When was the last time you saw a magazine, commercial or ad that said that?!?!
Seems like everything targeted towards women is telling them that they need to lose fat, or get toned, or eat less…all negatives. What if those magazines were re-worded and said:
“Ladies – Right Now, You Suck – So You Need to Lose Part of You”
Pretty harsh huh? Well thats what most of these magazines and ads ARE telling you. You need to become less. You need to lose part of who you are. You need to starve yourself so you can become an “ideal”…. all marketing and degrading BS.
This post was inspired by a similar post from Alexander Cortes – found here: https://www.elitefts.com/education/training/powerlifting/a-lion-in-iron-women-be-more-not-less/
I give him all the credit for the idea of “become more, not less” and I think it is the perfect message to women everywhere!
To take two steps backwards now – I’m not saying that wanting to lose fat and get healthier is a bad thing – it’s a great thing! As I have said before, one cannot deny the facts that being obese comes with many health problems that one cannot deny.
Even if you are not obese, there is nothing wrong with wanting to look better. If you are used to looking a certain way, and things happen and you sort of “let yourself go” – this can be very stressful and depressing – look good feel good is not shallow.
But why do most women still go to the cardio and the ultra restrictive diets? (BECAUSE THATS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN TAUGHT!!) Do these lead to results? LONG TERM results? I find more times than not, no, they do not.
So why not try something you may have never done – lift weights, and eat responsibly and balanced? If what you are currently doing isn’t working, or hasn’t been maintainable, what is the harm or risk in trying something you have never done?
Instead of focussing on becoming less – focus on becoming more – and the results you are after WILL happen as a “side effect”.
I have several female clients who I work with one-on-one, and my women’s lifting group, and here is what we focus on:
- Strength Training through Multiple Sets/Reps/Progressions
- Progressive Overload (more reps, more sets, more weight, harder variations, different angles, etc – any way to progress)
- Eating within manageable parameters, that still allows for a social life, and has a long term, performance based approach – aka NOT starvation!
- Very limited traditional “cardio” besides walking, and some very short, high intensity work.
With that, we don’t even discuss goals that revolve around LOSING. Here are some common goals from these clients:
Do a chin up, bench 100 pounds, deadlift 200 pounds, run a 5k under 20 minutes, overhead press 75 pounds, push a 700 pound sled, add in more vegetables, eat more protein, increase healthy carbs, drink more water…etc.etc….
Notice how all those goals revolve around ADDING??
So what does this all lead up to?
Out of all my female clients who have set some of these as goals; here are some results:
10 pounds lost, 20 pounds lost, 3 inches off the stomach, 1 inch off the arms, 1 inch ADDED to the glutes (she wanted a more round butt), Loss of 3-5% bodyfat…etc.etc
Those are the results that come with a the aforementioned goals that are focussed on adding, not losing.
If you haven’t ever done this, give it a try – for a few months – and you won’t be sorry!
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Stay healthy my friends,