Women Weightlifters Challenge Stereotypes...

As those of you know from our own beloved Coach Sam and all of the glorious Female Athletes who train with us... 

Women weightlifters challenge stereotypes: "It's cool to be strong"

By TAELER DE HAES CBS NEWS November 30, 2015, 7:06 AM

Take a look around your local gym. You might expect to see the majority of women congregated around miscellaneous cardio equipment or perhaps mid-way through a spin class, while men are picking up the weights.

But that scene is changing, and it's changing fast, as more women take up serious weight training.

"It's no longer taboo for women to become fit and strong," says Matt Gary, co-owner of Supreme Sports Performance and Training (SSPT), a powerlifting gym in Rockville, Maryland....

"Just looking at the last ten years, women now think it's cool to be strong, fit and have some muscle instead of just being skinny," Hartwig-Gary, said. "Today, being fit is seen as a lot better than just being skinny."

Society's idea of beauty and the ideal body image constantly changes, especially when it comes to women. For decades, many women spent hours doing cardio, obsessed over fad diets and tried detox teas and other gimmicks to try to fit into skinny jeans.

But lately this appears to be changing. While men have traditionally dominated the weight rooms, now more women are realizing that lifting weights does not create a stereotypical bulky physique.

Bodybuilding and flexible dieting coach Brittany Dawn did not always follow a healthy protocol. She attributes some of her past unhealthy behaviors to the unrealistic expectations society places on women.

Brittany Dawn, before and after she started weightlifting.

 COURTESY OF BRITTANY DAWN

"I was convinced that happiness meant having a thigh gap, collarbones, a virtually absent waist and wearing size 00 jeans," Dawn said. "On an average day, I would do 2-3 hours of cardio, and follow it with an overly restrictive diet. I lost friends. My family knew I had a problem, and I chose my workouts over going out to make memories. My only concern in life was being skinnier because society told me that this was what would make you beautiful."

But now that she's taken up weight training and come to view food as fuel for training, rather than a vice, her strength and confidence has skyrocketed....

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