by Abigail Olear

When Heather Gross enters the weight room in one of the University of Maryland’s gyms, she immediately feels alone and singled out.

“It’s so busy in here, and like, I feel like I’m the only girl,” said Gross, a sophomore criminology and psychology  major.. “The amount of times that I’ve just said that in the gym is ridiculous.”

Gross isn’t alone. Many active girls on campus steer clear of dumbbells and deadlifts and gravitate toward the cardio machines because the weight room is intimidating for them.

“I feel like the atmosphere of the weight room is very competitive, it’s very masculine,” sophomore mechanical engineering major Stirling Supple said. “It deters many women just because it feels like they’re not welcome, it feels like you’re judged.”

Enter Girl Gains UMD. It helps girls feel more comfortable in the weight room, one rep at a time.

Girl Gains is a national club with chapters at numerous universities. Gross founded this university’s chapter in early 2022 after she discovered the organization on TikTok. She soon started recruiting other female lifters at the gym at this university.

Gross discovered lifting while in rehab after injuring both of her knees playing soccer. A physical therapist helped her learn how to lift and she now wants to provide that support to other girls starting their weight lifting journey. 

Gross has successfully curated a community for a typically individual activity. The club doesn’t just meet at the gym. It hosts informational sessions at The Edward St. John Learning & Teaching Center, grabs dinner together at local restaurants and organizes group lifts. When the group isn’t lifting together, members are able to ask questions through the group’s Geneva group chat. 

“Girl Gains has helped me feel more confident in lifting because I can always count on the other girls to give me tips and tricks,” said Antonia DeMaria, a freshman elementary education major  and the public relations chair for Girl Gains at this university.

Though the club usually exercises at Eppley Recreation Center with other gym-goers, Gross has plans for a lifting session with only Girl Gains UMD members in School of Public Health’s gym.

“I think it would be really cool, because when do you have that opportunity to just have all the equipment and like, just be surrounded by women?,” Gross said. “That’s total reverse of what we’re used to.”

She’s anxious to see what kind of confidence an event like this would bring out in female lifters. She doesn’t have any illusions, though: The club is getting more girls into the weight room, but there is still much more work to be done to make girls feel comfortable in the weight room. 

“All of these girls don’t like going to the gym because there’s so many men and because they feel like they know what they’re doing,” said Stirling, the group’s treasurer. “It’s [the group] really helped me understand how to battle those negative thoughts and understand how to help other people.”

Gross encourages girls to take initiative. 

“For someone who’s looking to get into lifting you just have to start,” Gross said. “We now have Girl Gains on campus for her to reach out to if she wants any advice or needs a community to fall back on like I did.”

Featured image: Heather Gross, the president of a new club that encourages girls to hit the gym, hits the weight room in an undated photo at the University of Maryland’s Eppley Recreation Center. Photo courtesy of Girl Gains UMD.