As I have watched my business evolve since we opened in 2009, there have been a lot of shifts in the fitness industry. By most accounts, the industry itself could still be considered in relative infancy so it makes sense when old-fashioned and ill-informed philosophies change over time.
It wasn’t that long ago, that women were advertised to in efforts to do more aerobic work, lift light weights, and basically have no mention whatsoever of how to make them stronger…just smaller.
Perhaps I should credit avenues like CrossFit or even American Ninja Warrior for bringing to the forefront the rise of stronger, more capable, fearless women.
And it has shown, little by little, in the conversations I have with women who come through my door looking to change their current physical and mental state.
I rarely, if ever, hear a woman say “I want to be toned.”
In it’s place, I am hearing (much to my joy) “I want to be/feel strong.”
And I’ll be damned if we won’t make that happen.
It has always been inspirational to me to see my clients get stronger. For our fellas, maybe it’s a foregone conclusion that they will get stronger. But for our ladies, it’s a special kind of inspiration to see this new breed who want to achieve more than just a smaller body.
They want strength? We can train that.
Over the last several months, not necessarily by intention, I have been posting more and more pictures of our clients (male and female) doing impressive traplifts, squats and bench presses (the arguable best bang-for-your-buck exercises.)
As I have done so, I have more people talking about them. And the more they talk, the more they want to be involved.
If I just look at my landscape of female clients currently on the roster, the age range spans from 12 years of age to 79. And while my 79 year young client does not partake in those big lifts, she continues to add weight to her programs. Increment by increment, she is improving. Age means nothing.
We have one young lady who is 12, two who are 13. All three of them are uniquely strong. It is SO impressive to watch them progress.
My eldest woman (67) who is still playing with the traplift, just hit a new PR (personal record) of 220 a couple of weeks ago. I find that particularly awesome. That’s more than one and a half times her body weight.
Our twelve year old, is very close to pulling a 200lb traplift, nearly double her current bodyweight. I find that particularly awesome too.
Last week, I had scheduled clients in a compact session time without realizing the effect of what I would see. In just under one hour, we had a room full of women (ages twelve to 50s) who were all working on separate programs, all here to get stronger, feel better and just genuinely be badass. The camaraderie, vibe and support during that short amount of time was really a spectacle to behold. I was the only guy in the room training all these amazing women to be better than they were when they walked in.
I have said this before and it bears repeating, not everyone is built for or in the right condition (currently) to lift heavy. That is perfectly okay. Strength can be measured in other ways.
But I will tell you, if the body can improve and the mind will allow, a strong, unbreakable woman is like no other force known to man (sorry fellas, you know I’m right.) 
So, I will leave this post with a collection of shots of our ridiculously strong women, our “Ladies Of Iron.” This is not all of our female clients, and they all deserve to have their pictures shown but this is a glimpse of one of the many reasons why what I do and who we serve is so immensely gratifying.
The strength movement is changing, the landscape is shifting, the results will be phenomenal.
“We Make Great People Greater”
