In our gym, women outnumber men almost 3-to-1.
So, we’ve developed a reputation as a “female-only” facility. And while that’s untrue (we do train men and women alongside each other) more women enroll in our program than men do. They also attend classes more frequently than their male counterparts.
But why?
More often than not, women come to us looking for help solving a problem. And there are a few reasons why.
The first reason is that they’ve been so busy managing life for those around them that they’ve neglected their own needs for far too long. They’re too busy to make a plan for themselves and they want someone to take ONE THING off their to-do list. They don’t have time to waste.
The second reason is that they never learned how to exercise or strength train when they were younger. They don’t know what to do, or where to get started. A quick internet search shows them that there is WAY TOO MUCH INFORMATION online and they’re instantly overwhelmed. They just need some direction.
The third reason, the one that no one really talks about, is that they’re lonely. They want to make friends. But they don’t have time. They don’t know where to go to meet women like themselves. They don’t want to put themselves out there and risk being rejected. They just want to feel included.
The last reason is that they just need to be healthy. They want to exercise without worrying about the risk of injury. They want to age well, maintain strong bones and decrease their risk of balance-related falls (and the injuries that come with them). They’re not trying to prove anything to anyone. They just want to be independent.
For the most part, their goals are all the same. They want to lose weight, gain strength and independence, build confidence and be healthy. But for any of the reasons above, they’re stuck getting started.
These reasons are the barriers that women believe prevent them from attaining their goals.
What we do is remove these barriers with the way that we not only enroll our clients, but also in how we help them reach their goals.
How we approach helping each individual woman, regardless of her specific barrier, depends on a lot of different factors. Just because these women want similar things, and struggle with different barriers, doesn’t mean that we can offer a one-size-fits-all solution.
So EVERY woman starts with a consultation.
During this consultation, we discuss her goals, her struggles, her fears, her lifestyle, her fitness and injury history, and anything else she would like to tell us that will help us to help her reach her goals.
This consultation also tells us which barrier is giving her the biggest hassle, and how we can overcome that obstacle to help her achieve her goals.
And while it’s simple, it’s just not always that easy.
So we’ve turned each of the four barriers into its own post to help elaborate a little more on how the process happens and what some of the underlying unspoken factors are.
If any of the women in the following four posts resonate with you, let us know.