Negative Weightlifting Biases: Get Over Them

If you’re reluctant to try weightlifting because it seems like foreign territory for you—a clique or cult you do not want to join—I urge you to rethink your decision and try to expel the negative stereotypes. Try to ban these biases and images from your head—that weightlifting is just for adolescents (including adolescent-acting adults) who are trying to look like the Incredible Hulk or young Arnold, or people who are incarcerated and trying to make their tattoos look bigger by increasing the surface area of the underlying muscle.

Weightlifting is for everybody, including octogenarians and nonagenarians—people between the ages of 90 and 99. Most gyms could probably give you some great stories about elderly people who have gotten stronger and healthier (physical strength does equate to health) since starting a resistance-training program.