Advice for females looking to get in shape

Strong and Sexy is our monthly feature from Molly Galbraith of Girls Gone Strong and it features questions from readers of the TPS newsletter.

Molly Galbraith

Molly will answer at least one question each month on topics geared towards our female readers. Ladies, get those questions ready and reply back to the newsletter with them.

Question: I have a friend who thinks half an hour on the elliptical twice a week is a really good exercise plan. I’m trying to convince her to be my new training partner (I’m a powerlifter) but she thinks static cardio and light dumbbells is what women are “supposed to do” to stay in shape. How do I convince her to come to the weight room with me?

Pink dumbells
Answer: This is a fantastic question and one I get ALL the time!

First off, I am going to assume that she does want to exercise and be “in shape” and that you’re not just imposing your will on her, and offering unsolicited advice. One of the quickest ways to turn a woman off to the advice you have to offer is to try to convince her that she is wrong and you are right. She will likely get defensive and stick to her guns even more.

Now that you know what NOT to do, I’m going to bring you some advice from my training mentor and business partner Jim Laird . Jim is the man who got me into lifting 9 years ago, and over the years he has gotten dozens of women interested in heavy lifting. Jim’s advice is as follows, “You have to wait for her to come to you and ask for help, or wait for her to complain about not getting the results that she wants. That opens the window for you to offer her help without upsetting her.”

When it comes time to offering her help, Jim has 3 tips:

1. Start small.

Throwing a woman into a full-fledged training program immediately will likely leave her very sore, and may turn her off to strength training after just one workout. Simply offer to take her through a solid warm-up or have her push the Prowler (start light!) with you a few times. If this is the first time she has done these things, they will likely be difficult for her, and may be plenty to challenge her during her first couple of workouts. Remember, if she is a beginner, it doesn’t take much to get results.

Push the Prowler at Total Performance Sports in Everett Mass

This leads us to number 2.

2. Leave her wanting to do more.

By under-training a female and keeping her from doing too much too soon, not only are you preventing her from burning out or getting too sore, you are also whetting her appetite, and making her want to lift more. The cool thing about this is that the desire to do more comes from HER, so she will feel like training harder and heavier is her idea.

3. Let her grow into it.

Over time, if you keep the training simple and fun, and you provide an encouraging and educational environment, chances are she will fall in love with lifting. I have never trained a woman who wasn’t excited when she was able to increase her training weight on squats or deadlifts, or who wasn’t ecstatic when she did her first chin-up. It will happen naturally if you let it.

There you have it. Simple and effective advice from a man who’s helped dozens of women fall in love with heavy weight.