My favorite emoji is 💪. It’s got two meanings to me: an unashamed “look at my strength!” and a bold “we can do it!” Both of these reflect my personal journey with fitness, and my aspiration that we can make fitness more inclusive.
I fell in love with lifting almost a decade ago. After sustaining a cardio-overtraining spinal stress fracture in high school, I started college without a habit of regular physical activity. Purely to knock out my PE requirement without having to do cardio, I took an Intro to Strength Training class. Instead, I found myself getting addicted to squatting and benching and my numbers going up and up. And having been really short (I’m 5 feet tall!) my entire life, Moving Big Weight was one of the first times I’d felt really physically empowered.
I felt proud of my body – and even more so because I was doing it in a space and way that defied traditional expectations 💪. I can’t even count the number of times people have:
- Speculated lifting had made me short (I was short already! At least now I can jump higher to reach things!);
- Demanded “why do you want to lift so much?” (It makes me feel great! And also – strength training is incredibly healthy for everyone and especially for women, who are more prone to osteoporosis); or
- Warned that building muscle would make me less feminine (first of all it takes so much effort to look super ripped; secondly, it’s a bold assumption that looking feminine is my #1 goal in life).
Luckily, I’ve always been kind of contrarian when people tell me not to do something, and I became even more determined to keep participating (and even competing!) in powerlifting. But hearing these types of comments also convinced me that strength training is intimidating for people who don’t fit into the traditional image of the gymgoer: a muscly, testosterone-fueled cis straight man.
Gyms are often gendered spaces, with women expected to work out for “weight loss” and men expected to work out for “bulking up.” With their strong associations with masculinity, strength training spaces can also be home to homophobia. For trans and non-binary gymgoers, there are additional barriers when gyms discriminate and deny access to gendered facilities.
Even if you’re looking for a gym without these toxic mindsets, it’s really hard to find one. In the SF Bay Area, searching “women-friendly gym” on Google Maps nets 0 results. Searching “Women gym” in Yelp returns results – but the top 10 of those results are generic and not tailored to be women-friendly. Websites like Safe to Train and Women’s Strength Coalition help – but the latter has only 1 entry in all of California. For trans folks, resources like Transgender Heaven have 0 gyms listed. Searching “trans-friendly gym” in Google Search actually redirects you to “Gay Gyms” on Yelp! (Though the communities formed around these identities share some similarities and overlap, sexual orientation and gender identity are not the same thing.)
Strength training changed how I viewed my body and what I was capable of, but strength training spaces still felt very Not Inclusive – especially to those from marginalized communities like women and LGBTQ+ folks. I wanted to change that.
As a college student, I became certified as a fitness trainer and co-founded a powerlifting club that emphasized being an inclusive space. We welcomed dozens of students into the weight room for the first time and coached several total beginners to compete in their first powerlifting meets. I heard from my friends and trainees that we’d made a space where they felt truly comfortable strength training. Later, after I’d graduated and started working full-time at Google, I continued developing my coaching skills by teaching “Powerlifting 101”, to my immediate teammates and through “Googler-to-Googler” classes in partnership with our onsite fitness trainers.
Recently, as I wrote about in this article, I hypothesized that I would be happier and more fulfilled working towards a personal mission in my full-time job. I’m proving this hypothesis now, four months into Peloton on the Corporate Wellness team – where our mission is to democratize access to fitness.
As I’ve learned more about health over the years, what started as an obsession with strength training has also grown into a belief in the importance of other parts of health (nutrition, sleep and recovery, and mental health) as well. I can’t wait to continue spending my time working on user problems and inclusivity in these spaces – all with a 💪 outlook!