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Training Update and Rant

Hi! Hope you all had a great week!

The leg program is going well, but honestly, I really miss my heavy lifting and can't wait to get back to it. The one thing I do plan on keeping when I finish this is the quad day/hamstring day. But I will most definitely be lowering the reps on some exercises and adding back squats back in.

So for upper body this week I did a "pulling" focused workout on Monday with farmer's walks, abs, and glute stuff at the end. Friday's upper body workout was focused on "pushing" movements. It was the first time in a few weeks that I actually did my upper body workouts at the gym. Still not doing anything "heavy". Kept all the reps in the 8-15 range.

Here is what I did for Wednesday's quad focused workout:

1)Goblet split squats: 4x12

2)Hack squat: 2x12/Reverse hack squat: 2x15
3)Leg press:5x10(1 neutral stance, 2 wide stance, 2 narrow stance)
4)Barbell walking lunges: 13/13/12/12(per leg)
5a)Single leg calf raise: 3x20
5b)Frog pumps w/band: 2x30
6)Hanging leg raises: 2x9/2x8

This workout is really getting tough since I've been trying to up the weights each week. I was able to do front squats the past couple of weeks, but I ended up doing hack squats instead this week. Last week was a little iffy on my back, and I just didn't feel like I should try to add weight on them this week. I'm going to try dry needling soon to see if it will help with whatever is going on with my back. Actually the workout isn't that bad until I get to the darn walking lunges. Those are no fun! No fun at all.

Here is what I did for Saturday's hamstring day:

1)Glute ham raise: 4x10
2)Sumo deadlifts: 4x10

3a)Seated leg curls: 15/12/12/15
3b)Standing band abductions: 3x15
4a)Standing calf raise machine: 4x8
4b)Cable pullthroughs: 4x15
6)Prowler pushes-5 x 10-15 seconds, working up in weight each set

This workout is actually not bad, although I do not enjoy the high rep deadlifts whatsoever. I think  I can suck it up for a couple more weeks, though. ;) Next week will be week 5 on this program and then my vacation is the week after next, so that will be a deload week. After that I will either tweak the program up a bit or follow it with different exercises for another 4-6 weeks.

Okay, rant time. It's been a while!

So I've talked before about how sometimes the fitness industry drives me bonkers...well, now is one of those times. People are just so obsessed and so consumed by their looks and their workouts and their macros...and it's just too much for me sometimes. I get having a love of fitness. I love it. I love lifting and being healthy and working out, but it's not my entire life. Sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode with some of the things I see.💥

One thing that is really irking me right now is this whole "bulking and cutting" thing people do. I cannot stand those terms. It has got to stop. If you're a fitness competitor, that's one thing. That makes sense, because it's your sport. You shouldn't stay at your stage leanness year round, so you have to go through stages of gaining and then leaning out. But it's when just normal, non-competitors do it that drives me crazy. Because "bulking" just becomes a term for eating like crap and putting on a ton of fat(which is not necessary for gaining muscle anyways), and "cutting" has become a term for when people aren't satisfied with how they look or feel too "soft" or "fluffy"(which is another thing that annoys me-when fitness people use those terms to describe themselves).

If you do want to build muscle and eat in a calorie surplus, do it slowly and do it for more than a freaking couple of months. Building muscle takes a LOT longer than that. And please don't call it "bulking" unless you're a bodybuilder. And then when you do want to lose a little body fat by going into a calorie deficit until you get to where you can maintain, that's totally fine, too-nothing wrong with that. It's just the constant bulking and cutting cycles that drives me crazy.

I just wish more people could accept their bodies at all stages and that more people would promote enjoying life and being okay with not having a shredded physique all the time. You don't have to call it "bulking" when you gain a little bodyfat because you're just letting yourself loosen up and enjoy life without fitness being your NUMBER ONE priority. You don't have to go on a "cut" after a few weeks as soon as you lose sight of your precious abs. What's so wrong with just living life and just letting your body do what it wants? What's so wrong with pursuing optimal health(which has nothing to do with your outside appearance)? What's so wrong with focusing on other things in life besides fitness?

And on another note, the more I see the damage that fitness and physique competitions can do, the more I hate them. I know some people can do them in a healthy way, but I just think for most people, the damage it can do not only physically but psychologically is just not worth it. I mean, completely depleting yourself for what? To stand on stage for a day? For a trophy? I don't know, I just don't get it.

I know many of you won't agree with me at all, and that's okay. These are just my thoughts from what I've seen others go through. I follow very very few fitness competitors these days(I will admit, I still love Erin Stern), and instead fill my Instagram with powerlifters and body positive pages like these people: Kelly UJen BrettyKatie AnneBec ChambersKelly LenahanAlyssa ChangNikki H, and Kaila Narum...just to name a few! I highly recommend following them. It's such a breath of fresh air to me in an industry consumed by people telling you you're not good enough unless you're super lean, and people and companies who make money off of your insecurities and self-hate.

Even my mindset on many things has changed in the past few years about health and fitness. I am all for being healthy and fit, and I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to improve yourself or striving to be better or wanting to transform your physique. It's just the mindset and the way you go about doing that that makes all the difference. So many women try to hate themselves skinny. That's not going to work. Well, maybe it can, but it sure won't be an enjoyable process.

As I was in the middle of writing this, I received this article by Nia Shanks in my email. She is another great person in the fitness industry who you should be following, and this post was perfect, as it's right in line with what I'm talking about.  We're so on the same page about this, and it's spot on with some of the frustrations I've been having with the fitness industry lately. She just says it much better than me!
We passively surrender to the ideology of society and what other people (be it the media, magazines, fitness professionals, marketers) say is best. In this, we lose ourselves. We’re allowing someone else to decide what’s best for us. We don’t have, or aren’t aware of, something guiding us from within, so we line up in formation and follow the pack attempting to march closer to the “ideal” body.
But we need to stop. We need to assess what we want and what we value and what feels good to us — and the answers may not be the same for everyone. Disliking or downright hating your body doesn’t feel good, and it doesn’t help you become the best version of yourself. Hating your body doesn’t not have to be part of being a woman. If it currently is, it’s time to change."
How good is that???

I know that there are people out there who are trying to make a positive impact in the fitness world, and that makes me happy. Because there are far too many women out there struggling with body image and eating disorders and yo-yo dieting... and many of them are the ones promoting "health" with their clean eating, and their "#nodaysoff", and their ripped ab selfies on Instagram. There are far too many women out there striving to always be smaller, to be leaner, to be a certain weight on a scale. I want to be different. I will not be another fitness person promoting dieting and never being satisfied with your body and posting ab selfies every day for "motivation". If that's what you're looking for here, you're in the wrong place.

Comments

  1. Well said. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being a voice of reason in this crazy industry. Keep it up!! Please!! We need to hear voices like yours AND faith like yours. Thank you for bringing both in such a wonderful way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. It's good to know that some people out there are reading my words, and that maybe they are having a positive impact.

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