At my gym there is a room for just women. Naturally, I avoid it like the plague, and have managed to do so for nearly a year now. However, yesterday, I was on the hunt for some 12lbs weights, and couldn’t find them in the main area, so I was drawn to the Women’s Only room. The Women’s Only room is a special place designated for women so that they don’t feel shy or embarrassed to work around the grunting sweaty men.

I always wondered why there are so few women who work out at my gym (though not really complaining). I thought, even if they are too scared to work out where the men do, they still have that private room.

What a waste of space.

I’ve been in these rooms at other gyms before, and typically, they are set up similar to the set up at a Curves and I can therefore understand its usefulness (full body circuit you don’t need to think about or understand). This space however basically told women that they are so unworthy of their own space that whatever equipment the manufacturers threw-up, they would put here. They certainly didn’t have a full circuit in there. The space itself was about the size of a shoe box. They had two different useless abs machines and a glute machine (btw-these are essentially useless). They had free weights that went from 2lbs to 12lbs, and nothing higher. This equipment is feel-good equipment. Women’s problem areas are typically the gut and the thighs, so putting abs and glute machines in here appeals to their weaknesses. However, it does nothing for them. Ladies, you CAN NOT spot reduce fat. Using this equipment will tone and strengthen these areas, however, you wont notice it until you get the fat off. To get the fat off, you need to diet, do resistance training (on your whole body) and do cardio.

You put equipment like that in a room designated for women only, and sure, they will use it, but in a month there will be no change to their bodies, and they will quit the gym entirely and go on a donut binge and end up fatter then when they started. And free weights??? No one is going to touch them without knowing what to do with them.

Now I’m pissed off at the gym.

So the women in there (3 total):

Woman #1- obese…clearly in need of training. For the entire 7 minutes I was in there, she was on the ab machine. Yes, put more muscle around your midsection

Woman #2- anorexic….clearly in need of some heavy weight training to get some shape, definition and muscle on her body. She was doing the glute machine on the lowest weight possible.

Woman #3- old…at her age, she’s probably in there just to keep her joints moving. She was doing push-ups in sets of 3. Way to set yourself for injury without benefit.

Apparently the male gym owner wants a gym full of men. Not that mind so much, but you’re keeping the female population out of shape by discouraging them from a getting a good workout.