The ladies are still a small minority at Odin, but the interest of women to engage in strength training is growing. Already eight new students have shown interest for the youngest student sports club in Eindhoven. Mette d'Hond, an Industrial Design student, feels at home between the strength athletes. "They are all really super sweet men, too."

Mette is not a big woman, but she says she lifts a hundred kilos. She says that practicing strength training gives her a lot: "I eat healthy and that also helps with studying. Especially because I don’t eat sugar anymore, as sugar used to make me quite restless. If I eat sugar now, I am really bouncing all over the place."

That sounds familiar to her friend Elise Claassen, her lips decorated with striking pink lipstick. "You have to eat well to build muscle. Then the first challenge is to be able to lift your own body weight.” For her, this sport is also a way to get a beautiful body, she says. "Many women are afraid that you grow big, but you just become sexy", she laughs.

Occasionally, however, the ladies are allowed to sin. "Especially during the Intro", says Mette, mama of a troop of intro kids of Industrial Design. "I just warmed up a pizza last night when I got home."

Cosiness and support

Exercising together is more fun than working out alone. With this in mind, the student power club Odin was founded two years ago. "If you start weightlifting and you do it all by yourself, then chances are that you will find it so boring within a month that you decide to stop", says future secretary Zeno van Cauter. "If you can encourage each other along the way, this sport is so much more fun."

The club now has about fifty members, and there will likely be more joining this academic year. For the three workshops on Thursday afternoon at least about 60 starting students had enrolled.