Copied from my journal:

Yesterday's gym session went really well. I've got a new trick: at the end of my warmup I put 30 extra kilos over my shoulders and just stand around for a few seconds, bouncing a little. The point is to convince my CNS that 70-odd kilos is NOTHING. Feeling how very, f*****g HEAVY 100-plus kilos is helps be get through sticking points. Or that is the theory. I've only tried it twice, and it seems to be working. I've got a sticking point at around 70 kg. Just on the squat, though. I've fallen once, and had to dump the bar on the pins once (because that time the pins were up!), at 70 and 72 kg respectively.

I think my mental(?) block is caused both by this, and the feeling that 70-plus is a very heavy weight, which I suppose it is. It's going to take me a while to work through. I'm also trying to improve my form. If I can't lift 70 kg safely, I'm going to injure myself falling under a 100, and I really don't want to do that.

Another thing, yesterday I heard a female trainer working with a female client. Well I say I heard them, I definitely saw them too, but she was LOUD. I mean, she was encouraging her client so loudly she could be heard over the whole gym! The male trainers don't seem to do that... And yet another thing, she sounded like she was potty-training a toddler... That's right, it was all, One more time, one more, one more, YES!!! Good JOB!!! You are doing GREAT!

What, the f**k, gives. Here I was, training in absolute silence, apart from a little heavy and/or shaky breathing... But I at least had my dignity. If my trainer had started giving me that sort of "encouragement", I would have told her to shut up and gotten another one for my next appointment. Honestly, this is not good for women lifting! We are not babies, we are not lazy or stupid, and we can do the work exactly like men. In fact, we can do the work, period. Not "like" anyone, we need no comparison. Women do the work.