in myself that I can tend to occasionally judge people and think I can outperform them in the gym.

However, recently, I have taken a step back and it helped me realize how hard people work and how amazing that environment is for everyone.

It just needs to be a place where growth can happen, and we can all share it with each other because we all know the struggle whether you’re male or female.