Why are there more men than woman in masters swimming? Everyone says that women's events always end before the men's events (and thus we have to keep that odd/even rule for pools at nationals). Is this still true? The last meet I attended there were 62 heats of women and 65 of men.
Wow, can't believe I am going to type this, but...
I believe that some women (not all, but let's say a statistically significant greater number of women than men) have an over-honed 'guilt' reflex. So unfortunately, there can be a guilty feeling when working out instead of working/spending time with spouse/spending time with kids/doing work around the house/etc etc etc. The guilt reflex rears its ugly head whenever the women tries to put herself first. Perhaps training aka working out can work around the guilt because it is important to keep your health to do all the other stuff, ie., it can be rationalized. But competition is definitely a me-me activity.
***I am not saying this is true for all women!!***
There, just wanted to emphasize that point again.
I might be wayyyy off base here, who knows? But I have always noticed there are many more men than women at swim meets, although the number of men vs. women at practice is a lot closer to 50-50.
For the record, I cannot work out unless I compete. There's gotta be a carrot, or at least fear of humiliation, on the other end of the workout. But if I was working full time (I'm not), I could see how I'd really have trouble dealing with the guilt of taking time away from the kidlet at night to go to practice.
Wow, can't believe I am going to type this, but...
I believe that some women (not all, but let's say a statistically significant greater number of women than men) have an over-honed 'guilt' reflex. So unfortunately, there can be a guilty feeling when working out instead of working/spending time with spouse/spending time with kids/doing work around the house/etc etc etc. The guilt reflex rears its ugly head whenever the women tries to put herself first. Perhaps training aka working out can work around the guilt because it is important to keep your health to do all the other stuff, ie., it can be rationalized. But competition is definitely a me-me activity.
***I am not saying this is true for all women!!***
There, just wanted to emphasize that point again.
I might be wayyyy off base here, who knows? But I have always noticed there are many more men than women at swim meets, although the number of men vs. women at practice is a lot closer to 50-50.
For the record, I cannot work out unless I compete. There's gotta be a carrot, or at least fear of humiliation, on the other end of the workout. But if I was working full time (I'm not), I could see how I'd really have trouble dealing with the guilt of taking time away from the kidlet at night to go to practice.
