 what's happening ladies and a gentleman selling bike back with another video we're gonna hop in maybe more of a social conversation today i don't like to think it's political or anything like that but it's something i've personally observed in my journey through the gym whether i'm working or lifting over the last 10 years uh the 15 years uh and just on the internet instagram social media and these kind of things and that's how women have been training uh more for performance more for themselves and are more often in the free weight section than they were 10 years ago and also the gap that may still be there in the social pressures for both a male and a female within the gym uh before we dig into it man check out my twitch stream it's going on almost every single day if you guys like video games or if you want to talk fitness you want to talk life sometimes we're just there hanging out i got a brand new podcast every wednesday 50 facts that goes into detail on specific topics for each question that we try to answer within the podcast weekly with the world's leading experts so be sure to check that out on spotify itunes etc let's see if we get a thousand likes on this video new video every monday uh thursday i appreciate you guys this dive in um so basically i found an article online sometimes i'm just searching around often on twitch actually and we're talking to the boys we're talking to the crew um and we kind of just have a discussion between uh chat and myself uh and i haven't gone over this one in specific but it's from a similar website i'm not going to link the website or anything like that um but basically they start talking about gender gaps in the gym um and women not being confident to go into the gym and it goes into a different couple different uh cultural things but basically they list a couple of different lifters a couple of different athletes that grew up with no sport background nothing of that nature um and and they talk about never even once thinking about i'd go into the weight room they'd see guys lifting with their cut offs and and being so intimidated that they would never feel comfortable going in there with that testosterone filled room and they interview a couple ladies that kind of felt that way up until their early or mid 20s and then eventually either found a different uh inspiration from a teacher or a lifter or a coach that was into powerlifting or something uh some type of training uh heavy training and that really inspired them and they and they dove deep into that and on my personal experience you know i preach powerlifting not because i want to be a world record holder or i love competing in powerlifting i preach powerlifting because i do think it's one of the best activities for everybody for uh confidence for uh health um for healthy hobbies and community um to be able to train day in and day out under a very monotonous uh sport to be honest um really trains you mentally and physically and again obviously the resistance training itself has numerous health benefits that can help so many different people um and it's easily addicted and i think it's good for the mind also as soon as you can start to focus on performance being an athlete having fun and progressing in the gym rather than measuring your stomach and body fat and worrying about those things right here it says uh i'm not gonna mention names i don't know if they want to be known or not but they uh said this lady definitely isn't the only woman to feel a sense of gym intimidation if you ever set foot in a broy weight room and suddenly felt like everyone was judging you you know the feeling but it's not it's not just a matter of making women self-conscious reachers to argue experiences like this contribute to a gender gap and physical activity levels that harm women it says globally women are less likely than men to get enough exercise 57% of men ages 18 and over recommend aerobic activity levels versus 49% of women according to the data uh from the center of disease control when it comes to the number of people who meet guidelines for both aerobic and muscle strength and activity the gap widens further marginalizing groups have it even worse in recent studies young black women were the least likely group to report any physical activity and even the discriminatory policies trans and non-binary people face in sport and gym environments experts suspect that their exercise participants race are even lower and i think that this kind of goes both ways i think that it mentions earlier in this article that women have the most social pressure to look a certain way or be a certain weight or have the most internal dialogue about their weight and bodies whether it be body dysmorphia etc etc and i think to extend it does but i think on the opposite that these stats are increased because men also feel um the the the social pressures right all guys know like all i'm supposed to be the big burly guy with the big bicep and the big long beard bunch of tattoos that makes me a man and although you know it's 2019 a lot of us understand that that sounds so stupid and lifting weights doesn't make you tough it doesn't make you a fighter it doesn't make you a man it just makes you healthy and really good at lifting a socially constructed barbell with weights on there perfectly made for you to lift um i do think that men from an early age kind of get that vision from the world or society and that's why it's more likely that men lift weights from ladies well the the the the stigma around there is still that men aren't attracted to muscular women and muscular women don't be a dude only must dudes have muscles etc etc and to break it down quite frankly you know it's okay and i see this on the internet you know shout out to the homegirls Steffi Cohen uh you know meg squats i've been friends with them for many many years and and i love what they do for the sport and i love what they do for the sport in general but i also obviously love what they do for women in the sport uh and women not in the sport that that that shows them it's okay to lift weights and it's okay to do whatever the hell you want to do despite what these people are putting on you it's okay in this world to have sexual preferences and it's okay to have what you like and what you don't like what's not okay is to mention that on instagram every single day to mention it on youtube every day and comment like they freaking care you going on meg squats thing and telling her she's jacked and that's gross is so stupid it's okay to not have a sexual preference if you're not sexually attracted to women that have muscle that's absolutely fine that's between you and who you may try to date or find in a mate for you to tell to portray that a project that on meg is not okay that's absolutely stupid the old school thing right like guys you like brunettes or you like blondes it's okay that you're more attracted to blondes that's totally fine what's not okay and this doesn't happen even though it's the exact same thing you just did on the internet you don't go up to every brunette on the street or that you see in the mall or that you see in the bar and say you're brunette that's gross i'm not attracted to that you you would never do that and it makes zero sense to do that because that woman that person doesn't care if you like brunettes or not in the same fact cares for a confident woman like meg like stephie like numerous others on the internet or in real life they don't care that you don't like their muscles they didn't build their muscles their strength their confidence for you and so for you and i know a lot of you guys watching aren't these people because the people that are watching are more informed they're more into the sport and they're more open minded in my opinion that are likely to seek out hopefully my content and the content of someone like stephie or meg and i'm just using them as examples because i've seen it across the board on on the internet and it's just absolutely stupid and some people on the internet even say that like oh you dyed your hair blonde gross no one cares what you freaking think you know what i mean it's absolutely stupid you would never say that to someone on the street so why are you projecting and throwing your opinion on them um side rat anted but it just really pissed me off uh what so what's the responsibility of the gym gap the answer is complex but a major factor is that active spaces are plagued by gender specific deterrents that encourage women to stay on the sidelines we're going to dig into that into the second and i know all this sounds kind of negative and man we're not open and don't let girls train and and there are always things that we can fix and progress and i think this hopefully is going into it we're going to dig in there but i have noticed over the last 10 years both males and females are more comforting of each other in the gym and less judgy there's still of course the guys grunting in the corner you know curling 10 pound dumbbells doing their thing and judging everybody in there but i have noticed going to similar commercial gyms over the last 10 years and i've been to hundreds if not thousands of gyms in my travels with podcasting etc over the years there are way more people focusing in on strength focusing in on performance and way more ladies in the free weight section now in 2019 than back in 2007 when i started really taking training seriously for starters women are more likely than men to experience weight stigma which can discourage women from the going to the gym and even the doctor's office there then there's the issue of harassment as in most public places women experience in gyms and on hiking trails and running routes are often marred by harassment while running in a busy plate park while running in a busy park in salt lake city shana 26 was followed by a man in his car he would park watch her run past drive up ahead and park to watch her i mean that's just next level of harassment and i know what happens in and me because i'm male and in different situations i've never experienced that but that's insane to me and it absolutely sucks if and we can't as a group of lifters as a group of content creators as a community here on youtube we can't really control how weird the world is because the world is so freaking big but what we can control is what happens within the weight room within the gym and we can make sure situations like this aren't going to happen we can make sure that we're comforting and freaking just be normal in the weight room to allow women to feel comfortable in the weight room so they don't um i have to go out there and be harassed and i understand they should 1000 and billion percent be able to go for a run a jog and not think twice about creepy guys on the street following them watching them whistling at them making comments at them but on a smaller picture and i can't control that none of us can if we could i would snap and eliminate all these creepers from the freaking world so all the women felt safe doing any activity they wanted to do but what we can do i think a small step is us we have a lot of guys here a lot of ladies here that are into the gym we can make everybody feel more comfortable in the gym obviously it's a smaller scale than what's going on out there and this goes back to my point of just being freaking normal even in the gym um i've seen tons of cute girls in the gym you guys have seen a bunch of different humans you're attracted to in the gym don't stare don't go talk to him don't go hit on him let them do their workout in peace you do your workout in peace and if the stars align and you see him later at a bar then it's your time to freaking ask him on a date or something like that but in the gym let's all just focus on ourselves focus on getting better and leaving the rest of the uh freaking people alone i wonder if this is actually freaking oh my god i thought stefie was in this article because it says stefanie cohen but it's spelled differently this person's a university nodding him in the united kingdom i was about to say this is sick i'm talking about homegirl stefie and she's an article one of the discouraging factors keeping women from working out is hiding in plain sight the actual designs of most gyms and social attitudes they were forced if you close your eyes and think of the gym the imaginary that off the imagery that often comes to mind is vividly gendered says stefie cohen phd and assistant professor at the university of nodding him in the picture weight racks dominated by sweaty dudes while women are correlated yeah corralled near the cardio machines and stretching areas i've often uh been the only woman working on the room of 15 to 20 men and i think a lot of ladies probably watching here uh have have felt very similar um that the but but but we can change that we can change that the guys that are in the weight room can be more welcoming they can be uh more normal they can be less aggressive you you're not a tough guy because you're freaking lift weights uh you can be more nurturing to the fact that the weight room and free weights should be for everyone not all of us can play in the nba not all of us can play uh competitive athletics as we get older into our 20s and 30s but all of us can lift weights and get better um for ourselves and that's the most important thing here uh i read this article earlier today maybe even yesterday uh and it just really kind of hit the home on what a lot of us i think already know and already believe uh and then i started just remembering training in the gym in 2007 and what that landscape looked like compared to now and although we've made progress we still have a good way to go because this article is brand new and there's obviously still ladies out there that feel intimidated or don't feel comfortable in the gym and that's on some of us uh i think it's on the lady also a little bit to to step up and just say screw it i don't care i'm gonna go work out but it's on a lot of us to be more welcoming more helpful and less creepy uh to allow people to do what they want to do within the gym so hopefully um those are just my thoughts man comment below what you guys think on the topic i know it's a big old social picture and a big societal issue here and it's probably different state to state let alone country to country um but those are some things that i've noticed here and i am lucky enough to grow up uh in certain areas in california where things are a little bit perhaps open more open minded and open than than other places in the world so i do understand that but even within my little bubble of my life i have noticed a difference so i think we're heading the right direction but there's still a way to go i appreciate you guys hopefully you enjoyed the video man be sure to give it a thumbs up i'll catch you in the next one sound like i'm out