Women Are Strong

For too long women have been judged by aesthetics only. Especially in the gym, women’s body’s are judged endlessly and mercilessly. Training programs for women play into this bias and focus only manipulating the aesthetics of a particular body part. This leaves many women, who have less than perfect physiques out of the gym and many others constantly striving for some ill-defined and often unreachable ideal. As a consequence, few pay attention to strength or to the inherent beauty of being strong.

We want to change that. We want to highlight the beauty of strength, no matter the body type and no matter the age.

Older Women Are Stronger Than We Think

As older women, who grew up before Title 9 regulations began to allow girls and women equivalent sporting opportunities to boys and men, strength training was not fully available in our youth. Even now, the idea of older women lifting heavy is still quite foreign to most. When older women do lift heavy, it is often portrayed as novelty. It is not. There are hundreds of older women lifting very heavy weights and competing in the various lifting federations all over the world. Women in their 50s, 60s, 70s and even some 80 year olds, breaking previously unheard of strength records.

The general perception has been that strength declines as we age, and it does, but only if one does not train. For the women powerlifting, however, strength gains are happening on a daily basis. We are building muscle and with that muscle, lifting heavier and heavier weights. In our Facebook group alone, we have dozens of older women squatting over 200lbs, some well into the 300s. We have dozens benching well over 100lbs, many over 150 and some over 200lbs. The deadlift numbers are equally impressive with many women pulling well into the 300s. By traditional thinking those are not numbers one would expect of older women new to the gym. Perhaps what is even more impressive, is the fact that these numbers continue to climb with each successive month and year of training, irrespective of age. Older women can lift heavy. Just how heavy, only time will tell.

It’s Time to Own Your Strength

Forget aesthetics, forget all of the nonsense about who can and cannot lift heavy. Find yourself a program and a coach and begin building some strength. We are here for you all the way. If you have questions, want encouragement, or just want to chat with other women who lift heavy, join our Facebook group. 

Remember our motto (on all of our t-shirts):

  • Age is inevitable. Weakness is not.

#oldladieslift