The term passion is defined as an intense desire or almost uncontrollable emotion. Nearly everyone has a passion for something—family and loved ones for some, charity work for others, or a tangible obsession like a car or a collection. Passion is a wonderful thing, and we should all be fortunate to have a bit of it in our lives. I’m passionate about many things: my family, my girlfriend, movies, deadlifts, caffeine, and my growing collection of vintage T-shirts. As a coach, I’m especially passionate about fitness and helping people reach their goals.
I spend a lot of time training athletes, but I also work with regular folks who aren’t paid to jump higher or throw farther. They just want to feel better, shed a few pounds, lift heavy things, and maybe not worry about getting naked with the lights on.
I’m not here to judge, but I do get fired up when the topic of women and training comes up. There’s a lot of bad information out there in the media about women and strength training, and I’m determined to dispel those myths.
This is an interview I did for Marco Berardi and CrossFit LaSalle in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Marco Berardi: Tony, it might seem odd to ask one of the top strength and conditioning bloggers to chat about women and lifting heavy things, but your take on the subject has been one of the highlights of your blog. Many coaches work with female clients who want to get “toned” rather than become athletes, so this is a great topic. Thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions. You just got back from vacation and spent time at Globo Gym. What was that experience like, especially regarding how women train? I bet you saw lots of isolated bicep and tricep work with pastel-colored weights.
Tony G.: I live in a fairly closed world where I control nearly every aspect of training with my clients. When I step into a commercial gym, I’m braced for the number of epic fails I’ll see. I’m not knocking all gyms—just most of them. If my thoughts offend you, I’m not sorry. I’m not cynical about people in the gym; I admire that they’re doing something, and that should be praised. Whether it’s Zumba, Yoga, CrossFit, Jazzercise, Prancercise (look it up on YouTube), traditional weight training, or even trying to imitate Napoleon Dynamite’s dance, anything beats sitting on the couch. Still, I walk away from the occasional commercial gym feeling a bit disappointed. As a coach, I can’t help but notice what others are doing. With average patrons I’ll cut them some slack, but it’s hard not to notice when a 30-pound overweight woman is doing bicep curls on a BOSU ball—she doesn’t know any better. What really gets to me is when a trainer has their client do the same thing. A client paying 50 to 80 dollars an hour to stand on a BOSU ball and follow that with tricep kickbacks and arm circles? I’ve seen it. And it’s clear that none of the trainers push their female clients—treating them as if they’re delicate flowers who shouldn’t lift anything heavier than a Prada handbag. In the four days I trained there with my girlfriend, I didn’t see a single trainer guide a client through a compound, free-weight movement. I did see a lot of poorly executed push-ups, lunges, planks, and a whole lot of exercises that made me want to throw up. It was really sad.
Marco Berardi: Media portrayals of training for women are often misguided, which doesn’t help. Is there a way to change how the media markets exercise to women?
Tony G.: It’s true, and I do think things are slowly changing, though at a snail’s pace. Walk through any grocery store aisle and you’ll find magazines aimed at women with an airbrushed model on the cover, holding a pink dumbbell and promising “10 Tips for a Bikini Body.” The problem isn’t just the titles; it’s the workouts those magazines push—usually not challenging at all. One issue even suggested a workout based on a can of soup—curling, squatting, and lunging with it, which is a waste of everyone’s time. This is the kind of stuff marketed to women. No wonder some women reflexively avoid heavier lifts when asked to deadlift. The mainstream media isn’t likely to change quickly, since magazines need to sell. Still, there are great examples fighting the culture—Nia Shanks, Molly Galbraith, Jen Comas Keck, Neghar Fonooni, Jen Sinkler, and the Girls Gone Strong team, along with many others who promote real strength training and steer women away from endless cardio. I try to share information that counters the usual messaging too—like debunking the myth of female-specific training, questioning the usefulness of scale weight as a sole measure of success, and challenging the fitness double standard. The battle is long, but the tides are turning, and that’s a wonderful thing.
Marco Berardi: It sounds like the women who come to your facility are already on board with Cressey Performance values. They probably want to lift heavy and achieve a chin-up. How would you convince a woman who’s scared of getting bulky and feels she needs endless cardio to lose fat?
Tony G.: It depends, but the goal is always to listen first. I ask a lot of questions and dig for details: how often they train, what their routine has looked like, whether they’re happy with their results and, if not, why. What’s their ideal body type, and what’s holding them back? After listening, I outline what I believe would be the best approach. It’s not about forcing information or dismissing what they’ve done before; it’s about easing them out of their comfort zone and showing results quickly. When I start mentioning squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, and other strength moves, I’ll often get pushback and hear the same myths that have held them back for years. Then I ask a simple question: “How’s that working for you?” If your current method hasn’t produced results for five to ten years, give me two months. Start with full effort for 60 days, and you’ll usually see a shift—within about three weeks they’re hooked. They gain confidence, realize that adding ten pounds to the bar won’t turn them into a roided bodybuilder, and begin to notice small, meaningful changes. That’s when the real transformation begins.
Marco Berardi: Do you have specific goals in mind when you start training women? If I can get a woman to do five to ten proper push-ups, achieve a chin-up, and deadlift better than most of the men in the gym, is that a good framework for body goals?
Tony G.: Absolutely. With any client, I’m there to guide them toward what they need to do, not just what they want to do. The focus is on getting them outside their comfort zone. For women, the free-weight area is often their kryptonite. Who wants to train around a bunch of guys who reek of Axe body spray and yell as if they’re in a sauna? I don’t want to be part of that either. Clear, realistic goals are essential, and it’s important to sit down with clients to set targets—whether it’s doing an unassisted bodyweight chin-up, hitting a certain deadlift weight, or losing fat by a set time. Goals give people a purpose and accountability. The women I train learn the basics—squats, deadlifts, push-ups, and so on. It’s not uncommon for them to train on their own elsewhere and hear compliments about their progress, which is great. It’s even better when they return and say they started with the weight someone else had left behind. In the end, the core is coaching the basics. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. If a client can do ten perfect push-ups, they’re already ahead of a large portion of other women. Unfortunately, that level of mastery isn’t as common as it should be, with some trainers and trainees more interested in looking cool than in mastering the fundamentals.
