Oh, the throes of public gym life…

Leg day? Yes please! We show up like it’s a full-blown event. Mentally prepared, playlist ready, outfit coordinated and water bottle filled. Basically acting like we’re headlining a fitness festival.

Upper body day? Oh boy… Suddenly we become philosophers.
“Do I really need shoulders?”
“Carrying groceries counts, right?”
“I lifted my emotional baggage all week…”
“Omg, I don’t want to bulk up.”

Why is it that we’ll happily spend an hour on glutes and legs—but the second it’s time for upper body, we act like we’ve been assigned community service?Somewhere along the way, a lot of us (let’s be honest mostly us women) decided leg day was the event. Glutes became the mission. Squats, hip thrusts, RDLs—we’ll load the bar, grab heavier plates, and suddenly discover inner strength we didn’t know we had. But hand us a slightly heavier pair of dumbbells for shoulders or back and it’s immediate panic.
“Those look aggressive.”
“Maybe I should stick with the cute little fives.”
“I don’t want to look bulky.”

Meanwhile, men are over there doing the exact opposite. They’ve been hitting chest, arms, and back like it’s their full-time job… then walking around with an upper body built like a superhero and legs that look like they borrowed them from someone else.

Most of us are out here fighting for our lives trying to build a little strength and definition. You do not accidentally bulk up because you picked up bigger weights for twelve reps, and honestly? Upper body matters.

Those “optional” exercises are the reason you can carry every grocery bag in one trip purely out of principle, lift your suitcase overhead without asking a stranger for help, open a stubborn jar, and feel just a little superior when someone says, “Wow, you got all that yourself?”

So yes—build the glutes. Live your best leg day life. Make it a lifestyle, a personality even. But grab the bigger weights on upper body day too. You’re not going to bulk up—you’re going to get stronger, more balanced, and maybe finally stop pretending your arms are just there for decoration.

Leg day can still be the main event.
Just don’t keep treating upper body like the opening act nobody asked for. 💪😄

Balance babe, balance.