Top 10 Disadvantages of Women’s Gyms

Of the "Top Ten Disadvantages of Women's Gyms" we talk about, none of them are the fault of fitness itself. They are all caused by ordinary girls who stepped on industry routines, were kidnapped by wrong aesthetics, and failed to master scientific methods when they first came into contact with fitness. Rather than saying that they are "disadvantages", they are better to be vaccinated in advance for all girls who want to join the gym. If you fall into any of them, you may spend money and suffer, and even get worse the more you practice.

First, let’s talk about the easiest pitfall to fall into when you first enter the store: being kidnapped by sales talk and over-consuming. My best friend just graduated last year and wanted to adjust her body shape. When she entered a gym near her home, she was chatted with by a salesperson for two hours. She said everything from "Girls over the age of 25 lose their metabolism and their faces will sag" to "Your fake hip width will look bloated no matter what you wear if you don't correct it." , I finally had a hot idea and got an annual membership card plus 12 private lessons, which cost me almost two months’ salary. I ended up going there three times and got tired and never went there again. No one wanted the membership card at a 30% discount on second-hand platforms. Now when I mention the gym, I feel heartbroken. Oh, by the way, don’t believe the gimmick that “female-only fitness cards offer more discounts”. The essence is just to lock in customers under a different name. In fact, the single price is more expensive than ordinary cards. Of course, some friends hold the opposite view: they think that buying expensive classes can force themselves to persist. This is a matter of opinion. The premise is that you can really go at least 3 times a week, otherwise it is purely charity for the gym.

Then, I was kidnapped by the narrowed "female fitness aesthetic" and practiced until my mentality collapsed. Many gyms provide customized plans for girls, which include "slimming the waist, perking up the buttocks, and practicing right-angled shoulders." Even the pull-ups will tell you that "training will make your back stronger and it won't look good in a skirt." I once saw a girl in the gym whose body fat had dropped to 19% after three months of training. She was told by a personal trainer, "You still have fat on your waist, so you need to add 20 minutes of fasting aerobics." In the end, she was so hungry that her aunt postponed it for half a month, thinking that she was not working hard enough. Fortunately, more and more female power bloggers are objecting to this abnormal aesthetic. Fitness should be about practicing whatever you want, powerlifting when you want, and gaining muscle when you want. There is no need to be shackles of thinness in the gym.

Speaking of safety issues, we have to mention the hidden dangers in the locker room that many girls have encountered. I stepped on a huge pothole last year. There was no anti-slip mat in the shower room at the gym. As soon as I stepped out from the shower, I slipped and fell. There was a big bruise on my inner thigh, which lasted for almost two weeks. Some friends have come across news about things being thrown away in the locker room and even hidden cameras installed. Thinking about it makes my back numb. Of course, there are also good chain gyms that will set up lockers exclusively for women, arrange for aunties to clean regularly, and install non-slip mats and emergency buttons in the showers. Visiting the locker room twice more when choosing a store is more useful than listening to a salesperson brag.

It’s really annoying to be sold supplements in the middle of training. You've just finished deadlifting and are out of breath, and a personal trainer or supplement salesman comes over and stuffs you with a trial sample, saying, "Girls will lose muscle if they don't take protein supplements after training. If you drink this strawberry flavor, we are doing a buy-three-get-one-free promotion." In fact, if your training intensity is not that intense, you can eat two eggs and one cup of milk normally, and there is no need to buy a large bucket of protein powder. What's even more deceptive is the so-called "fat-loss supplements for women", which secretly contain diuretics and excessive amounts of caffeine. Drinking them can easily lead to panic and insomnia. My colleague bought a box before and after drinking it for two days, his heart rate was so high that he went to the hospital for emergency treatment in the middle of the night and threw away the rest.

What’s even more disturbing: being accosted or even harassed during training. You are looking in the mirror to feel how powerful you are with squats, and a man comes over to you. He either says your movements are wrong and wants to crack your crotch, or he comes up and asks you on WeChat to say, "We can practice together in the future." You can't hide. I once had a friend who was blocked by the same man asking for WeChat every week. She complained to the front desk twice to no avail. In the end, she simply canceled her card and bought dumbbells to practice at home. Fortunately, many gyms now have "female-only training areas" that prohibit men from entering. Choosing this type of gym will save you a lot of worry.

Don't think that you'll be fine if you avoid sales and harassment. An unreliable personal trainer can put you directly in the hospital. Many personal trainers do not have serious national fitness instructor qualifications themselves. They dare to come out to teach classes after learning anatomy for half a month. In order to get you results quickly, they will add weight to you crazily and force you to do wrong movements. I once witnessed a girl practicing squats. In order to make her squat deeper, the personal trainer sat directly on her back and pressed her. In the end, she tore her meniscus and it took more than half a year to run and jump normally. Of course, not all personal trainers are unreliable. When looking for one, ask a few questions about sports rehabilitation to see if he has relevant qualifications, which is much more important than seeing how well his butt has been trained.

For girls who have long commutes, the ridiculously high time cost is also a big problem. If your home is half an hour one way from the gym, and it takes half an hour to change clothes, warm up and take a shower, even if you only practice for an hour, it will take almost three hours to go back and forth. For 996 girls, they are so tired after get off work that they just want to paralyze, and they have to find time to go to the gym. On the contrary, they are prone to anxiety and feel that they are "not self-disciplined enough". In the end, they fail to exercise, which adds to the psychological burden. Of course, there are also friends who are good at planning and arrange their fitness during their lunch break, or find a gym downstairs in the company, and then take a shower and go to work directly after training. This depends on your own pace of life, so there is no need to force yourself.

There is another point that is easily overlooked: the risk of cross-infection. Many people leave yoga mats, dumbbells, and treadmill handrails in the gym without wiping them after use. They are covered with sweat stains and bacterial flora. Girls’ physiological structures are more susceptible to infection. If they sit directly on public yoga mats or touch their faces without washing their hands after using the equipment, it is easy to develop boils or induce gynecological inflammation. This is actually easy to solve. You can bring a towel, spray the equipment with disinfectant spray after use, and wash your hands before touching your face after practicing. It’s not a big problem, but you will really suffer if you don’t pay attention.

There is also the invisible kidnapping of fitness anxiety. You scroll through your Moments and see that a girl in the same gym has developed a vest line in three months. You have been practicing for a month and the fat on your waist has not moved, so you start to worry, and even go on a diet and exercise more. In the end, you have endocrine disorders and acne breaks out on your face. Some gyms offer fat-loss camp rankings, and those who lose less in a week are fined to do push-ups. They completely ignore that everyone's basal metabolism and muscle mass are different, and instead turn fitness into a comparison. If you really want to say it, fitness is a long-term thing. Being comfortable and getting better after practicing is ten thousand times more important than losing two pounds on the scale. There is no need to compare your progress with others.

The last one is quite speechless to say: it is easy to be kidnapped by inexplicable morals. When you wear gym clothes that reveal your waist, some people will gossip behind your back and say that you are "wearing so little just to seduce people." When you become stronger and can do pull-ups, some people will say, "Girls have built so many muscles that they are too ugly to find a partner." Some people even make vulgar jokes about your fitness. It is obvious that you have done nothing and are getting a lot of idle talk for no reason. But nowadays, many girls who work out will support each other. If you encounter such idiots, you can just yell back. The gym is here to sweat, not to cater to other people's aesthetics.

In fact, after saying so much, you can see that these so-called "disadvantages" are essentially the chaos of the fitness industry and the obstacles caused by the wrong expectations of the outside world. They have nothing to do with fitness itself. If you can avoid these pitfalls, the gym can bring you many real benefits: For example, you can carry a 20-pound suitcase up to the fifth floor without being out of breath, you will no longer be in pain that makes you unable to get out of bed, and you will even get fewer colds during the change of seasons. To put it bluntly, fitness is your own business. Do it however you feel comfortable. Just don’t be tied down by others.