A few months back, Daniella Dayoub from DFitLife, Alison Corcoran from Goldilocks Training, and Karen Koutsavlis fromNew England360 were great enough to chime in on a post that I wrote as to why women need to lift more than 3 lbs. weights.They had amazing feedback on the topic of lifting heavier and all of the benefits. The post sparked a great conversation about body image and how it relates to training in the comments section.
This morning I came across another post on the topic, “Does Lifting Heavy Make You Bulky? Find Out the Truch Here” from Girls Gone Strong in my RSS fitness feed. The answer rhymes with “schmo” by the way.
It further reinforced some feedback on the subject Girls Gone Strong Co-Founder Molly Galbraith, gave me not too long ago. She is someone I have the utmost respect for, consider her an industry pioneer, and like the above mentioned fitness industry pros, she too has an extremely impactful muscular message as to how women should approach their fitness programs.
I sent her the following questions, and here is what she had to say.
What is Girls Gone Strong?
“Girls Gone Strong is the most trusted resource for women’s health, wellness, nutrition, training, and lifestyle information. But it’s more than that. It’s a movement of women from all over the world uniting to provide support, inspiration, and sisterhood to one another.”
Real life weighs more than 3 lbs. Why have 3 lbs. dumbbells become so prevalent in women’s training?
“Unfortunately, it’s all about fitness marketing, and one of the most effective marketing tools can be fear. So companies prey on women’s insecurities and instill irrational fears that they will become “bulky” if they lift anything too heavy. (And the whole “bulky” thing is a whole other can of worms). Most women become smaller when they start strength training, but even if they do gain a bit of size, which is rare, who cares?! There are so many different shapes and sizes that are all healthy, strong, and sexy.”
What are the benefits to women when they lift heavier?
“Increased muscle mass, increased strength, healthier body composition, increased bone density, increased confidence, improved self-esteem, more independence… the list goes on and on!”
What exercise epitomizes the Girls Gone Strong movement?
“Oh goodness! That’s a tough one. My first inclination is to say the Turkish getup (mostly because I love it) but also because it’s a beautiful combination of mobility, stability, and strength. I also love that it seems really complicated at first, but with concentrated practice, it becomes a beautiful flow, which is what I feel like so many things in life can be if we give them the proper respect, attention, and practice. Another part of me says the Pull-up because it’s so empowering to be able to pull yourself up over a bar over and over again. It just feels like you can conquer the world. Annnnnnd the Deadlift. Because heavy Deadlifts are awesome. ‘Nuff said.”
I can’t thank Molly enough for taking time out of her insane schedule to answer my questions. If you’re looking for high quality fitness information to add to your daily reads, I can’t recommend her and the Girls Gone Strong site enough. You can also hear what she has to say on all things fitness on The FitCast Podcast.
If you’d like to get more information about Molly, head over to her site at MollyGalbraith.com and be ready to learn.
Once again, thank you very much for getting this far down the page, it always greatly appreciated.