Can The Fitness Industry Overcome Gender Inequality?

Men have always been portrayed as those who shift the ‘real’ weights in the gym, whilst women are expected to prance around on the cardio equipment. Most recently, it has become more of a trend to see women using the heavy weights and on occasions, they are matching the men.

The National Strength and Conditioning Association revealed that on average, women generally produce around two-thirds the amount of total strength that men produce. Although this may prove by fact that there is a difference between the strength of both men and women, and that men are physically stronger, this doesn’t seem to hold women back in the fitness industry today.

Here’s what Personal Trainers across Manchester have to say…

Steve Chambers, Personal Trainer at Ultimate Performance Manchester, says: “I think this stems from the past in which woman didn’t really consider weight training. It was all about cardio and not lifting more that 3kg in case they would miraculously look like men.”

According to the Society for Endocrinology, testosterone is one of the main hormones responsible for increasing muscle size, and is produced in much greater levels in men than it is women. So, in fact, women can’t physically look as muscular as men without taking steroids or dramatically increasing their calorie intake when lifting heavy weights.

Steve adds: “A male does have more potential to be stronger than a female, due to a number of reasons like muscles mass and hormonal profiles.

But I have had many female clients that pound for pound out-lift some of my male clients. And when it comes down to those last few painful reps, a female is less likely to give up than a male.”

Personal Trainer Chris Broomhead has been on the fitness scene for over 14 years, and he has a strong opinion on the perception of men and women’s strength.

“Most girls use too little weight because they have misconceptions, but most guys use too much weight and they just throw it about,” he says.

“If you’re talking an average man and average woman then yes, men are ‘stronger’, but I know female bodybuilders who are stronger than a hell of a lot of guys in the gym.

Just because women may be ‘small’ it doesn’t mean that they can’t train with intensity.”

As well as the physical comparisons between men and women in the gym, personal trainers often notice a difference in their mentality too.

Working at Pure Gym in Salford, Chris trains eight women for every three men, and openly admits that he prefers to train with females.

“I do prefer training women and it’s mainly because males generally have a bigger ego in the gym. Women are just easier to teach, they accept help and advice better, and they are not bothered about admitting that they don’t know how to do something,” Chris explains.

“When I started out, I had to ask the guys how to do the ‘big stuff’, everyone starts somewhere. But some men just don’t understand that and don’t want to be seen asking for help.”

In any public gym across the country, it’s common that you’ll find the majority of personal trainers are male.

Figures from the Register of Exercise Professionals reveal that out of the total 13,770 registered personal trainers in the UK, just 38% are women.

“I think that people generally prefer to have personal trainers of the opposite sex and its mostly women who take up personal trainers,” says Chris.

“I think women feel more comfortable if their personal trainers are genuinely nice people. You need to be a trustworthy person as clients share a lot of secrets and personal information with you.”

Personal trainers are there to push clients to their limits. Generally, female personal trainers are considered to have a gentler approach and aren’t as strict as a male personal trainer would be.

Sarah Adarkwa, a female Personal Trainer from Body Junkies, disagrees: “Personally I’ve been told that I have a much harder approach than male personal trainers, I think that’s an old stereotype.

Female personal trainers are as fierce, or if not, fiercer than male personal trainers.”

Each personal trainer said that they don’t alter their training methods between men and women, but would only change it to suite each client’s goals, issues, strengths and weaknesses.

Steve says: “The only major things that would change would be the structure of the workout. For example, the exercises selected would generally be more specific to the areas females are typically more concerned about i.e. the glutes and legs.

“I wouldn’t train a female any differently than a male. I would push both males and females equally. There is no need to alter my approach other than the exercises used and the body parts we want to prioritise.”

Sarah comments: “A lot of female training programmes now involve things that males usually do, which includes a lot of heavy weights.”

Chris explains: “My training techniques are similar between males and females such as increased weightlifting and intense training but most females do elements of cardio too because their goal is weight loss at the same time.”

Although the strength and agility between genders is becoming more balanced, the dominant stereotypes are still encouraged through the media.

“With social media, unfortunately, the most successful people are the men with their shirts off and the women with their ‘arses’ out,” Chris confesses.

“The fitness industry is still very male dominated and I think that’s the way that it always will be because most coaches are men, and the male body building scene is still a lot bigger than female bodybuilding. However, there are a lot more women involved now and it’s improved massively in the last five years.

“Unfortunately, though, in some public gyms, women are still objectified and not taken seriously.”

However, Sarah disagrees:

It already is improving! A lot of people are now seeing fitness in a more equal way. With time and with more female trainers in the industry, we can definitely overcome it.”