Walk past the dumbbell rack in most gyms and watch what happens. The men gravitate toward it. The women, more often than not, walk straight past — onto the treadmill, into a Zumba class, anywhere except the heavy stuff. There is
Most women I meet at Virago tell me the same thing after their first session: "I wish I'd done this two years ago." And then, almost in the same breath: "I was so nervous walking in." If you have been circling the
Having a baby changes everything, including the body that's trying to come back to the gym. The advice circulating online — "bounce back in six weeks!" — is harmful, unrealistic, and ignores most of what's actually happened to a woman's
Zumba has a reputation for being either ridiculously fun or ridiculously cringe-worthy, depending on whom you ask. I'm going to argue for the first interpretation. Zumba is one of the most underrated workouts in fitness. It looks light because everyone is
There is a specific feeling that comes with throwing a properly thrown punch. Once you've experienced it, no other workout quite replicates it. Boxing for women is often discovered late, after years of treadmills and dance classes and group fitness. The
Pilates suffers from a strange image problem. People who haven't tried it think it's stretching. People who have tried it know it's one of the hardest controlled workouts a human body can do. The disconnect is partly the marketing — Pilates
A scale tells you one number: how much you weigh. An InBody scan tells you about a dozen, and most women have no idea what most of them mean. This is unfortunate, because that scan is one of the most useful
If there's one body part that gets more attention from women in the gym than any other, it's the glutes. Instagram has created an entire micro-industry around it — booty bands, hip-thrust machines, ten-minute glute routines. Some of it works.
If I had a dirham for every time a woman walked into Virago and said "I've been doing cardio for six months and nothing is changing," I'd be paying the gym's rent. Cardio is not useless. It's just radically misunderstood as
Circuit training has been around longer than most modern fitness trends, and it still works for one simple reason: it covers everything in a short amount of time. Strength, cardio, conditioning, and core — all in one session. For women juggling
