Former Olympian wins heavyweight fight for bigger gym dumbbells for women
Credit to Author: Denise Ryan| Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2019 01:00:17 +0000
Three-time Olympian Leah Pells didn’t want to throw her weight around, but she when she wanted more weight to lift, she had to push for it.
Thanks to a complaint from Pells, She’s Fit is introducing a policy change that will allow heavier weights for women who want to lift on the female-only side of the gym.
Pells, 55, works out at She’s Fit Coquitlam, part of the Club 16 Trevor Linden fitness empire. She’s Fit is a female-only section located within the larger Trevor Linden gym, which is coed.
Carl Ulmer, director of operations of Club 16 and She’s Fit, which has 14 locations in the Lower Mainland, said he evaluated the situation after Pells brought the issue to their attention and pushed for change.
“We’ve serviced women in health and fitness for 25 years,” said Ulmer.
“At our stand-alone She’s Fit locations the weights do go to 55 lb. So we’ve taken action and ordered 55 lb dumbbells for our other locations within the Club 16 Trevor Linden facilities.”
Pells, who recently added weight-training to her daily exercise regimen, didn’t want to work out in the coed area.
“It’s a personal choice for me to work out in the women’s area,” said Pells.
“I just don’t feel comfortable on the men’s side. But their weights go up to 90, and what was available to the women only went up to 25. I pay as much as the men do, and their weights go up to 90 lbs,” said Pells, who joined the gym three years ago. “I just assumed the opportunities would be equal.”
When she first asked for higher weights, club manager Konstantyn Kopystynski did his best to accommodate, and provided her first with 30 lb weights, then 35 lb dumbbells and 43 lb and 55 lb kettlebells.
Pells’ capacity to lift quickly increased, but when she requested 40 lb dumbbells, Kopystynski delivered the bad news: a corporate policy expressly prohibited the club from providing dumbbells higher than 25 lb on the women’s side of the gym — and he’d already pushed it as far as he could by providing the 35 lb dumbbells.
“I reached out to the corporate office myself in August,” said Pells, “and suggested the policy was sexist, but I was told by the regional manager that it was based on market research and that they were not planning to change the policy.”
Pells said she loved the gym, but didn’t want to switch to the coed side. Every morning staff members had to lug two 40 lb dumbbells over to the She’s Fit section so she could work out, and then return them to the men’s side.
“It was uncomfortable for me to have to ask these busy employees for this favour every day,” said Pells.
And Pells noticed something else, too. When the manager added the 35 lb weights, other women started using them.
Pells, who was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, represented Canada in track and field at six world championships, three Olympic Games, and three Commonwealth Games, was once ranked first in the world in the 1500m.
Now 55, she recently started to adapt her training regimen, running less and lifting more.
“I quickly surpassed 25 lb dumbbells, ” said Pells.
Ulmer said it’s great to see women like Pells who want to lift more.
“Our members are changing, and we are changing with them.”
Pells, who works as a school counsellor and has a private counselling practice, said she is thrilled about the policy change.
“When you have a rack of weights and the top weight is 25 lb people will set their sights on that as their top limit. Let’s raise the bar so we can all continually progress.”
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