In my experience as a personal trainer, the majority of women (read: NOT ALL) I work with tend to want to look like this:
The first picture is of my friend Jen Heath (www.jenheath.com). The second picture is of my good friend Cassandra Forsythe (www.cassandraforsythe.com). Sorry fellas, both are taken…;o)
Jen is a model, figure competitor, and a mother of FOUR. She’s also the cohost of The Fitcast with yours truely. Cassandra is well on her way to getting her doctorate in Nutrition and is probably one of the smartest people I know. Guess what they both have in common (other than their obvious good looks and the joy they feel for calling me their friend)? Both LOVE to lift heavy weights in the gym. And by “heavy” what I mean is the EXACT opposite of what most women tend to do in the gym, which is grabbing those pink or purple dumbbells and performing endless repetitions to “feel the burn.” Cause you know, they don’t want to get big and bulky. Do Jen or Cassandra look big and bulky to you?
Newsflash, ladies: You will not get “big and bulky” just because you’re doing squats and deadlifts. That statement is akin to me saying, “Eh, I don’t want to do any sprints today because I don’t want to win the 100m gold medal next week.” Getting big and bulky isn’t easy, just like winning the 100m gold medal isn’t easy.
If anything, it’s an insult to all those people who’ve spent years in the gym to look the way they do. It didn’t happen overnight, which is what you’re assuming by saying something so absurd.
Lets break this down by using an example. Kate is 5’4″ and 130 lbs with 25% body fat (this is typical of what I come across as a personal trainer). Kate wants to look leaner and wants that “toned” look. She wants those flabby arms to go away and she wants a butt that would make men turn their head while walking down the street. To get to where she wants to go, Kate feels she needs to LOSE weight and get down to 110-115 lbs. Essentially Kate will end up looking like one of the Olsen twins. Emaciated, frail, and weak…otherwise known as the “skinny-fat” look. Trust me, you DO NOT want this look and if you do…e-mail me, I will change your mind.
The sooner that Kate (YOU) accepts the fact that she will probably weigh the same or even MORE to get the look she wants, the better off she (YOU) will be. The sooner she (YOU) quits relying on the scale to gauge progress and focuses more on what the mirror tells you, the better off she (YOU) will be.
STOP the marathon treadmill sessions and put down those pink dumbbells for peets sake
(Side Note: here’s a quick little article that Jen Heath wrote on why women need to STOP using the scale to gauge progress. Hey! What’s Going On In There?).
