Overview of Rhetorical Situation

Exigence: ​As a woman, I feel other women need to understand they can weight-lift too. The

benefits of weight-lifting for women are endless. They should not be scared just because the gym

is dominated by men. The reason that I decided to write about the benefits weightlifting provides

to women, is I have always been told women can not weightlift! Why do you weight-lift? You do

not want to get big like men; you are a women!

Writer: ​I as the writer of this Op-Ed am a big weightlifter and love the benefits weight-lifting

provides to me.

Primary Audience: ​My primary audience is women of all ages, but I really want to reach the

women who do not go to the gym because of the stigma behind it.

Secondary Audience: ​My secondary audience would be doctors; they can help to persuade

women of the benefits of weight-lifting are endless and can help with health problems in the

future.

Goal: ​My goal is to persuade young women to start weight-lifting to inform them of the benefits

they can gain from weight-lifting.

Venue: ​I would like to see this in ​Women’s Health.​ This would be a great magazine for this to

be in because it will show women the health benefits of weight-lifting and reach many women of

different ages.

Context: ​Weight-lifting is a big part of my life, but I always get the comments; “Oh, you are

going to look like a guy”, or “That is not ladylike”. I want to provide other women with

information that shows weight-lifting can benefit everyone, not just men. In fact, weight-lifting

might benefit women more in the long run.

 
 
Weight-lifting Is Not Just A Man’s Hobby 

We all know the stigma behind the gym. It is a man’s world. But that does not mean women can

not lift. In fact, you right now, yes you, are reading an article written by a young woman who

personally weight-lifts and is a collegiate runner. Yes, I have heard it all before:

“​You are going to get bulky​”

“​The gym is a man’s world”

​“You should stick to cardio”​.

All of these are wrong. In fact, I and many other women experience not only the joy of

weight-lifting but the tremendous amount of benefits too. ​You read that right; women benefit

from weight-lifting in ways that you may not even think of!

You are probably wondering, how do women benefit from weight-lifting?

 Everyone wants to be confident in who they are and what their bodies are. It is no

surprise weight-lifting helps people to lose fat, but did you know ​weight-lifting burns more

calories than cardio? ​ In fact, cardio only burns calories during the workout, whereas

weight-lifting will burn calories up t​o 24 hours after your workout​. This is because after you are

done weight-lifting, your body needs to repair the damaged muscles. You might be wondering,

well does this have to be done at a certain weight? ​The answer is simple, no. As long as you are

working out with enough weight to create a strain on the muscles and create micro-tears, the

body will need to repair itself. This will take energy from the body to do so, whereas cardio your

body goes back to normal after the sweat session is done. This goes again what many people

think to be about weight-lifting, where it does not burn as many calories as cardio, but in fact it

does just the opposite of what people assume.

For all the women who think they are going to get bulky, I am here to tell you this is not

true. Unless you are specifically training to become big and bulky​ like a body builder; ​this will

not happen. The main reason as to why women will not get bulky from weight-lifting is because

women do not have as ​much testosterone as men.​ In fact women have “about 15-20% less

concentration of testosterone in their body than men do” says Beverly Paquin. So for all the

ladies out there thinking the are going to get bulky​--unless you magically have 15% more

testosterone than the average female-- ​I am here to say you will not get bulky without specific

training. The type of bulk most of us see on social media is from sports enhancing drugs. It is

unachievable for the average woman without a form of drugs. So, please if this is what is

keeping you from going to the gym, then get up off the couch and start your journey to a

healthier you!
 One common topic that everyone thinks about is preventing injury, specifically athletes.

It is pretty obvious weight-lifting strengthens your muscles, but did you know that stronger

muscles ​help joint issues​ and knee issues. As a collegiate runner, I understand the struggles of IT

band injuries​ ​— an injury that occurs when the tendon becomes infalmed— and yes, this can be

prevented. In fact, when my IT band started to bother me, the first piece of information the

trainer provided me with was to strengthen my glute muscles, which was causing the tendon to

flap against my knee therefore becoming inflamed. Women have a tendency to be built

differently from men, which can lead to reoccurring injuries in women.

RELATED: ​FEMALE ATHLETES AND STRENGTH TRAINING FOR INJURY

PREVENTION

To continue off of injury prevention from weight-lifting; our bones become brittle as we

age. It is a well-known fact that women are typically more fragile than men. Osteoporosis

happens as people age, “​but women are four times more likely than men to develop

osteoporosis” says Marc McLean​, by weight-lifting women can decrease the risk of osteoporosis.

Lifting weights helps to increase spinal bone mineral density, which decreases as we age. A

study published in the ​American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, p​ rovides

evidence that women who are postmenopausal have the greatest benefits on bone mineral density

due to weight-lifting.​ Now, the problem with this study is the researchers do not know the

amount of weight-lifting being done before the study. As stated in the study by Kelley George,

“consequently, they may have had greater daily loading placed on the lumbar spine and femur

vs. the radius before participation in the studies”. This can cause some people to be skeptical,

does weight-lifting really help women retain bone mineral density, or is there too many
uncontrollable variables? Now, you may be thinking is ​this everything that weight-lifting can

help with?

Typically, heart health is not something you necessarily think of when you think of

weight-lifting. Typically, people think of heart health as being associated with cardio, but in fact

Fetters found in this, ​ “​Appalachian State University ​study, people who performed 45 minutes of

moderate-intensity resistance exercise lowered their blood pressure by 20 percent”. In the long

run, this will help with heart disease. Weight-lifting can still raise a person’s heart rate, but since

women are not doing weight-lifting they missing out on the benefits. This is especially helpful in

heart disease runs in your family.

RELATED: ​Strength training tied to better heart health than aerobic 

There needs to be more information for women about weight-lifting. It could help take

the place of d​rug an​d help boost self confidence. I highly advocate that before you have to go to

the doctor and before you have to take unnecessary medicines, start weight-lifting. I can not say

it enough, the benefits of weight-lifting go far beyond the information I have provided you in this

paper. I hope to see you at the gym!

References

Fetters, Aleisha. “11 Major Health and Fitness Benefits of Lifting Weights”. ​Shape. ​4, Oct. 2019.

Web ​https://www.shape.com/fitness/tips/benefits-lifting-weights-strength-training

McLean, Marc. “Why Women Should Weight Train: A Reason You Haven’t Heard”.

MindBodyGreen. ​N.D. Web

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-28092/why-women-should-weight-train-a-reason-you-haven

t-heard.html

Paquin, Beverly. “Ladies, Lifting Heavy Won’t Make You Bulk Up”. ​International Sports

​ eb
Sciences Association. W

https://www.issaonline.com/blog/index.cfm/2016/ladies-lifting-heavy-wont-make-you-bulk-up

“For Women Weight Lifting is Essential, Here’s Why”. ​International Sports Sciences

​ .D. Web
Association. N

https://www.issaonline.com/blog/index.cfm/2019/for-women-weight-lifting-is-essential-heres-wh

Kelley, George. Kelley, Kristi. Tran, Zung. “Resistance Training and Bone Mineral Density in

Women”. ​Research Gate. ​Feb. 2001. Web.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/12190180_Resistance_Training_and_Bone_Mineral_D

ensity_in_Women
 Move #1: The first move I made was to make the introduction catchy. I wanted to the

reader to feel as if I know them personally. I also wanted the introduction to have questions, so

that people, when they read it, are curious and want to continue to read.

Move #2: I chose to put the fat loss as second because I feel women really care about

how they look. I felt this would keep me reading and as a reader I would care more about the fat

loss, than the bone strength.

Move #3: I wanted to keep this as young women also would be intrigued by it, this is

why I chose to include the injury prevention for athletes. I want this Op:Ed to appeal to all ages,

not just older women or younger women.

Move #4: I chose to include that I myself weightlift and am a collegiate runner because I

felt it gave me more credibility. It also may give the reader some kind of connection to me as a

writer. I felt this was very important, I am more likely to believe someone if they have gained

the benefits of something.

Move #5: My final move was to include the study. I felt the study was important because

it added credibility to that particular paragraph. It showed the reader I am not just saying this is

true if you weight lift, but I am proving it to them.

Move #6: I decided to go through my paper and to make sure I took out the excessive

amount of thats being used. I tend to overuse the word that, i felt it was not needed as much. It

put too many words into my paper. By doing this it helped to make my paper flow better. Most

of the places I had that in, were areas that were not needed. I also know that as a writer, I tend to

include that way too much, and it makes my paper wordier than it needs to be.
 Move #7: A really big mood that I made was adding this question after the introduction,

You are probably wondering, how do women benefit from weight-lifting. I really added this as a

way to keep the reader engaged. I wanted them to ask themselves this question and get to

thinking, how do women benefit from weight-lifting. Then see what they come up with in their

heads and hope that the following information in my op:ed is different.

Move #8: I wanted to include this quote (​ “about 15-20% less concentration of

testosterone in their body than men do” (Paquin, n.d., para. 6); because I felt that it was

important in women understanding that their bodies are different from men and that their is

scientific research that backs up why women can not get bulky like men without steroids.

Move #9: I chose to put my rhetorical situation after my op:ed. I felt that my paper would

better keep my reader engaged and that if I put the rhetorical situation, the reader would get

bored before hand and not even continue to read or they would just skip over it to began with.

Move #10: My one move that was throughout the entire paper, was me trying to guilt trip

my reader into going to the gym; to tug on the heartstrings. I wanted to make them feel, yeah

why am I not working out, if all of these myths about weight-lifting are just that, myths.

To reflect on writing on my paper, I felt that going through I really thought about almost

anything you can think of. I wanted to be able to convince the reader, word choice and tone were

a big part of my paper. I wanted the reader to have an informal tone, but a strong persuasive

word choice. After getting all of my thoughts down, I went in and made sure to add proper

grammar. I did not want this to affect my credibility to a reader. I do notice when words are

misspelled or commas misused, although I am not perfect at it. I think the best way to grab a
reader is to have a great title, I want them to know what I am writing about, but to also start

thinking about what could be in the paper.

I know that sometimes as a reader I read articles strictly off of the fact that I like the title

and it grabbed me in. The quotes I chose to include were decisive and thoughtfully picked out. I

did not want to give the reader to many facts as this is my opinion. I wanted to include just

enough to provide, me— the writer— with credibility. Reflecting back on writing this paper, I

remember looking for a scientific study to back it up, this study took a while to sift through and

to find the information I wanted, but it helped to strengthen my paper. Including that I am a

collegiate runner and a weight-lifter helps to add credibility to my paper, but most importantly

when I included this, I wanted the reader to be able to connect with me as a writer.

I wanted them to know that I am not some random girl writing about weight-lifting and

thinking I know what I am talking about. I wanted to show that I weight-lift as well, so why not

trust me? When I started writing this paper, I looked at is as, if I was the reader what would keep

me engaged and what would I personally want to see that would persuade me. I included some

articles that I thought were great, but they needed to be backed up more. Some paragraphs have

multiples sources, some only have one.

One last minute decision that I decided to make was to move the paragraph of women not

getting bulky to the fourth paragraph because I felt that it would flow better after the paragraph

before it. It fit better in the way I wrote my op:ed. I wanted it to be as easy to read as possible,

but I did not want to take out this paragraph, I just needed to find a better placement for it. I

made this decision at the last minute, but it was too include the related with another title. I

wanted this to look like a real op:ed. I thought that this would provide the reader with more
information on weightlifting, the one that I like best is the article that talks about how female

athletes and the prevention of injury. I wish I had found this site earlier because it was just what I

needed, but at this point I had already made my point and explained it to an area I was happy

with. On top of this, I wanted the reader to have every opportunity to gain as much information

as possible on the topic, even if it is not my own words.