I teach a high school strength class and I have a few females afraid to squat becuase they think it will make their butts large. Does any one have any suggestions for me on how to approach the sqaut for females regarding body image.

lifter

Mecca

Great to hear that you work with the youth. More importantly that they are squatting.

One of the best ways to address muscle and females when there is a concern of getting too big.

Muscle is denser than fat.

So I use the comparison, albeit I embellish a bit, one pound of fat is the size of a basketball. One pound of muscle is the size of a softball. Which would you rather have hanging on your body, in this case your backside??

Then remind them that the amount of muscle they have controls their metabolism.

Remind them that muscle is shapely, fat, well it jiggles like jello.

Best of luck!

Ray

LOL..the common worry with females is that, "I lift - therefore, I will be huge!".. if only that was the truth.. Ray provided a great common sense comparison. I squat very heavy and I feel it tones my entire lower body and is a very effective, overall core movement for strength and muscle. I, too, would rather have a larger, firm behind.. than a wiggly jello one! Tell them to squat till they ****.. Val

bleep out is squat till they p u k e. Just so you didn't think I got 'nasty'..!

Mecca, just for your consideration, you may want to try approaching them with 'front squats' ... they will be accomplishing the same thing (if not more), with less weight. Anytime I am working with adolesence and am at all concerned about the stage of ther physical developement, I ALWAYS opt for what will be safer for them. Sure, it may take a little more work initially for them to feel comfortable carrying the bar to the front, but that will be a small trade off in the long run by avoiding compression of a pre-mature spinal column. Besides, they may like the fact that they are doing a movement different than the 'big boys' and in some silly way consider it more 'feminine' (hmmmm) ... just smile if this comes up ... then when their quads start to develop sharper and shapelier than the the varsity football players, you can just smile again ... thanks, tom

Thanks - I will give all your suggestions a try.

lifter