It must suck being woman who is into fitness

Your thoughts match what I see as well. Every once in a while I get one of the so called “elite” runners or soccer players come into our clinic and it’s always fun to test their glut med strength. These so called athletes can barely hold their hip abduction in side lying against gravity. Not even applying resistance as they test so poorly.

But they tell me they do Pilates so that must mean they are great athletes. It’s fun to watch them attempt a real push up too. Usually they cannot even bang out 1 rep.

But they do yoga so I should be impressed.

No dig at women at all but fitness just doesn’t seem to be their forté. Yoga and pilates can be fantastic tools for correcting muscle imbalances IF done correctly but yoga/pilates should be seen as a supplement exercise to support your body for the sport/activity you are engaging it, it is NOT a main sport and most people on the yoga mat don’t push themselves in any way, shape or form - they just spend an hour lying in all sorts of relatively comfortable positions. I’m pretty sure I perform the same movements every nightwhile I’m tossing and turning in bed.

I can’t help but think how much of it is biological. Even unfit males can pull off some relatively impressive things. Like we all know at least ONE guy who is fat as hell, lives off junk and video games and has the spots and acne to prove it who still if he really tries can fire off a 14 second 100m sprint... unfit females do no such thing.

It’s like with guys, you can never really tell just by looking at them what they are capable of - some will be a LOT stronger/faster than they look. But if a female looks unfot, she genuinely WILL be unfit. And even the fit looking ones aren’t really capable of all that much physically.

@ OP, I suppose in a sense you're right -- the average trained woman is no match for strength and speed compared to the average trained man, that's fair and based on the factors you mentioned (testosterone etc.).

But why does that mean being a woman into fitness would "suck"? I would hazard a guess that the VAST majority of people who are into fitness are working out on a regular basis because of all the other benefits (physical, mental, sense of accomplishment, vanity, etc.) rather than because they think they'll be knifed or will need to outrun an aggressive animal one day.

I will never run a 13 second 100m, and at 110 lbs will probably never bench 150 lbs unless I decide to dedicate my life to weightlifting, but that doesn't mean I can't still focus on getting better on my own terms and find a ton of enjoyment in the process and its outcomes.

Maybe when you get to the elite level it's more of an aggravating factor. I did actually read in Kara Goucher's book that she finds it in some sense frustrating that even at the top of her game, a talented high school kid could match her in a 5k. But she also said that she's running a different race than a high school boy, so why get caught up in comparison when it's really apples and oranges due to biological factors?

Personally, I do fitness so that I can handle myself on a day to day basis with ease and so that every day tasks are a breeze for me- that is a HUGE motivator for me. I grew up in a dangerous environment where I couldn’t defend myself so maybe that is what drives me.

But being a woman, knowing that no matter how hard you try you won’t really be able to have a true sense of going out there knowing you can handle 99% of situations - just for me personally if I was a woman, would take the reward right out of my hard work.

I sure as hell wouldn’t train 4 years to run a 70 second quarter mile. I would on the other hand, train 4 years to run a 50 second quarter mile. Being able to sustain a 17-18 mph sprint could get me out of a real threat, I doubt 13 mph would.

Maybe it is my primal attitude that makes me think like this.

But yes, the Kara Groucher quote is more of what I was thinking. If I was training like an elite, putting all of my soul and time into every aspect of something, restricting my social life and diet, pushing through copious amounts of pain and then some random pot-smoking borderline underweight 16 year old came along and beat me I would be PEEVED OFF TO THE MAX.

How do y’all VERY COMPETITIVE ladies cope with that PHYSCOLOGICALLY? Because a competitive attitide comes with a side of narcissism and needing to be the best so surely it would crush your drive a bit when a random fatty comes along and beats you with zero conditioning.

Someone realized that hormones matter and everyone is writing 4 paragraphs patting themselves on the back? Lame even by LRC standards.

All About LA wrote:

No dig at women at all but fitness just doesn’t seem to be their forté.

We could argue about how to pronounce the word (you’d be wrong), but there is no ambiguity about its spelling. The word you are looking for is forte.

It’s called engaging in a discussion.

Do we really need 1000 words? Women struggle to build muscle. Muscle is important for explosive actions.

I mean congrats to all of you guys for being men... but lots of people here are awfully proud of their ability to run a 13.x and beat a woman it seems.

Grammar nazibot wrote:

All About LA wrote:

No dig at women at all but fitness just doesn’t seem to be their forté.

We could argue about how to pronounce the word (you’d be wrong), but there is no ambiguity about its spelling. The word you are looking for is forte.

Pronounced as "fort."

I would consider a woman who runs 15.0 better than a male who runs 13.0 and have more respect for her because realistically, it probably required more effort for her, albeit slower, to run that time.

I actually think women’s athletics are more impreessive for that exact reason, they are a lot tougher mentally than males and have to train bith harder and smarter to get there. A lot of dudes don’t understand and any dude that gets an ego buzz from beating a woman at any speed or strength sport is a weak loser.

4/10 OP responds to himself repeatedly.

Women are stronger than you think. Looked one way, fit gal was curling 30 lb. dumbbells with each arm; look another way a woman was doing sets of 6-8 perfect pull-ups and she was slim too. Another was doing squat reps with 185.

I suspect you're a lot slower than Kara Goucher and that you're a man posing as a woman in order to take shots. It's boring.

All About LA wrote:

they are a lot tougher mentally than males

Are you on crack? Your average woman’s coping mechanism is to develop a borderline personality disorder. You make me laugh.

But that’s exactly what I’m saying - “fit women curling 30lbs” - that is something that even WEAK untrained males can do. 6-8 pull ups doesn’t require training for guys either. My question was about why most women have to work so damn hard for so damn long just to get nowhere near what most people would consider even “mediocre” and how women physcologically deal with that while being passionate aout fitness.

I am passionate about running but I sure as hell would feel terrible if all I could muster out was something like a mid 6 mile with dedocated training. I just feel like a lot of women will never experience that feeling of truly feeling the power in your muscles or running so fast you feel like your surroundings are blurred and you’re just gliding - it feels amazing. It is such a buzz. You cannot possibly feel that while running at 10mph.

Why would I pose as a woman? I have made it very clear on this thread that I am a male.

Are you on crack? wrote:

All About LA wrote:

they are a lot tougher mentally than males

Are you on crack? Your average woman’s coping mechanism is to develop a borderline personality disorder. You make me laugh.

If youre gonna pull mental health card out way more males than females commit suicide. Just says to me that women are more able to endure feeling rubbish and that males can’t deal with it as well.

All About LA wrote:

Are you on crack? wrote:

Are you on crack? Your average woman’s coping mechanism is to develop a borderline personality disorder. You make me laugh.

If youre gonna pull mental health card out way more males than females commit suicide. Just says to me that women are more able to endure feeling rubbish and that males can’t deal with it as well.

That’s just completed suicides. Women are 1.4 times more likely than men to make an attempt. The fact that they’re both mentally and physically weaker leads to fewer successes.

You are having a hard time understanding the difference between women and men because you must have been brainwashed to believe that men and women are equal in all ways. Men have physical advantages over women, end of story. It's why we have different sports for "Women only", otherwise no women would ever attempt to play sports after about age 14. Even exceptional girls/women would be wiped off the floor by average men in a liberal-utopian "gender neutral" society.

Of course you are just trolling but I figured I'd mention that on the 1% chance you were serious.

Yet again if you were female you wouldn't care about those things.

But yeah I for sure agree with the post.

I walk around everyday saying to women everywhere I go.

" Must suck to be you. Look at you. You're old. Weak. Probably couldn't even hack squat 95 pounds. Pathetic. You should have done your linebacker training."

Also your quote of " average female could top out of 150 on bench."... Nice try.

The average female couldn't bench 87 pounds. Meaning the average bench press is more like 72 pounds.

weak schtick wrote:

4/10 OP responds to himself repeatedly.

Women are stronger than you think. Looked one way, fit gal was curling 30 lb. dumbbells with each arm; look another way a woman was doing sets of 6-8 perfect pull-ups and she was slim too. Another was doing squat reps with 185.

I suspect you're a lot slower than Kara Goucher and that you're a man posing as a woman in order to take shots. It's boring.

Women who go to the gym daily aren't the women he's talking about. He's talking about the average slug sitting at home everyday. Even couch potato men can curl 30 pounds. Couch potato females would struggle curling 10-15 pounds. Couch potato females couldn't do 1 pull up. While couch potato men could do at least 5.

But overall it's all hormones and muscle structure. Nothing new here.