My name is Ena Cople and I'm the owner of Woodmere Fitness Club.

The majority of our demographic are women from middle to late life with no previous athletic experience.

I've introduced a lot of women to the barbell training program at our gym, and I've noticed

that many of them are afraid of trying it.

In fact, a lot of the women react with fear to seeing the weight room.

They say things like, I can't weight lift, that's too heavy for me, or that's for guys,

I don't want to bulk, or I'm scared of weights.

And with all of the information coming out in the media of all of the tremendous benefits

of strength training for women.

What is it then about women in barbells that makes them so scared of trying something that's

so obviously good for them?

Well, I think that this fear has three components.

The first component is that women underestimate their own strength.

They always tell me I'm not strong enough to weight lift.

In comparison to men, who will need to be pulled back in the gym a little bit because they

overestimate their strength.

The second component is that failure is an obvious reality. In other words, it's clear

from looking at the barbell on the ground that it may not go up. And that brings out fear

of failure in people. It's not true, let's say, in running, where if you fatigue, you can

easily slow down your pace or shorten your distance.

In fact, you can run your whole life without ever feeling like a failure.

But under the barbell, strength becomes quantifiable.

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