💭 Is That Equipment Right For You?

Probably not.

🎉 Happy Friday, Friends!

When is upgrading your gym equipment more than just upgrading your gym equipment? A question that most personal trainers never ask themselves. But I'm not just any personal trainer. Here at StrongWithDana, I'm always examining.

I should probably start with the upgrade. I'm buying a sledgehammer for the studio. Yay!

But how did we get here?

Last week, when some client feedback pushed me to think about adding more intensity options to my space, I did what any reasonable person does. First, I thought about how it might fit into my approach. I am not someone who just adds intensity for intensity's sake. I believe in meeting people with the level of intensity they want.

And then I realized that the person in front of me, my client... wanted more intensity.

Naturally, I went down a rabbit hole. Specifically, I searched for women-owned fitness equipment brands. And what I found - or more accurately, what I didn't find - speaks volumes.

➡️ This isn't the first time I've dealt with the fact that most fitness equipment is designed for men's bodies. Bigger hands, longer reach, more mass behind every movement. (Side note: most fitness equipment isn't designed for larger bodies either, which is a whole separate newsletter.)

So here's my guide on quick ways to identify if the equipment was made with your body in mind, or if it's just more men's stuff:

Some signs that it might be the equipment, not you

• Weight sets that jump too much from dumbbell to dumbbell or plate to plate. You might notice this on machines too, where you can only choose from fixed weight options. It's not weakness, it's a slower gaining of strength that the weights don't allow.
• Machines that can't accommodate your height or carrying angle, even at the most extreme adjustment. You might notice this on a bicep curl machine or the seat on a lat pulldown. It's not your range of motion - it just wasn't made with you in mind.
• Bars and kettlebells that you can't comfortably get your hand around. This can stress out your forearms even if you have the grip strength you need. It's not that you don't have the strength, you just can't access it when your hand doesn't close fully around the handle.

Think about what that actually means. Millions of us walk into gyms every year, pick up tools that don't fit our hands, struggle, and conclude that we're just not strong enough. Not coordinated enough. Not a "gym person." And the fitness industry, which made the equipment, designed the space, and wrote the programming, hasn't exactly been rushing to catch up.

In fact, it keeps pushing solutions that aren't solutions, like expensive supplements and longevity protocols, fitness classes that don't build meaningful strength, and weight loss drugs.

We know this is about profit, obviously. The gap between where you are and where you think you should be is where the money lives. Awkward equipment that makes you feel weak and bad about yourself? It's just the top of the marketing funnel that gets you to seek a solution to purchase. A layout that puts the heavy free weights in one corner and the pink dumbbells that stop at 15 pounds in another? Market segmentation that adds to the problem instead of addressing it.

The women-only gym boom of the early 2000s tried to respond to this. There was something real in that movement, but a lot of it just recreated the same issues in a pastel color palette. It was built on the same fundamental assumption that women want to shrink, not build.

Some of us want to hit something. Some of us want to deadlift. Some of us want to throw a sledgehammer at a rubber pad while actually vocalizing our frustration with the system we live in. Some of us want to take up space with explosive movements we've been discouraged against all our lives. These are all legitimate training goals, and they deserve equipment that was designed with our bodies in mind.

I did find my slam pad. I'll also find my sledgehammer. But I shouldn't have to dig this hard.

Start swinging that sledgehammer,
Dana