5 Life Skills Girls (and Women) Can Learn From Weightlifting

When I was growing up, I had no female role models who lifted weights or did much in terms of exercise beyond a step class or a Jane Fonda video.

The adult women around me talked often about their diets: needing to lose a few pounds, needing to fit into a dress for an event. The aesthetic was thin and delicate. Muscular women weren’t celebrated, if they were even to be found around me.

Times were different. Also we didn’t know what we know now.

These days, its incontrovertible that women need to lift heavy weights in order to create the bone density that will stave off osteoporosis and keep us healthy.

It’s also crucial to teach girls how to lift weights so by the time they are women they have a good relationship with their bodies, and with exercise and strength training.

One of the things I love most about the gym I go to now is how many strong women train there, and how many young girls I see lifting heavy weights.

Beyond the obvious physical health reasons why it’s essential for girls and women to learn to lift weights, there are other life skills that weightlifting teaches, which could help both girls and women in their relationships, career, and life in general.

Here are 5 life skills that weightlifting teaches.

5 Life Skills Girls and Women Can Learn from Weightlifting

(1) Asking For Help

There’s no faking it in the gym. When the weight is heavy, you need to ask someone to spot you so that you don’t get injured.

When you’re feeling even the least bit timid about getting under the bar for a heavy lift, there’s no shame in asking for help.

Learning this skill normalizes the process of asking for help outside the gym.

In life, too, there’s no need to do things alone.

(2) Releasing Perfection

There’s so much pressure on girls and women to “have it all together” and present an image of perfection.

Weightlifting teaches us to look at the big picture: you may complete a lift even if the form isn’t perfect.

(3) Taking Small Steps

When facing a heavy lift or a big goal, you might need to build up to it with smaller steps and progressions. We don’t have to conquer it all at once.

(4) Embracing Failure

One lesson I certainly never learned growing up was that it’s ok to fail. In fact, failure can be something to celebrate. In the weightroom, failure just shows you where your limits are. If you’re not failing then you’re not meeting your edge or exploring the limits of your potential.

(5) Accepting Where You Are

The body is different every day: it goes through cycles of strength and weakness depending on our hormones, fatigue, and other life factors that influence both. Expanding your capacity isn’t a linear process; it’s a cycle of ups and downs, steps forward and backward.

Accepting where you are helps you avoid the cycles of blame and shame that can lead to downward spirals and depressions.