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DiscussionI despise strength-training. (sorry).
I feel like admitting this is is blasphemy nowadays given how popular strength-training has become. Every other post on IG regarding fitness is all "no cardio all strength bruh!!" 🙄
To be clear, I realize that strength-training has become more accessible and acceptable for women, which I think is so great. I wish I could love strength training, and do some of the amazing things I see women do with weights these days. My hats off to you if you love strength and weight lifting.
I just... hate it so much personally lol I hate being in the gym (as a fat girl especially). I hate how long it seems to take for me to do reps/sets. Between resting and moving from machine to machine, it feels like it takes me an hour and I feel like I've accomplished nothing by the end of it.
I hate seeing guys with huge muscles, knowing that even if I spent hours in the gym every week, I'll never look anything like them. So it feels like nature is against me as a woman, and (ngl) shamefully gives me a defeatist attitude like "whats the point of this??"
I feel like men own the weight lifting/strength world, and they know they'll always have the upper hand in that fitness community, so of course they're going to proclaim its the best for you and its the best exercise ever! And it makes me feel... like an imposter, or like I'm trying to be like them? Maybe I'm overthinking, I just don't feel welcome.
Whenever I've forced myself to do strength at least 4x a week in an actual routine (for a few months), the body changes are so minimal, and I dont really feel any different. A little more balanced and stabilized, but not like... strong. Idk, maybe I'm doing something wrong? Or maybe its cuz of the fat on my body that I cant see much. My arms and shoulders and my thighs show changes, but only a little bit, nothing that makes me feel vastly different.
I get so confused looking at strength workouts too; I feel like there are so many ways to approach it and they have different outcomes. I feel like I'm in a jungle, and I'm just like I want out of this maze lol
It also hurts in a way that doesn't feel good to me and actively makes me feel weaker because I realize I cant do things. Like I try a body weight exercise and lose my balance and fall on my knees and I realize "I'm not even strong enough to get strong!!" and it feels so demoralizing.
For all these reasons, I always end up quitting whatever my strength routine was after a few months.
How did you get into strength training, and how long did it take you to get past these things to love it? Does anyone else feel like me or am I the weird one?
For context:
I've ran 2 marathons and 4 half marathons. I just adore running, and my adoration went so far as injury. I'm just coming back to running after roughly a year off thanks to ITBS and piriformis syndrome. I have no insurance, so couldn't afford PT, so all of the recovery has just been me myself and I, which has been difficult.
I manage to do some body weight and resistance band exercises a few times a week and I'm just scraping by with a 5k w/o pain. I only do the exercises so I can run. I have no idea if I'll ever make it back to half-marathon distance, which breaks my heart.
I really like mountain biking too, and swimming. Cardio is my jam and feels so good, and cardio gains feel "equal" to me.
I joined the track team my sophomore year of high school, and it was introduced by our coach as supplemental training to our main sport - running! I'm no marathoner, but I was a mid distance/distance runner (800m and the Mile (1600m) were my races. Had I joined my freshmen year, I know I would've been doing the 3200m (2 miles) by my senior year) so maybe one way to look at it is an aid to help you run better. It really does strenthen bones, and since running is so impactful on the joints, having stronger bones is necessary to reduce risk of injury. We also ended up doing it for the swim team, too, to help strengthen our swimming muscles. I kind of took a liking to it right away (but like someone else said, different strokes for different folks) because I liked the feeling of being strong. Im pretty short and have a baby face, so right away I'm underestimated. But it's nice to catch the eye of some weird bulgy muscle man after a heavy deadlift, knowing I blew his expectations out of the water. But you're definitely NOT weird. I think it really matters what else is going on AROUND the weightlifting. Strength training is amazing, but to see changes in your strength and/or body, it's 80-90% diet. Increasing your protein intake may help feeling stronger, since you'll have introduced more of the building blocks for repairing your muscles into your system. If discouragement is around not progressing, I'd definitely take a step back and assess your whole life rn - stress levels, sleep levels, nutrition, cardio amounts, etc. If cardio is your jam, strength training will only be a supplement to it. But if you REALLY wanna focus on strength training, then cardio may have to take a back seat, as it can easily slip from supplemental to detrimental to your strength gains. Stephanie Buttermore on YouTube is a great fitness lady to get into. Her programs are designed for the female body's specific strengths (more lower body focused, since female bodies carry their strength there more), which may help the feeling that men run the show (they do in some cases, but the best thing around that is to find women who design fitness plans, as they have the female body in mind).
But in all honesty, if you've found what you grove with fitness wise, stick to it. The best exercise is the one you love doing the most.