• Vincent Adultman
    link
    fedilink
    -47 months ago

    For a woman, 29.5kg is heavy judging by what I usually see when training. My gym has olympic bars, which weights 20kg. Rarely women add any more weight, some add 5kg each side and like 1/50 (made of my head) put 10kg each side. To go past novice level, you need to bulk and build muscle/strength. Women aren’t interested in doing that for the upper body.

      • Echo Dot
        link
        fedilink
        37 months ago

        Obviously it’s painting with a broad bush but it’s a reasonably good estimate of what most people do.

      • @captainlezbian@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        27 months ago

        Yeah I think there’s a strong generational divide on it. I remember seeing gen X worried about looking too muscular meanwhile on the young millennial and older gen z end a lot of women my age want to look at least a little buff if they’re the type to go to the gym and lift weights.

        • @768@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          37 months ago

          True. I just don’t think it’s the place of someone to tell that ‘women aren’t interested in that’, because even if people hold the opinion or lack the motivation behind that, those statements would not be the reason that women are not to have interest in muscles.

          • Vincent Adultman
            link
            fedilink
            17 months ago

            -> what I usually see -> my gym

            My experience pretty much. That’s the source, the territory that I am in. Women want to have big butts (((here))) where I live, upper body aren’t their most interested area to build muscle.

        • Vincent Adultman
          link
          fedilink
          37 months ago

          Location is a big variable. I live in south america, women are praised for their big butts. That’s what they train the most.

          • @captainlezbian@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            27 months ago

            That’s a good point. Here in the US, butts are the primary targets (myself included) but many women also do upper body targeting for a variety of reasons

        • @RBWells@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          27 months ago

          I don’t think that is what’s going on. I work upper body plenty, just don’t eat to bulk and that gives me shape not size. Probably most women who do lift are working upper body, and just not bulking.

        • @768@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          17 months ago

          I’m too lazy to look up actual studies, but I know that inferring from a singular POV will not yield meaningful enough info to claim that a whole gender is not supposed to or doesn’t do something regularly unless there is a reason that you can infer something as bold.

    • @RBWells@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      47 months ago

      I am mid-50s, female, casual lifter, mostly do yoga & only lift once a week on average. Look lean but not at all bulky. I can bench 65lb, sure. Strength can be built separate from bulk. But personally wouldn’t do it alone, just in case, and honestly it would be my heavy set. For scale - Big awkward dog food bag is 45lb and most of us can wrangle that, or a 50lb bag of dirt or whatever. So it’s not a crazy heavy amount and also not crazy light.