Hi friends~
Do you feel that constant “ping”?
It’s the “mental load”, the brain that never clocks out – anticipating needs, and holding invisible threads of a household together. This chronic cognitive pinging creates a kind of overload, a weight that can add incredible stress and strain relationships. It isn’t a metaphor; it’s a physiological weight.
The Shrinking Mandate
The burden of being small.
The patriarchy has a vested interest in us shrinking. This isn’t new. We’ve been conditioned to believe that our value is tied to how little space we take up – both physically and emotionally. We’re told to be “toned” (which is total BS) but not “bulky,” to be helpful but not “difficult.”
When your brain is being pinged a thousand times a day by external demands, and at the same time culture is telling you to stay thin and compliant, you are effectively neutralized, too exhausted to realize that you’ve been prevented from claiming your power.
and command your power.
Breaking the Gym Barrier
Even when women want to get strong, we hit a barrier.
Only 25% of women engage in strength training. Lack of time is the biggest reason. The intimidation factor is in second place.
The mere thought that you have to pack a bag (and maybe a bag of food, clothes, diapers, and stroller for a baby), and drive to a warehouse full of iron to get strong are huge barriers to entry. A health necessity becomes unattainable. Just getting to a gym feels like adding a 51st browser tab to a crashing computer. I think it’s even a bigger problem when women feel that taking time to get to a gym or facility is a luxury – that’s the patriarchy taking up space inside our heads.
Women have 13% less free time than men , largely due to shouldering more unpaid, invisible domestic work. This makes time for self-care feel scarce and “luxury-like.”
Strength is a Lived Reality
Strength is not about where you are now; it’s about what you are capable of doing.
To reach that 75% of women who aren’t training, I want to meet women where they are, and that might be at home. Your muscular skeletal system doesn’t know if you’re in a fancy club, a CrossFit box, or your own living room, basement, or backyard – they respond the same way to a challenge wherever it happens.
Reclaiming your power at home:
You need the Minimum Effective Dose (MED).
What is MED? In medicine, it’s the smallest dose of a drug that will produce a desired outcome. In strength training, it’s the specific amount of tension and load required to tell your body: “Do not let go of this muscle. Do not let these bones become brittle.” It’s not about hours of cardio; it’s about brief, intense bouts of resistance that trigger a survival response.
You CAN get strong at home without a ton of equipment, in minimal time by turning your living space into a place of power. If you are able to get to a gym and hire a coach, that’s fantastic, and GO for it, but it’s not a necessity. Start where you are.
Strength training is the ultimate resistance::
- It demands presence: It forces those fifty open browser tabs to close, and you focus on one thing – you. The pings go quiet while you’re using breath, and bracing your core to do tempo dumbbell squats.
- It prioritizes capability: It’s not “How do I look?” but “What can I do?”
- It expands your footprint: You learn that taking up space, physically and mentally is your right.
When we get strong, we don’t just build muscle; we build the capacity to say “no” to the invisible labor that doesn’t serve us. We trade the exhaustion of shrinking, and never being good enough, for the empowerment of growing.
You don’t need a gym to start.
When you realize that you’ve been hearing the insidious narrative that being small is desirable or preferable – you can claim your power.
Right now.
I’m here for you virtually and in-person.
X
Polli
