When one of my best guy friends asked me about my workout routine, I told him forty minutes on the elliptical followed by a quick ab work out. He then proceeded to laugh at me. “You’re one of those girls, huh?” was what he said. I later found out what he meant: One of the girls who were afraid to go into the weight side of the gym.
Trying to prove a point, I went to the gym with him the next week. He was right when he said girls didn’t go onto the second floor unless it was for a yoga class. There was tons and tons of hot guys walking around, and only two girls. When asking girls around campus why they didn’t go to that side of the gym, a lot of answeres were given. Among them were, “I like my routine” or “It smells funny.” Both of which may be true, but all the girls know the real reason why we don’t like going over there:
The guys.
It’s true, boys are great eye candy at the gym, but the last thing we want is to embarrass ourselves in front of them. Red in the face, sweating everywhere? Not a cute look. However, I went behind enemy lines and asked real gym boys what they think when they see a girl on “their” side. Here’s what we came up with.
1) Memory
Think back to all your days at the gym. How many boys do you see? Probably a hundred walking around each time. How many do you actually remember the next day? Maybe that one hottie that you’ve seen there a few times before. Boys are pretty much the same. Colin* a senior at UMass points this out. “We’re just as into our workout stuff as you guys. I mean, yeah it’s rare to see a girl, but we’ve seen them before. It’s not like you guys walk in and it’s an endangered species that no one’s seen before. It’s like, cool, there’s a girl here, I hope she doesn’t steal the machine I want. Then we go back to whatever we were doing.”
Colin makes a fair point. They’ve seen girls before. While it’s rare to see a boy on the elliptical machines all the way to the left side of the gym, when we do we don’t freak out. It’s not a middle school dance where everyone has to stay on their own side, right? Chances are a guy won’t even remember you as the girl who was doing weights if he meets you at a party. He’ll remember you as the cute girl who looks absolutely fabulous in her Little Black Dress.
2) Fitness
Jake* a junior at UMass adds his own input: “Guys like toned girls. You can’t be toned without the weights. That’s work out rule 101.” Fair point, Jake. If we’re really looking into looking good this semester, we need the machines and the weights. A girl who does treadmill all day will have great legs, but what about the arms? The abs? All the other muscles that need to be worked out too? Machines will do that. The way I tell if I had a great workout is from the soreness that follows. It takes forty five minutes on the treadmill for my legs to get sore. Machines? Everything hurts in minutes (probably a sign that I should head to that side more too).
3)Who Cares?
Even though a lot of guys support the girls using the weights, there are a few who don’t. A junior, Paul*, responded: “It’s weird.” when I asked about how he felt with having the girls on the weight side of the gym. I then asked him why. “I dunno, it’s just weird.” Good talk, Paul, good talk. So that’s the last lesson here: who cares? What’s the worst they can say about you? “Wow, look at that girl using the weights and trying to get in shape and look good! What a weirdo!” That makes no sense. Her Campus girls are brave, confident girls who don’t give a crap what anyone thinks. So work out that butt! The boys who judge you at the gym are definitely not the ones you want seeing it in a hot dress on Friday night anyway.
Lift On!
*Names have been changed.