Strong, Seen and Supported: The Female Gym Experience at Le Coach Fitness

For many women, walking into a traditional gym can feel intimidating, even unwelcoming. 

Here at Le Coach Fitness, how women feel in our gym isn’t just considered, it’s integral to who we are as an inclusive, top-tier, independent gym. 

Which is why we surveyed our members to find out how we compare to mainstream gyms.

The Reality Many Women Face

From unsolicited advice to feeling overlooked in such a male-dominated environment, the female gym experience often means having to focus on things other than working out.

So it was no surprise that when we surveyed our female members, 68% of them had felt uncomfortable or experienced unwanted attention while training at other gyms.

One respondent said that ‘glute days in particular seem to draw the most attention’ and another spoke about having training sessions interrupted by men to ‘give squat tips and their number’. 

Traditional Gyms Don’t Do Enough

A whopping 90% also said that they don’t think that most commercial chain gyms do enough to create a welcoming and safe space for women.

Crowded weight rooms, unsupportive staff and feeling judged for how they look or what they wear were all reasons given for negative gym experiences. 

There was also the feeling that female bodybuilding was sexualised in traditional gyms. With one woman told that she would ‘look too manly’ if she were to add extra weight to her deadlift. 

72% of women surveyed believe regular gyms need clearer reporting systems for inappropriate behaviour, while 67% say better education on gym culture and respectful behaviour would help.

What Makes Le Coach Different

At Le Coach Fitness we’re committed to our gym energy feeling empowering, not intimidating. Our gym layout is a big part of that. 

As one female member puts it; ‘in other gyms, the layout often creates an unspoken divide with machines typically used by women separated from areas more dominated by men. But here, everything is integrated. The equipment is mixed throughout the space, and there’s such a wide variety - it creates a totally different, more inclusive vibe’. 

Backed up by another who said that she had ‘never been questioned doing workouts or made to feel like “just a woman”, the gym is cleverly set out to avoid uncomfortable workouts’.

Not Your Average Gym Team

When asked, 89% of female members said that our supportive and knowledgeable staff and trainers make them feel more comfortable and focused during workouts. 

To quote one member ‘the culture is really set by the people that run the gym, so clearly a great bunch of people both in charge and working at the gym’. 

Another mentioned that; ‘all the staff are so helpful and knowledgeable about all the equipment and that it puts you at ease to ask if unsure how to use a piece of equipment’.

What’s more, 79% of female members are of the opinion that the presence of like-minded, serious athletes make Le Coach a comfortable space to train. 

As explained by one female member, ‘the women are mostly fairly serious weightlifters so that does make a difference, it doesn't feel like there's any divide so that does put you more at ease’. 

One woman said ‘everyone at the gym seems very motivated with similar goals and happy to help others’, with another clarifying ‘there’s always a great atmosphere with everyone training with intention’. 

A Community That Gets You

Here at Le Coach Fitness, we’re more than just a gym, we’re a community.

An achievement that is reflected by 74% of our female members feeling that the strong sense of community at Le Coach Fitness is key to their positive experience in the gym. 

As one of our members said it best ‘Le Coach Fitness is all about community and encouraging others to be the best they can be. The atmosphere is so different to commercial gyms and I always say you get way more than a membership when you join.’ 

According to one female member, ‘people are just there to work on themselves and train hard, not make others uncomfortable’, echoed by another who said ‘I have always felt accepted’.  

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