Women Who Lift

Grab a pen and paper and get ready to take some notes!

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There is a huge social stigma about women who lift heavy weights. Apparently we’re supposed to be all weak and frail and needy. Wrong. Women lift heavy because of all different reasons. Personally, I like feeling strong and being able to move heavy objects around my house without worrying. Other reasons include losing fat, sculpting muscles, competing, etc.

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Women who have huge muscles either take steroids, trained for YEARS with amazing nutrition to build up that muscle, or both.

Women naturally do not have enough testosterone to build that much muscle if you’re just going to work out. Testosterone is a hormone, the hormone that men have most of and that’s why it’s so easy for them to put muscle on. Women have more estrogen, which is why we have more fat. But women still have a little testosterone and men still have a little estrogen.

I can’t tell you how many times I have been told “don’t get too big” when I say lifting is my favorite form of exercise. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves. It’s also a huge turnoff to hear it from a man and when they say that I usually discount dating them. Sexist, much?

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In all seriousness though, everyone needs to stop with the “real women lift weights” campaign. It’s great to educate the population on the physical and mental components of women lifting, but it’s not the best thing to say. So runners aren’t real? Yogis and cardio queens aren’t either? Last time I checked, we were ALL real because we aren’t robots.

Guess what I’m going to go do right now? Lift some heavy ass weights.

These photos aren’t mine, I got them all from Pinterest.