Lifting the Spirit and Getting Strong

I have seen a significant change in the way woman are working out and getting fit in recent years and I couldn’t be happier. I have been an avid gym rat since my mid to late twenties (when I first started gaining a few extra pounds due to an office job and changes in my metabolism), I even became a certified personal trainer for a time and enjoyed helping other women (and men) get excited about fitness as well. For me fitness is about finding strength within myself to accomplish goals and to be a strong independent woman, a passion that has kept me going to this day. Not to mention the improvement in my self confidence and having a more positive view of my overall body (something most woman struggle with everyday) I currently try to get into the gym on average about 6 days per week and I alternate between HIIT workouts and resistance training that mostly focuses on heavy weights for optimal fat burning. Resistance training has seen the biggest spike among women recently, with Crossfit and other weight lifting programs attracting more women who understand that they are not going to “bulk-up” or look too masculine by pumping a little iron. Gone are the days when women joined a gym or began new fitness routines just in order to “get thin”. Women, myself included, are now looking to also get fit and be STRONG. We no longer attend aerobics classes and follow restricted calorie diets like women did in the 80s, they have now been replaced with lifting weights and eating to build lean muscle. From promoting weight loss to improving mental health, weightlifting can drastically improve your quality of life. The gender gap in weightlifting is still vast with the majority still being men, however, we are starting to see a shift. There is a barrage of social media fitness icons that are challenging the status quo as far as why and what women should be doing inside the gym and what a woman’s physique is supposed to look like.

For example take Abby Pollock, a fitness guru out of Canada with 574K followers on her Youtube and Instagram accounts she is setting the example for women that trying to be a perfect size and following a strict calorie diet are not what makes one healthy, rather her videos and social feed feature workouts and diet advice to be strong and confident. And she’s not alone, on the Forbes’ list of the top 10 Fitness Influencers only 2 were men, the rest are women. Woman are taking back control over their bodies and gone are the days of watching and following men for fitness motivation. Just look-up the hashtag #girlswholift and with over 19 million posts you will find an entire community of women not just looking to be pretty, but to be strong.

Hollywood is even taking notice with more physically strong roles for women such as Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman and Charlize Theron in Atomic Blonde and with celebrity icons such as Beyonce, and Khloe Kardashian making waves with their chiseled bodies and epic workout routines made public, strong is now the new norm in women’s fitness. Also, gone are the days that you have to face the intimidation of trying to keep up with the testosterone-driven free weights section at your local gym, with the vast number of online and not to mention FREE fitness channels on Youtube, never before has fitness and getting strong been any easier for women to obtain. At home gym supplies are flying off shelves and easy to use free weights and resistance equipment has never been more popular. 

Let’s not forget that all the working-out and meal planning in the world will not help you if your mindset is in a negative place to start with, I have noticed a real change in my overall self-esteem and view of the world around me by taking a positive approach to thinking, especially in regards to my body and what everyone calls “self-love”. It is amazing how shifting your mindset to try and be a little more forgiving and accepting of yourself can have a big impact on your mental and physical health. Someone I can recommend to help bridge the gap between the mind-body connection is Lindsay Rose, a wellbeing and life coach that I highly recommend to anyone wanting to enhance their view of themselves in a more positive and overall healthy way.

Getting strong and loving yourself has never been easier to attain!