It’s a man’s world and women are just trying to get by in it. That’s how it feels most of the time, especially when that world is the gym. It’s a predominantly male environment that has been build and designed almost entirely around their bodies and needs. So it’s no wonder that few women bother to show up, and that the ones who do don’t necessarily garner the results their after.

The solution is relatively easy and has been under our noses all along … It’s time to start working out like a girl, dang it!

Hush your fears, own your presence at the gym, and insist on workouts designed for that of a woman. When you do, those results you’ve been working so hard for will show themselves, and you won’t be able to get enough.

#1: You Don’t Even Show Up! 

You’ve at least peeked inside the weight room, right? A mere 17 percent of women actually go in and work out; it’s an abysmally low number of women strength training. That number looks so much worse when you consider the wealth of health benefits waiting for you on the other side of those machines and you’re just throwing them away. In Holly Perkins’ new book Lift to Get Lean, she says you only need a minimum of two days a week of strength training to reap its vast benefits.

#2: You’re Intimidated

It’s not your fault though. “The biggest problem with the current landscape of women’s fitness is that men have dictated the rules of the gym,” Perkins wrote. Women don’t feel like they belong in that “bro”-centric environment, when the reality is women need to be there even more than men do. “You should feel confident about that,” she said. Learn how to use the machines (especially to suit your body and your goals) and walk in that weight room like you own the place. It won’t take you long to see the results and wish you’d shaken the fear so much sooner.

#3: You’re Not Strategic

“Women aren’t strategic or focused in their technique or execution of the moves the way men are,” explained Perkins, who says the few women who are in the weight room do so aimlessly and without purpose. However, when you have a strategy and work a program that tells you how many reps to do, how much time to spend, and when to rest, then you can effectively execute and benefit from a strength training regimen. Then you’ll see results, and when that happens, you’re more likely to stick to it!

#4: Your Technique is Way Off

Dude, you’re working out like a man! Not only has the environment in the gym been built around a man, but the methods for using the machines and even the set-up of those machines has been done so with a man’s body in mind. Most male trainers will tell their female clients to do a squat with their toes pointed straight ahead, which is difficult for a woman. Perkins tells her female clients to point their toes out toward 11 and 1. Now do that same squat; suddenly your hips and your pelvis are aligned in a way that your body can actually perform. “For every one-inch shift in direction in your body, there’s a change in your muscles,” she explained.