Ever walk through a fitness center and wonder why a lot of men are on the bench stations? Or why gyms have a rack of brightly colored neoprene-encased dumbbells located in a completely separate location from the rest of the free weight equipment? Ever take a look at fitness headlines and wonder why men should be concentrating all their energy on ripped abs and women should have the perfect perky butt? Well, I’m going to tell you, warriors, and I’ll probably need a ladder to get down off my soapbox later.
Gender based exercise selection in strength training. The title of today’s post sounds like it should be showing up in ACSM’s Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, which (in case you don’t know) is journal that publishes relevant research articles about physical activity. And while I didn’t run out and perform my own double blind, peer-reviewed clinical trials for this post, there is definitely enough anecdotal evidence to support what I’m about to say. Which is that men and women are told to exercise differently.
That is a hugely loaded statement and it doesn’t even consider the implications of LGBTQA+ issues. But it’s true. To illustrate my point, story time! In middle school (I know, a fun time for everyone to remember), I had a gym teacher who was, how shall I say, closer to the finish line than the start. In my district, the middle school years were the only years gym classes were not co-ed, which makes sense I suppose. The guys routinely went outside for class when the weather permitted, utilizing the fields on the school campus for everything from soccer to ultimate frisbee. Inside, they played dodgeball, ran races, and did calisthenics.
The girls, on the other hand, were relegated inside, regardless of the weather. And inside, we would jump rope, complete simple obstacle courses, and bowl (with kickballs and old Pringles cans). Whether knowingly or unknowingly, there were very gendered messages being communicated to kids during a key developmental stage. Boys should be rough and tough and ready to go big. Girls should be demure in their activity choices, and not sweat or want to do anything too strenuous.
And we still see these basic gender stereotypes in fitness and exercise. In gyms, more guys are bench pressing with barbells and heavy weights than are repping it out with lighter weights. More women are lifting pink 5 pound dumbbells because the underlying message is to not get too bulky. Special programs that are offered usually target a specific gender. And we even have separate magazines for Men’s and Women’s Health. Super inclusive #sarcasm.
The underlying message reflects what we feel about masculine and feminine. A man should be strong and physically capable. A woman should be small and aesthetically pleasing. Those messages inherently make value judgements based on a person’s body, which leaves out everyone who doesn’t conform.
And the thing that really gets me is that people are people. Bodies are bodies. From a physiological standpoint, we are more the same than we are different. Meaning that the same stimuli (heavy weights plus caloric surplus and protein) that induce muscle growth in one will induce it in another. Perhaps not at the same rate or to the same extent (i.e. it is more difficult to add muscle under the influence of more estrogen than testosterone), but it will happen.
Human bodies, regardless of gender or identity, move in the same patterns. Push. Pull. Hinge. Squat. Lunge. Twist. You can gussy it up any way you’d like, but the basic movement patterns are the same. A barbell back squat to failure for hypertrophy training is the exact same motion as a goblet squat done for reps to focus on that perky peach. The only difference between a barbell bench press and push ups is the load and reps that can be completed.
So, rather than labeling this exercise as good for men or that one as good for women, how about if we just acknowledge that any type of strength training is healthful for the body? Your body will respond to the overload to refine its shape and size. Meaning if you’d like to add some muscle, you’ll want your overload to reflect higher intensity/weight and lower reps or volume. Meaning if you’d like to change your body composition, you’ll want to have moderate overload across the board with some cardio thrown in. And if you are focused on function, higher volume and lower intensity is the key.
Overload changes are true regardless of what body you are starting in. There is no need to avoid an exercise because you think it is meant for someone else. Or to engage in something because Exercise Culture is trying to tell you what your body should look like.
What is one gender based exercise or assumption you love to roll your eyes over? Tell us in the comments and until next time, be well friends!
