If you read our coverage last week of the pilot program, Women on Weights, no longer being offered this semester because it wasn’t heavily used, you probably just learned about it for the first time.
Women on Weights was a pilot program put on by the Student Recreation Center at the University of Idaho. It dedicated 10 hours a week where women could come in and have one-on-one training with a female certifiedprofessional trainer.
According to Ben Sturz, interim fitness and operations director of the Student Recreation Center, only four people used it last semester. This is a shame because this type of program can help many people, especially self- conscious women.
If you have ever been to a gym before, you are met by gym rats with muscles that seem bigger than your head. This can be very intimidating, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Despite this fear, chances are those gym rats and casual gym goers don’t really care about what you’re doing because they’re not paying attention to you. They’re paying attention to their own workout.
However, programs like these are helpful to women who still feel self-conscious or just want to be around women during their workout. It gives them the opportunity to have one-on-one training with a female certified professional trainer, thus giving them a more personalized workout.
Having a dedicated time for women who just want strength and weight training around other women along with personalized training
will draw in women who are generally uncomfortable in a normal gym environment. This is because they know the expectations of the environment and have an idea of those who will be there.
It’s no wonder that Planet Fitness markets itself as a judgement free zone. It draws people into the gym who feel intimated by gym rats.
I really hope the Student Recreation Center at UI finds a successful way to continue this program, because it really will help women who feel self-conscious at the gym. Next time around, the Student Recreation Center needs to create a solid plan to get the word out about these sessions in a clear way, because Sturz said that there was a lot of confusion about what exactly Women on Weights was.
It can be hard to go to the gym. Whether you have never been there before, you’re self-conscious about progress in your fitness journey or whatever it may be, programs like these can help people reach their fitness goals.
A person’s experience at a gym can affect the likelihood of them going back to that particular gym or any gym at all. This program was a good step in ensuring that a certain demographic felt comfortable at the gym.
Nicole Hindberg can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ HindbergNicole.