(French) Women Don't Sweat!

I had been about to write a funny piece about how a lot of the women in the gym don't put any effort into what they are doing and I really do wonder why they bother going there at all.

Then I read this article and realised that it may be true of a lot more woman than I thought and not just French ones and it made me feel quite sad.
To be sure, at the gym I used to go to in the UK there were a few woman who would turn up, put in minimum effort and leave again, but here it is a huge number.

One girl just wafts around in the Zumba class and rushes to the changing rooms during a water stop to check her eye make up hasn't smudged. Another woman does the entire body pump class without a barbell or weights (the squats/lunges and abs I can understand - but the other exercises are designed to be used with weights, it's surely a waste of her time?) Her friend also seems to be reducing the amount of weights she uses each week, rather than increasing them. Women on the cardio machines, reading books and never looking out of breath and not a drop of sweat between them.

Actually a large number of women in body pump have stayed at the lightest weights possible and not increased them at all over the last 18 months I have been there. I know everyone is different and has different reasons and perhaps problems but there seem to be an awful lot of them!
In the UK we were actively encouraged to increase the weights and work harder, most of the women in the classes were pumping quite heavy weights but here a couple of the instructors actually dictate what the maximum weight a woman should have on the bar - which is pretty light and most of the women seem quite happy with that.

Reading the article about how young women wanted to be thin and were afraid of bulking up made me feel sad. There is a lot of ignorance out there about exercise and it's benefits. Sports at school are being cut back as they are not considered essential, but also what else is not being taught? I remember learning about the body in biology and learning the difference between anaerobic and aerobic exercise in terms of muscle strength and heart strength and also how hormones played a part and that is why it is incredibly difficult for women to have bulky muscles like a man's.

So it is not only frustrating but also depressing to see so many woman pretending to exercise. Spending money on gym membership and clothes and yet not actually getting much from it.
Thank goodness for those that do make the effort, for the instructors who do encourage us to try a little harder and for the motivation to take it babystep by babystep.

During last Summer's Olympic Games it was refreshing to see so many fit and healthy looking women on TV. These women should be our new role models for young girls, not the anorexic looking, thin, airbrushed models on magazine covers. Looks that are impossible for the average 'normal' person to achieve without taking extreme measures.

Healthy is the new thin. That is easy for anyone, whatever their shape or size to achieve. Anyone else with me on that?