Before I get into this week’s list of stuff to read, I wanted to reach out to all of my esteemed, intelligent, and radically good looking readers to ask them for a little feedback.
I plan on giving this website a “face-lift” in the near future with the help of my friends from Copter Labs, who built this site from scratch way back in 2010.
I have a few things that jump out at me:
1. Make the site more compatible for those who log on through their iPad or iPhone.
2. Upgrade some of the aesthetics like the font (I want to make the font larger), getting rid of some of the superfluous stuff on the home page like the link to Flickr and my YouTube page, as well changing the standard “bald-strength-coach-tough-guy-who-crosses-his-arms” picture that’s plastered on the front.
For all I know that scares more people away than welcomes them.
3. And then there are some backend things like updating the NewsLetter software and including more links to LOLCats….;o)
I’m wondering, though: is there anything YOU’D like to see change? Anything I’m missing or need to improve on (Note: calling me out on grammar mistakes doesn’t count!).
I’d really appreciate some feedback in the comments section below.
Just because something is “gluten-free” means it’s healthier, right? Ahem, soda is gluten free.
I enjoyed this article, because for starters it includes one of my man-crushes, Dr. Spencer Nadolsky, but also because it debunks MANY of the most common myths out there (like the ones mentioned above).
For those who read this site regularly, Emily shouldn’t be a stranger. I link to a lot of her work because I respect the hell out of her, and think she’s a powerful advocate for women and strength training.
This was a wonderful commentary on the batshit-craziness of some women and how they can be snarky, judgmental, a-holes, and otherwise act like they’re in Junior High School all over again.
Two quick stories – both of which serve as the impetus behind this post.
1. I can’t tell you how long I resisted the whole Lululemon phenomenon. Mind you: I’ve always been a big fan of their work. All apologies to my gay guy friends, but I have a Y chromosome – so sue me for appreciating the finer points of yoga pants on a female’s body.
In fact, if I had to make a list of three people who’s hand I’d like to shake it would look something like this (in no particular order).
– Optimus Prime
– Han Solo
– Chip Wilson – the founder of Lululemon.
Half of my girlfriend’s wardrobe is from Lululemon (have a I mentioned I’m a fan?), and while I love it when she wears her yoga pants to go grocery shopping, I’d be lying if I said the Darth Vader theme music didn’t reverberate inside my head every time her and I would be walking around in the city and happen to cross paths with a Lululemon store.
Because inevitably she’d want to walk in and then try to convince me to put on a pair of something. Dudes DO NOT wear Lululemon. In my head, as far as masculine things to do, it ranged somewhere between peeing while sitting down and watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Fast forward to about a year ago when I noticed many of our pro-baseball guys walking into the facility with their Lulu pants on. When I brought it up to one of our guys – Oliver – and asked what’s up, he just responded with “they’re the most comfortable things, ever!”
When I dug a little deeper and started asking a few more questions, he just put his hands on my shoulders, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, “DO IT. You won’t be disappointed.”
It took a while, but eventually I relented and tried on a pair of their Kung-Fu pants. And OMG – ammmmmmaaaaazzzziiiiiinnggg.
In fact, Lisa bought a pair for me this past Christmas and I Tweeted the following picture to Oliver with the caption: I did it!
So now walking into a Lululemon store isn’t quite the chore it used to be.
But a funny thing happened a few weekends ago.
Lisa and I were doing our Sunday “routine,” you know, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Home Depot, squeezed in a little West Elm, when we happened to see a Lulu store. Lisa beelined it in and I followed suite. I wasn’t quite as “beeline(ish),” but I wasn’t tossing my face into a cement wall as I would have in the past.
As she was perusing the sales rack, I was standing near the front of the store adjacent to the men’s section. I wasn’t necessarily looking at anything, but rather just waiting in the area where all the other boyfriend’s waited. We’re like a little club.
A salesperson approached me and we started chatting me up. She told me all the sales going on – I don’t remember, I kind of blacked out – and then asked what I like to wear to the gym. I told her that I own one pair of the Kung-Fu pants, but that I’m a strength coach and that I don’t wear them to work because they’d get torn and beat up.
She then pointed to the right at all their men’s shorts, and said “a lot of our CrossFitters like to wear those.”
Wait………huh? My inner dialogue was like….“Did she just refer to me as a CrossFitter?“
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw
Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t take offense to it or anything. I mean, she was making a compliment that I actually look like I workout. But did she not just hear me say that I was a strength coach?
Which leads to story #2.
2. My internet buddy and intermittent guest blog contributor on this site, Emily Giza Socolinsky, sent me a message the other day.
Long story short: Emily used to be a Barre instructor and after switching to the dark side – Ie: strength training – and after seeing the results she not only received herself but with her own clients as well, she opened up her own gym. And she fucking dominates!
She’s long been an advocate of helping to promote people goals – whatever they may be – she doesn’t believe in only ONE way to train, but she’ll be the first to admit that everyone – in particular women – should strength train in some form or another.
And yes, in her own words that does mean “picking up some damn weight.”
Every so often she’ll get a comment on her blog from someone who, *coughs*, is not happy with what she has to say. Case in point, Emily wrote a fantastic blog HEREa while ago on why she feels Barre classes aren’t the answer for most women. Mind you: this was written by a someone who was formerly a veryaccomplished Barre instructor herself.
Anyways, she ruffled a few feathers when she originally posted that blog post. And to this day, she still continues to get snarky comments from women. Like this one:
“Wow, you certainly seem to have a chip on your shoulder toward women who do care about not bulking up!
I’m 42 years old and have been a lifetime runner. For years, I went to the gym and did traditional heavy weight programs (I even leg pressed nearly 3 times my body weight).
I tried the cross fit thing. For me, these programs resulted in injury and chronic pain in my knees and shoulders.
I’m a tiny person and I didn’t really bulk up, but I didn’t look feminine either.
Barre 3 and Bar Method have provided wonderful results for me.
I run faster and I have more endurance because my knees don’t hurt at all anymore! I am still very strong and in fact I can now do 50 push ups with good form. And I’m not embarrassed to admit, I love how how I look. Any women who doesn’t admit they don’t mind having a lean body with feminine muscular toning is lying to themselves and everyone else.”
Emily wrote back a very professional and considerate response – something I would have had a hard time doing – and ended with this:
“Congratulations on how you feel. It is very important for women to love how they look. But my reasoning for the article was to let women know that there are better ways to achieve one’s goal that will actually make them stronger and feel better about themselves. I would be lying to them and to myself if I told them them that barre classes are the way to a stronger body. Thank you for your comment.”
Lets ignore the whole leg press 3x bodyweight comment, or the “50 push-ups with good form” comment. I feel like my eyes have never rolled so hard in my life when I read those.
What I was most interested in was the “I did the CrossFit thing” comment.
Hello??!?!?!? Since When Is E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G CrossFit??????
Correct me if I’m wrong, but people were lifting weights and doing “strength training” long before CrossFit came into the picture. No where in Emily’s original post did she mention CrossFit. In fact, what she was referring to was everything CrossFit isn’t (more or less).
What she was advocating was a well-structured, coherent, planned, approach to strength training based off of one’s needs, goals, and health/injury history.
I don’t want to make this into some CrossFit bashing diatribe – that’s not the point. And for those reading who feel that’s what I’m doing, take a deep breath, relax, do some handstand push-ups or something, and read THIS.
There’s actually a lot about CrossFit I like and advocate.
But I just find it comical that, in the eyes of the general public, everything involving lifting a weight is now somehow lumped into CrossFit.
Much of that has to do with the marketing genius of CrossFit – there’s no doubting that. For what it’s worth I applaud it. A LOT more people are getting their asses off the couch and exercising now.
But what did people from the dawn of man to about ten years ago call weight training? I’ll tell you what it wasn’t called: fucking CrossFit.
Just a little rant for the day. I feel better now. Carry on.
You know how when you open up a magazine and read a interview of some random celebrity one of the questions that’s inevitably asked is “what’s your ideal day like?”
I’m not gonna lie: yesterday was that day for me.
Granted it didn’t involve waking up in the French Riviera, lounging poolside eating a plate full of exotic cheeses while high-fiving Matt Damon as we discuss our roles as Master Jedis in the upcoming Star Wars movie being released in 2015.
Nope it wasn’t anything close to that. But it was reaaaaaaaaaally close.
As hinted at yesterday it was Lisa’s birthday, and as such we both played “hooky” from work and well, enjoyed a day of decadence together.
We slept in, headed to the gym and trained together (which we rarely ever get to do), and then followed that with a little cameo appearance at the spa (she got a, well, I don’t know what she got, and I got an “extreme” sports massage).
Going to the spa is always an adventure for me because I always end up feeling like a bull in a china shop. Everything is so pretty and smells nice (a far cry from the facility), and I can’t help but feel self-conscious about what the hell am I doing there?
What do I do? What do I say? Where do I put my hands? Is the cucumber water, like, free? Shit, I need to burp. Am I allowed to burp?
Needless to say the spa was wonderful and served as a gentle reminder that I (we) need to do that more often.
After that the birthday girl wanted chicken wings, so who was I to get in her way!
To my more observant readers out there, yes, that’s a Lulu Lemon bag to Lisa’s left (no woman’s b-day is complete without a little Lulu, right?).
We then topped the day off with a little fro-yo, went home and chillaxed. Perfect.
I’m still kinda in “vacation mode” after yesterday so instead of writing some new content (I do have some doozies lined up), here’s this week’s list of stuff to read……
This was a knockout of a post written by Artemis (with a brief shout-out to who else? My girlfriend, Lisa. Woot woot!).
Artemis pretty much covers all the bases here: everything from why women shouldn’t be reticent to lift weights, why “cleanse diets” are a crock of shit, and eating REAL food is the real key to results.
I loved this comment in the article itself:
MYTH: 700 minutes of cardio per week will help you to achieve the body you want.
FACT: Moving around 7,000 pounds during your daily training session will give you the body you want.
This was an article that was sent my way on Facebook by a lovely women named Kristine who reads my blog (who also qualified for next year’s Boston Marathon!).
I honestly had no idea the original article existed – namely because I don’t read the WSJ (mostly in part because the stock market is Klingon to me).
While I can somewhat commiserate with the original article – and sometimes catch myself throwing the ol’ stink eye to runners myself (much like the kettlebell crowd, they can be an elite group of uppity snobs sometimes – I felt as a whole the “intent” of the article was woefully ignorant.
The retort, however – which is what I link to above – was/is the balls. I don’t think I laughed this hard while reading something in a while.
Today’s post comes courtesy of my internet buddy, Emily Giza Socolinsky. Some of you might recognize her since I’ve linked to several of her articles in the past. She sent this one my way last week, and after reading it (and doing a few cartwheels down the street because 1) why not? and 2) this article was the bees knees and deserved it) I asked if she would be cool with me slapping in on my site for your viewing pleasure.
I mean, what’s not to love? She talks about badonkadonks. More specifically she discusses the outright pervasive attitude that much of our mainstream culture has towards women and how they “should” look, as well as its meager attempts at offering training advice.
To be blunt: I trust the mainstream media with giving fitness advice towards women about as much as I trust a barber with a mullet.
To that end, this one is a doozy and sends an absolutely wonderful and positive message. It’s my hope that you’ll read it.
I don’t get women into my gym by promising them a great ass. They acquire their awesome asses as a result of doing goblet squats, split squats, kettlebell swings, step ups, reverse lunges, deadlifts…you get the picture.
I don’t promise them “toned” arms. But they end up with awesome arms from push ups, rows, chin ups, face pulls, presses….you get the picture.
In fact, I don’t promise them anything. They come to me because they want to get stronger. They come to me because they want to move better. They come to me because as one of my clients said to me today, “Because I don’t want to be in pain. Because I want to be able to keep moving this way when I am 90.” And of course, I will not deny the fact that many of them also want to look better too. I am not going to ignore the fact that most women wish they had ______. (You fill in the blank.)
I just want other things to take priority.
Because if you promise a woman a better butt or if you promise weight loss or toned arms and after weeks of exercising, it doesn’t happen as fast as they like, she will be left feeling worse about herself than she did before she started.
I think that these type of promises encourage negative thinking in women. I think that when you focus on body image, you put a woman’s body image before performance, before health, before confidence. These empty promises encourage a woman to feel bad about herself, not better and honestly, she has enough to feel bad about as a woman. Remember, it is hard enough just being a woman (I wrote about that recently here.)
So in my mind, these types of promises should not exist. It is easier and WAY more satisfying to build a woman’s confidence by introducing her to the deadlift (by the way, a great ass exercise), boost her self-esteem by teaching her how to do a proper push up (toned arms anyone?) or a barbell squat (another great ass exercise) than just help her fit into a pair of pants. Women do not need to be reminded of what they don’t have. They need to be reminded of what they DO have and they need to be coached how to use the body they DO have.
Just ask my ladies.
The other night, after watching one of my clients bang out a set of 10 push ups, my husband asked her if she started off at my place with such good push ups. “NO way,” she said. “This is what I am most proud of too. My push ups.” She told me that she has also been getting compliments right and left from friends about how awesome she looks and these friends just cannot wrap their heads around the fact that all she has been doing is squatting, pressing and rowing.
No running? They ask. No cardio, she tells them aside from a few ball slams and rope slams here and there. Of course, she said, she would rather them ask her how much she can squat these days than how she got her body.
This past summer, I wrote an article about my ladies and their feelings about strength training. You can read it here. The women speak about the empowerment they feel as a result of strength training, how much more confidence they have in their daily lives, how they are able to do things they never thought was possible.
They talk about the focus and concentration that goes into training, why they do it, what they get from it. And yet, I still find it difficult to get some women to believe in the power of the iron. I was recently on my Facebook News Feed and I saw a post by a friend of mine (a dancer) who was talking about building a new butt for the new year at Pop Physique. I had heard of this place (it’s a chain) and knew that it was just another type of barre class (They are popping up like mad all over the city. You can read about my feelings in regards to barre classes here.)
Note from TG: I actually linked to Emily’s article above in a recent Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work segment, and the feedback/response that it received was nothing short of awesome. If you’re someone caught in the “dancing/yoga/pilates/pick your poison trap” and think such classes are the key to lean, toned arms, I HIGHLY encourage you to read it.
I checked out the website and the first thing staring at me was some woman’s ass. Ugh. Seriously?
Right there, I knew what this place was all about. With a little more digging, I found a YouTube clip from one of the classes. Take a look.
What bothers me the most (I was face palming so much I turned my forehead red – it was like hearing nails on a blackboard), was the fact that the woman interviewing the instructor in the video is seen at the beginning of the video standing in front of a squat rack with a loaded barbell. Loaded with 45lb plates and a couple of smaller plates.
A squat rack people.
The clip then goes on to show women pulsing with 3lb dumbbells and then humping a ball. WTH? Where did the squat rack go? Why was it there in the first place? To tease us women who believe in the power of the rack? For the love of…..where the hell did the squat rack go??? NOOOOOO!
Okay, okay….I get it. The point of these classes is to build a better butt. How do you do that when you use no resistance?
Do you want to see what a butt looks like from a barre class? Cue picture to your right. Whoa. Now, mind you, during this time, I was also teaching cycling and doing some machine work at the gym. But this is my butt after two years of barre classes. Flat as a pancake. Non-existent. Is it even there, you ask? I just see wrinkles.
Yes, there is something beneath the pants. Not much though. And look at my chicken arms too. Hell, look at my breast. Where is the muscle????? Where is the butt? I thought I looked great…..until I saw this picture and saw my body and realized how pathetically weak I looked.
I had recently lost weight too (due to not eating as a result of my back injury – in too much pain to eat. This was the year I had my relapse.) But all the time I was teaching my barre class. I was squeezing and pulsing, squeezing and pulsing. Where was my ass to show for all that work??
Fast forward one year. ONE year.
Take a look at my ass now after a year of squatting, deadlifting, pressing, benching, doing chin ups, push ups. Uh, big difference, wouldn’t you say? I was still teaching my barre classes (this was the year before I opened my gym), but what had I added into my program that was not there before? You guessed it. Heavy squats, deadlifts, glute bridges.
More specifically, weight. Weight, people. Weight. None of that 3lb bullsh**. Real weight.
And more weight. And more weight. My goal was a stronger butt, not a “better butt. Hell, my goal was to just get stronger. The butt came as a bonus from all the hard work.
And I continue to work on getting stronger each and everytime I train. And consequently, my glutes get stronger too.
So, ladies, if you are looking to build a stronger, more able backside, please for the love of all that is humane in this great world, give up humping the barre while squeezing a ball between your thighs and grab a freaking dumbbell and start doing some goblet squats.
Or teach yourself how to do a kettlebell swing. Holy backside Batman! Or roll a barbell over your hips and thrust away! Your glutes will thank you and will appreciate the work. Because the work you do in your “build a better butt class for the New Year” will only work for some time then it stops working because nothing has changed. No resistance has been added. If you stick with 3lb dumbbells, you will end up looking the same. The body adapts. So, instead of working towards a cute ass, why not do yourself a real favor and work towards a stronger body and consequently, a stronger, maybe cuter ass.
Author’s Bio
Emily is a certified Starting Strength Coach, AFAA certified, USA Weightlifting certified Level 1 Sports Performance Coach, and cycle certified through Madd Dogg Athletics. Emily holds a Masters degree in Education and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County. As a fitness coach and mentor, she has helped many clients explore their true potential through hard work and persistence. Emily has also been active as a professional dancer and teacher for over 20 years. During that time, she has focused on strength training and a variety of cross-training methods that helped her grow and develop as a dancer and athlete.
I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but this week’s list of stuff to read is arguably the best one ever! I don’t know if it’s because of pure coincidence, the planets aligned just right, the Red Sox signed Mike Napoli, or if it’s simply because people churned out some awesome content this week.
Whatever the case may be, it’s awesome.
First on the list is an EPIC post by my buddy, Nick Tumminello, on what it really means when someone says “everyone should be able to squat like a baby.”
Saying something like that just sounds asinine, and doesn’t make any sense, right? Sorta like saying, “everyone should be able to fart cinnamon.”
Comparing the anatomy of an adult to that of an infant is just dumb. But in typical Nick fashion he’s a bit more articulate than myself, and explains why this is a faulty belief to carry in your back pocket whether you’re a coach or general fitness enthusiast.
I couldn’t agree more, and while I’ve used the whole “squat like a baby” analogy in the past (more so as a counterpoint to the whole “squatting deep is dangerous” argument), Nick does a bang-up job in debunking this common myth.
As an aside: I’m currently working on my next T-Nation article which digs into this topic as well, titled Does Everyone Need to Squat (Deep)?
If nothing else this post serves as an AMAZING message to women on why they should ditch the pink dumbbells and incorporate more strength training into their repertoire.
From Emily herself:
I believe, as many other women who strength train believe and who are in my field, that women need more than what a barre class offers. Women do not need special classes like barre because they are women and they should “train this way because this is how a woman should train.
Doing tiny little pulses until your thighs burn does nothing but make your thighs burn. So what? As my husband said, “My butt would burn too if you made me squeeze it 100 times. But it won’t help me develop a strong butt.” You will not build a strong body unless you stress the body ie. lift weights that are more than 5 pounds. No one is telling you that you need to lift 200 lbs (although this is damn impressive and shows true strength and domination.) But 5lbs? Come on.”
And really, that’s just a taste. Emily pours her heart out in this post, and it behooves all of you to take five minutes to read it. Especially YOU, ladies!!!!!
Given I’m an epic ball of fail for never writing up my own summary on the seminar from a few weeks ago (It was awesome – how’s that????), I breathed a sigh of relief when both Matt Kramer and Chad Rodgers (both of whom train at CP) posted this up on their site yesterday detailing some of the highlights.
