Women should feel confident in taking up space in the gym. Being a traditionally male-dominated space, it is common for women to feel intimidated, overwhelmed, or otherwise unconfident in going to the gym and being able to focus on their workout. 

I have struggled with this myself. Having been an athlete all my life, I have a unique perspective. I grew up in the gym and was lucky enough to have the support and encouragement to feel confident in those spaces from both the teams I was a part of, as well as my father, who instilled the importance of health and fitness since I was a little girl. 

 Even with that support, the older I got, and the more I ventured to spend time in the gym by myself, the more aware and self-conscious I became of myself in those spaces. Even with the years of experience, the unbridled confidence of my younger years, and the safety net of a whole roster of girls on the same team as me, I began to notice myself worry if people noticed I didn’t have my form down, that I was using lighter weights than them, or if they were simply staring. I began making myself smaller, taking up as little space as possible, and I hated it.

I always felt very alone in my struggle with this, but it wasn’t until I started talking to other women and hearing their experiences that I discovered that I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. Kimmy Diaz, a junior at California Lutheran University and an avid gym-goer talked about her experience with gym confidence. 

“Starting to go to the gym by myself and feeling confident in that space was kind of a struggle for me and I don’t know if other people feel that way, because I feel like, especially as a woman in the gym, it’s hard to take up space,” Diaz said.

Diaz reflects on how it can be hard to enter a space confidently when there are so many people who already seem sure of themselves, or like they belong in that space.

“At first I was a little intimidated, I didn’t want to get in their way, but then I was like – ‘I go to this school too’,” she said, referring to the Cal Lutheran gym, which is often filled with student-athletes.

Walking into any gym as a woman is a unique experience in itself. Scanning the environment upon entry is routine. Questions typically consist of: How many people are here today? What is the ratio of men to women? Will I have to pass by or weave through a group of people to get to the weight rack? Do I feel safe? Do I feel any unwanted wandering eyes on me? 

I began catching myself altering my workout plan based on the answers to these questions, disrupting my weekly routine. It was then I decided I needed to change my mentality. However intimidating it may be, I needed to be able to advocate for myself.

Community in the gym is important, and the transition from student-athlete to just a student was jarring. I went from having a built-in team since I was seven, having been on various sports teams, and feeling seen and represented in those spaces, to feeling as though I was left to figure things out on my own. 

I knew that prioritizing my health and staying active was nonnegotiable for me, but navigating the gym as a freshly retired athlete in college proved to be difficult. Discovering how fitness fits into my life now that I no longer play a sport has been challenging, but also refreshing, and helped to redefine what fitness means for me. 

Sarah Bjornson, a Cal Lutheran graduate and retired college athlete, said that community is important for women in a gym setting.

“I think that what really helped me was that the person who taught me how to use the gym was a woman,” she said. 

Bjornson said how disheartening it can be to see women be hesitant to start their fitness journey because of the negative stigma surrounding the gym environment for women. She stresses the importance of having other women supporting each other and reflects on how having role models to look up to helped to lift her up, saying she was paired with a group of older girls on the track team. 

“I think that really helped me to push myself further because I really looked up to them,” Bjornson said.

Malone Erickson, a personal trainer and exercise science graduate from Cal Lutheran, talked about the importance of community, and seeing other women in the gym. 

“It makes me feel more supported and empowered. I feel that for women it is so important to feel supported and safe, so having other women present in the gym definitely helps that feeling,” Erickson said. 

She also shared her experience with transitioning from a track and field and cross country athlete to a normal gym attendee. 

“The difference between training with my team and by myself was drastic,” Erickson said. “I was suddenly becoming very aware of what I was doing in the gym, if people were thinking that I was doing the exercises wrong, and noticing how often people would just stare.”

Erickson said she has noticed that when she is regularly going to the gym, she is less stressed, more focused, and has an overall more positive mood. She said that while she has also struggled with confidence in the gym setting, these benefits have overruled any negative aspects for her. She said that she reframes any discomfort with the mindset that the goal when going to the gym is to have fun, and that everyone starts somewhere. 

“Everyone belongs in the gym,” Erickson said. For her, taking up space means “owning your self-confidence and not making yourself smaller for anyone.”

Cultivating that confidence for myself, while a work in progress, has provided me with so much pride and plays a huge role in my overall self-esteem. Reminding myself that I belong in the gym and that I am worthy of taking up the space I need has been imperative. I started speaking up when people tried to take up space I was using, and began holding myself with more confidence, which I found went a long way. I feel more respected and seen and have seen improvement in my workouts.

Experiencing my transition from adolescence into adulthood in the gym, and ultimately having found much of my identity rooted there, I translate much of my experiences and lessons learned there into the real world, where I am still trying to learn how to take up space as well. 

While no women’s experiences are the same, it is important to remember that you are not alone, it is okay to be a work in progress, and you deserve to exist in the gym.