Why I Like Powerlifting
In a world where small girls rule, I can be big.
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When you think of a female personal trainer what do you think of? Big muscles and a small frame? Six-pack abs? Wearing a sports bra and tight leggings? Do you picture Jillian Michaels? A simple Google search says it all.
I can tell you, most personal trainers don’t look like that. I’m a personal trainer and I don’t look like that. My female coworkers don’t look like that. Nor do most of us want to look like that, but we struggle with the idea of looking like that.
Personal trainers, both male and female, feel the pressure to look a certain way. If you are lean and muscular, people assume you know what you are doing. And people will often hire a personal trainer based on how they look. In many ways, your career thrives on your appearance. But what if you don’t look the way society assumes a personal trainer should look?
This is me. I’m 5’10” and a size 12. I could give you more stats, but a picture speaks a thousand words. I have never felt like I fit in at a gym, as a member or as a trainer. I could be lifting twice as much weight as the woman next to me or having an amazing workout with a client and still feel out of place. I have always been “too big.”
I feel this way for two reasons, first, because of the looks and reactions I get at the gym. When I’m in uniform, I catch people watching me, but they never catch me, because they are looking at my body, not my face. Most of the time it’s a blank stare, but sometimes it’s a look of surprise or confusion. I will never know what’s running through their minds, but I can only guess it’s something like “she’s a personal trainer?”.
When I first started at the gym, that’s what people would say. Members used to assume I worked in a different department. When I told people I was a personal trainer, they…
