Categoriescoaching Female Training

My Wish For Female Fitness: Less Talk About Less

NOTE: This is a blog I originally wrote back in 2017, but I’m repurposing it today because:

  1. It’s really fucking good.

AND

      2. It matches well with the release of Psych Skills for Fitness Pros, my wife’s (Dr. Lisa Lewis), latest resource for personal trainers, strength & nutrition coaches, and physical therapists designed to improve their communication and motivational skills.

It too is really fucking good…;o)

This is the last week you’ll be able to purchase it at $100 off the regular price.

My Wish for Female Fitness: Less Talk About Less

“Why should I be fit?”

Ask a male that question and you’ll hear a bevy of terms and phrases ranging from “to get swole and jacked” to “to get swole and ripped.”1

Ask a female that question? Well, the bulk of them will have an entirely different orientation or framing of answers.

Copyright: dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Most of the time we’ll see an avalanche of words like:

  • Lean
  • Slim
  • Toned
  • Thin

In other words: For many women the idea of being fit revolves around being LESS. Rather than embracing and accepting their body as something unique and worthy of its own admiration (regardless of size), many women are fixated on the notion that less is sexier.

Healthier.

Better.

This is in stark contrast to the psyche of their male counterparts. Peruse any magazine rack and you’ll immediately notice a different tone:

  • Big
  • Strong
  • Mass
  • Gain

Here, the goal is MORE.

My wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, who speaks on this topic and phenomenon frequently, refers to this as a Growth Orientation.

Woman are (generally) programmed to strive for less. By contrast, men are (generally) programmed to strive for more.2

“Striving to Be More, Instead of Wanting to Be Less”

Rather than being seduced into the rabbit hole of incessant “weight loss,” which, lets be honest, is the quicksand of the industry – slowly swallowing any semblance of enjoyment and fun out of fitness – I’d like to see more women gravitate towards something I refer to as 3×52.

Instead of a goal of weight loss and steady diet of disappointing results (and Paleo recipes that taste like old lady fart sprinkled with sawdust), the ultimate goal, as far as my own female clients, is to get them in the gym 3 days a week, 52 weeks a year…aiming for CONSISTENCY and  PERFORMANCE.

 

I find if I can get them “married” (for lack of a better term) to finally conquering a chin-up, or deadlifting their bodyweight for reps, or, I don’t know, beating Xena Warrior Princess in a street fight, the aesthetic goals they’re chasing (often saturated with a tone of weight loss) just kinda-sorta…happen.

Better yet…they forget about them altogether, and just want to crush weights.

It’s All About Motivation

This is where my wife Lisa would chime in with her expertise, but I’m going to take as stab at it.

In the seminal book, “Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Exercise and Sport,” a light read (said no one, ever), motivation is described as:

“….[is] an internal state that energizes and drives action and behavior and determines its direction and persistence.”

The fitness industry, as it relates to women (exponentially so), is very much fixated on extrinsic factors: external appearance, sex appeal, being less.

This isn’t entirely wrong or altogether a bad thing. I understand that for many women looking at magazine covers like the one above, or perusing any number of Instagram accounts of fitness celebrities can be motivating.

However, it’s also very superficial.

Happiness, it would seem, is tethered to one’s waistline or ability to look a certain way society (or magazine editors) deems attractive.

This is not healthy.

And, funnily enough: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard stories and have seen personally people (both men and women) who have sacrificed a lot to look a certain way.

They give up social events and carbs (CARBS!) in pursuit of six-pack abs or tank-top triceps, only to attain the goal and be like, “huh, that’s it? Well, that’s a bunch of bullshit.”

The moral of the story, however, is to help your clients find and recognize INTRINSIC factors that will fuel their motivation to get fit and healthy.  And do so long-term.

The difference and power of intrinsic factors is that they have less to do with external appearance and sex appeal and more to do with finding value in other ways, like:

  • How exercising makes someone feel.
  • Exercise matches their values and beliefs.
  • Someone feels exercise is an important part of their personality, and makes them the best version of themselves possible.

You do that – help someone seek intrinsic motivation – and Tracy Anderson will have less of an influence.

Yay.

via GIPHY

So, Uh, Tony, How Do We Enhance Motivation?

Good question.

1. Facilitate Intrinsic Motivation

This is where being a good, intuitive coach brings value. I’m a strength guy and love the barbell lifts, so it stands to reason I have a little bias towards them.

While I’m at a stage in my career where the majority of women who reach out to me know what they’re getting themselves into – a healthy dose of deadlifts and Tiesto – I also recognize that for some, I can’t force feed anything.

If someone would rather jump into a live volcano than perform a back squat…what good is it to force them to do back squats. That’s a sure-fire way to crush motivation.

It’s my job, then, to do the best I can to match their goals with shit they’ll actually want to do. Maybe instead of back squats we perform Goblet squats, or a crap-ton of sled work?

More to the point, if I can identify their strengths and talents – and utilize things that make them feel like a rock star – we’re in a good place.

This is what happens when @alexandraleigh22 crushes her deadlifts. We pay homage to Kid-n-Play.

A post shared by Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore) on

2. Highlight Ways to Grow

Building autonomy should always be the goal with any client. You should want them to eventually leave.

Listen to a client’s goals and ALWAYS create plans based on those goals…..always. Allow room for goals to change, be modified, or even abandoned. Everything is negotiable.

A large reason why so many people fail to get results – even when working with a trainer – is that the trainer sucks balls. He or she never takes the initiative to provide education and feedback to increase competency in their clients.

I don’t feel there is nefarious intent or that such a thing is done purposely much of the time, but it does speak to the pure laziness of some trainers and coaches.

I know when I start to work with a new client (female or otherwise) I go out of my way to explain everything, why we’re doing a certain exercise, it’s benefits, and why it will help get them closer to their goals.

Moreover, I make sure to meet her where she’s at.

This kinda mirrors what I said above – I.e., not force feeding YOUR preferences onto your clients – but a crucial component of sustained motivation is competency. This is why I rarely have someone – male or female – straight-bar deadlift on Day #1.

Clients want to feel as if they know what the hell they’re doing, that they can do “stuff,” and that they don’t look foolish.

Foolish

 

Less Foolish

 

Look, a Demon Kitten (Which Has Nothing to do With Anything)

3. Build Relatedness

Your relationship & rapport with clients is an essential element of success. Be mindful of your clients’ social needs in regard to their fitness.

For example, if you partake in semi-private training as I do, and you’ve just started with a new female client and you know she’s a bit timid and self-conscious…it’s probably not a bright idea to pair her alongside your male client training for his next powerlifting meet.

Another example, especially when training female clients, Beyonce Radio on Pandora is like female relatedness catnip. It never fails.

Never.

 

Less Talk About Less

Taking all of the above in consideration will, I feel, help with all the “less” talk that permeates female fitness.

No! We want more.

More confidence, more autonomy, more competence, more muscle (because, why not?), more cowbell, more Beyonce.

Psych Skills for Fitness Pros

What burns us out as coaches isn’t sets/reps, breaking down deadlift technique, or writing a metric-shit ton of training programs (although that last one can be debated).  No, what grinds our gears are our…

…clients!

They can be inconsistent, unmotivated, drop off the face of the Earth only to show up three weeks later wondering why they’re not getting results, have poor boundaries, smell really bad, any number of things.

All of which require communication skills to deal with.

Creating a long-lasting career in fitness, one that rewards you with loyal clients who stick around, isn’t about how much you lift, how great your butt looks on Instagram, or how much you spend on Facebook for advertising.

It’s about creating a CONNECTION with your clients.

Psych Skills for Fitness Pros will help you accomplish that.

  • 12+ hours of content – webinars, quizzes, interviews – you complete at home at your own pace.
  • Earn CEUs via NSCA and NASM.
  • Gluten free.

Remember: This is the last week to purchase it on SALE, so act now while you can.

CategoriesFemale Training speed training

4 Strength Goals For a Beautiful Body

I make no secret my disdain towards the mainstream media (magazines, newscasts, infomercials, pop culture, fads) and how it relays fitness information to women.

Wait, what? You mean women can lift weights heavier than 3 lbs????

Most of it – mind you, not all of it – is predicated on the notion that women are these delicate flowers who shouldn’t (or worse, can’t!) lift appreciable weights, and that their fitness needs are better aligned with cardiocentric modalities and/or buzz words like “toned,” “sleek,” and “sexy.”

You know, cause deadlifts will make you grow an Adam’s Apple overnight.

The tone (<- forgive the pun) has changed in the past five years or so with the growing popularity of CrossFit. Women, now more than ever, of all shapes and sizes, backgrounds, and ability-level are hitting the weights and recognizing (and reaping) the advantages of setting performance based goals.

There’s still a lot of work to be done, though.

It’s a never ending upward battle to change the mindset of a society that places more “value” in something as arbitrary as what the scale reads in lieu of someone’s push-up prowess.

In my latest article on BodyBuilding.com I discuss why strength is the key to pretty much everything, including aesthetics.

Continue Reading……..

ALSO

Since we’re on the topic of performance, one of my all-time favorite resources for conditioning and general badassery – Lift Weights Faster 2 – is currently in the midst of a stellar summer SALE.

Not only do you get to learn from one of the best coaches I know, Jen Sinkler, and get bombarded with literally hundreds of different circuits and finishers ranging from 10-30 minutes, but you’ll also have the opportunity to follow workouts written by guest coaches such as myself, John Romaniello, Jill Coleman, Ben Bruno, Bret Contreras, Molly Galbraith, and a host of others.

Frankly, LWF2 is my default resource whenever I need a quick circuit to use myself or with any number of my own clients.

And you can get it for $40 off the regular price the rest of this week.

Check it out HERE.

CategoriesFemale Training Motivational

Female Fitness Marketing: Why Performance Matters

I like training women. I think it’s easier in many ways.

Women listen.3

Women tend to be more patient. In the gym that is. Lets not get carried away here….LOL.

They’re patient in that they’re less likely to add 50 lbs to the barbell when I’m not looking and performing a set with atrocious technique.

Women tend to take constructive criticism more lightly and won’t interpret it as me judging them.

And women tend to have less ego compared to their male counterparts.

And less BO.

These are all loose observations, of course, and by no means should be taken as concrete. Some of my best clients have been men; but I have found throughout the years, as a whole, women tend to be easier to coach.

I know many of my fellow Y-chromosome’d colleagues would agree – Bret Contreras, John Gaglione, Mike Robertson, to name a few.

I have to assume my female coaching friends will agree?

We’ve seen a shift in mindset with women within the last decade when it comes to lifting weights, and more to the point, strength training. I’d be remiss not to give a tip of the hat to CrossFit for leading the charge.

Nothing (so long as I can remember) can be attributed to the tsunami of interest and enthusiasm of people getting excited to lift weights than CrossFit – men and women both. But mostly women.

Tracy Anderson and the Thigh Master can suck it!

Before I get flak for going soft on CrossFit- there’s still much of it that drives me batshit crazy. Funnily enough, the quality of CrossFit is getting better. More and more boxes are recognizing the importance of assessments, ramping people properly (regressions and progressions), having some semblance of periodization/programming, and understanding that not everyone can walk in on Day #1 and perform 100 reps of wall balls, box jumps, and 400m sprints……on their hands.

What’s funny about it is I hear all these CrossFit coaches waxing poetic about how much better CrossFit is now, and how it’s “changing.”

Exactly!

Because most of the boxes who are quote on quote “doing it well” aren’t doing CrossFit anymore. They’re, you know, having their clients perform smart, progressive, sensible programming without all the high-rep/WOD bologna that makes a small part of my soul die.

But that’s neither here nor there, way off-topic, and something I don’t want to get into at this point. Besides, I’m hangry right now and feel like I may cut someone.

But even with the shift of more and more women turning their backs to the elliptical trainer and gravitating towards the iron, there’s still a massive gap to bridge between what the mainstream media is relaying to women and what people like myself are trying to do.

Not a week goes by where I don’t shake my head in disbelief or come close to punching a wall from something I read or watch from the mainstream media on the topic of women and fitness.

All I have to do is walk through my local CVS and be slapped in the face with magazine cover after magazine cover telling the reader how to “lose 10 lbs in 1 month,” or how to “tone this” get a “sleek that,” all while following a detox diet that has you drinking nothing but grapefruit juice and unicorn tears for 47 days.

Which is all BS because 1) everyone knows unicorn tears are only effective after 49 days and 2) each magazine cover is plastered with a celebrity who’s been photoshopped beyond recognition and to a point that’s unattainable or with a model or figure competitor who spent the last three months dieting and prepping to look that way for ONE day.

Check out THIS post by Kelsey Reed on more of the shadiness behind the scenes with fitness marketing towards women.

And none of this speaks to the eye wash that I constantly come across on shows like Dr. Oz, Ellen, and The Biggest Loser.

It’s frustrating at times, if not 100% nauseating.

Which is why I love working with women. I love “de-programming” them (for lack of a better term) and helping them to pull the blanket from over the eyes.

In a lot of ways it’s similar to that new show on Netflix, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Kimmy’s been trapped in a Dooms-Day bunker for 15 years and is finally released into the “real world.” She’s been programmed to think one thing (many things, actually), only to find out that everything she knew was wrong. Or, slightly off.

She’s still living in the 90s with an out dated mentality about the world and how it now operates.

NOTE: the show is hilarious. Co-created by Tina Fey, so if you like that type of humor this show will be right up your alley.

I find that many (not all) women fall in line with Kimmy.

They’ve been told that lifting weights will make them bulky, that if they’re going to indulge, light weight (high reps) is the best way to go, and that to get toned and lean (buzz words!) they should perform copious amounts of cardio. And eat 1200 kcals per day.

I’m not going to begrudge someone’s goals. If “toned” and “lean” is what they’re after….cool. Lets do it!

But Lets Focus On Performance

Whenever I start working with a new female client – particularly if she’s not a competitive athlete – I always try to refrain from buzz words like toned, lean, etc.

I’ll let them use those words, and I’ll play along, but I’m almost always going to entice them to go down a path they thought they’d never go down. Similar to Alice going down the rabbit hole. Except with less opium involved.

Rather than have them focus on more superfluous goals like losing 10 lbs (it’s always 10 lbs) or more aesthetic goals like how their arms look in a certain dress….I’ll try to get them to buy into more of the performance side of things.

Things like:

1. Finally being able to perform an un-assisted, full ROM, chin-up.

2. Performing 10 clean push-ups. Not girl push-ups. I hate that term. Push-ups.

3. Deadlifting their bodyweight for reps. Deadlifting 1.5 bodyweight for reps. Hell, why not go for 2x bodyweight?

At first there may be a little push back. “Tony, I don’t care about my deadlift.” It’s to be expected. But I always say, “give me 60 days.”

“Do what I tell you to do for 60 days, and we’ll re-assess things.”

It’s amazing what happens after only a handful of weeks.

More often than not they find they’re doing things they never thought they’d be able to do. What was a challenging weight two weeks ago is now easy. Okay Tony, deadlifts aren’t so bad after all.

“OMG, I can do a chin-up!”

 

Something clicks or switches on, and many become addicted to pushing themselves in the gym. There’s a fire that’s ignited.

What’s more, many find that those goals they’ve been working so hard to achieve – toned arms, losing that 10 lbs – just kinda, happen. On it’s own.

It’s magical. Sans the Unicorns.

Women can lift weights. They should lift weights. And while many people are under the assumption that Eric Cressey’s High Performance Handbook is geared toward athletes or only men…they couldn’t be more wrong.

I’ve seen many women follow this program at Cressey Sports Performance with amazing results. And for those who feel a bit skeptical about following a program completely off the internet, check out these results from Stacey R, 38 (she said I could use her age!) from New Jersey.

Stacey Before

Stacey After

Stacey came to SUNY Cortland last weekend to listen to me speak. A day later she sent me an email thanking me not only for the workshop, but for being someone who tries to empower and encourage women to lift weights.

She mentioned that she had always been into fitness but had never focused on a structured strength training program. She decided to give Eric’s HPH a try because she wanted to get stronger, and to help with her recreational volleyball.

It’s obvious Stacey was in good shape prior to starting the program. But you can clearly see she made some amazing progress. She noted that, despite putting on 8-10 lbs, she was still able to maintain the same level of body-fat.

She also added…

My overall game, vertical and responsiveness have improved, I’ve found an absolute passion that’s helped me through some difficult personal stuff in recent years, and I’m challenging myself to go completely out of my comfort zone by shooting for a figure competition in June…which is conceptually ridiculous for me on multiple levels, but is proving to be a great focal point.

Now, this certainly doesn’t mean everyone will get the same results as Stacey. But if someone with Stacey’s background and experience can make this much of an improvement….imagine what YOU could do.

All she did was follow the program, focused on strength and performance for a change, and stayed consistent with it.

And good things happened.

It’s magical. Sans the Unicorns.

High Performance Handbook is on sale this week at $50 OFF the regular price. It’s not just a program for men.

CategoriesFemale Training

Fitness Marketing to Females: Don’t Be a Victim!

Note from TG: Today’s guest post comes courtesy of friend and strength coach Kelsey Reed. I’ve known Kelsey (and her husband Steve) for a few years now (they actually got engaged on my blog and came to Cressey Sports Performance for their honeymoon!)

You can check out those shenanigans HERE (<– the actual sneaky engagement post) and HERE (<– my follow-up post). 

I have a ton of respect for Kelsey not only as a fantastic strength coach, but as someone I feel is a true “champion” for fostering the sentiment that women aren’t these delicate flowers who should appease themselves to the regurgitated BS that the mainstream media tosses their way.

Here she dives into fitness marketing towards women and some of the shadiness that goes down. Enjoy!

Before I dive into the meat and potatoes of the post, I want to thank Tony for allowing me to write a post for the blog (I might have done a happy dance when I began this post).

Today I will focus on the devious, misleading, and body-centric phrases that magazines, fitness products, and various other media outlets use to lure women into reading or purchasing their products. These schemes are birthed out of the intent to deliver what every woman wants: the perfect body, as dictated by their marketing.

Don’t check out yet, fellas!

I assume, since you read this blog, that you are either a fitness professional, an individual of higher enlightenment than the rest of America, or both. And we need you to help rebuke these, I think, demeaning claims and spread the good news of iron. Claims and “promises” such as:

“Lose a dress size in a week!”

“Torch those calories!”

“Flatten your belly!”

“Lengthening muscles and tone that tush!”

“Get rid of that jiggle!”

* and other such claims that are so asinine they make my cats take out their rage upon us poor humans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka0vPcMVAl8&index=5

Ladies and gents, we are barraged with headlines and marketing techniques designed to a) make a woman feel inadequate about her current body shape and b) continue to ingrain in her that her worth is based on her looks.

Not only do they fail to encourage, but they even discourage, the pursuit of process-oriented goals. Both a) and b) lead to repeated cycles of short bursts of motivation and hard work, followed by despair at her failures (typically because the claims above set her up for nothing but failure), and ending in a return back to her starting point.

Do this for me, Google image “women dumbbell exercises.” 99% of the images are with 5 lbs or less (and for some reason are performing bicep curls. I thought that was a guy thing?). These portrayals are ubiquitous in women’s magazines and, subliminally, tell women they can’t, or worse shouldn’t, lift heavy things.

This is what our friends, coworkers, and clients see on a daily basis.

Now, there has been a movement, “Strong is the new skinny,” which, I’ll admit, is definitely a step up.

In word, at least, it encourages women to try heavier weights and strive for strength. However, have you Googled that phrase? Do so, I’ll be right here when you get back.

What did you see?

Images of muscular (more so than usual) women who are still lean (thin) and long-legged and busty. Not that I think those attributes are wrong to possess, those models can’t help their genetic lot, and power to the women who can rock it, but those are the traits that seem to be highlighted almost exclusively.

I don’t think it’s ignoble to strive for the body of a Greek goddess, especially for women who compete in physique sports; I used to be one!

Despite the words of the message, there is still the expectation that women should look like Wonder Woman or any of the other female superheroes from old DC comics, and that simply is not a realistic goal for most women.

(I’m rather short, un-curvy, un-busty, and will never be any of those things.)

Photo Credit: Jeff Chapman

PLEASE NOTE: this is NOT me disagreeing with this new mentality that is permeating the fitness world. I DO believe that being strong is better than being skinny. After my battle with anorexia, I know better than most how damaging focusing on body image can be and whole-heartedly agree with the shift in thinking away from looks and towards performance.

The focus of our message should be to the non-physique competitors, the women who want to be strong and healthy but are still inundated with the images of busty, tiny-waisted women with a visible 6-pack.

And even though these women are more muscular than the general model to grace the cover of women magazines, there’s still the subliminal expectation that to be “healthy” or “strong” a woman’s physique must contain less than 12% body fat.

We must remind our friends, family, and clients that lifting weights alone will NOT MAKE SOMEONE LOOK LIKE THAT.  More importantly: To not let the fact that they don’t discourage them or frustrate them. 

We must communicate that diet and genetics play a large role in how these idealized women look; if you’re 5’1” and have the curves of a pre-pubescent boy (like me)…striving to meet these ideals will only cause frustration and disappointment.

We must live in our realities; not in the fantastical world of internet models and Photoshop.

Unfortunately, the women who most need to hear this message are not regularly exposed to resources, such as blogs like Tony’s, which encourage women to step away from the grocery store magazines. Therefore, as fitness professionals (females and males) and enlightened individuals we must do 3 things:

  1. Reset our expectations for ourselves (ladies) and set goals that are both attainable and realistic. We’re not immune from this either and we cannot hope to inspire change in others if we have not first done so ourselves. I also challenge the guys to examine how you personally view the women you either work with or who are in your life, and see if these arbitrary standards have crept into your subconscious.
  2. Encourage other women – be it friends or clients – to set and strive for goals that aren’t based upon an idolized “ideal” woman. Note that you can accomplish this not only through words, but also through your actions; it’s often the latter that is more effective.
  3. Educate and continually remind those women that their goals will be accomplished through consistent hard work, patience, and embracing a process-oriented approach. The world will continually try to sell them short cuts and inflame their impatience for results. We must be the voice of unvarnished reason amidst the din.

 “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” – my dad

I’m personally encouraged that there is an increasing number of women ditching the magazines in favor of a more reasonable and healthy training approach. Our job is to foster and encourage this trend.

We’re not going to change the world overnight, but we can change it one woman at a time.

Note from TG: for more on this topic you can check out my Training Jane from Joe webinar on Mike Reinold’s Rehab Webinar’s website (you get access to my webinar and HUNDREDS of others).

In addition, for more female-specific fitness resources I stand behind check out Neghar Fonooni’s Lean & Lovely, Nia Shanks’ Lift Like a Girl Guide, and Molly Galbraith’s Modern Women’s Guide to Strength Training.

Author’s Bio

Kelsey Reed is head strength coach at SAPT Strength & Performance located in Fairfax, VA. Bitten by the iron bug at 16, Kelsey has been lifting ever since. Her love for picking up heavy things spurred her to pursue a degree in the Science of Exercise and Nutrition at Virginia Tech.

Now she spends her days teaching and coaching others in the iron game. In her down time, she lives life on the wild side by not following recipes when she cooks, fighting battles through characters fantasy fiction novels, and attempting to make her cats love her.

CategoriesFemale Training

What’s Wrong With Female Fitness?

I love fitness and I love the fitness industry. Fitness has always been a part of my life.

Photo Credit: Bobby Gallant

Ever since my parents (er, I mean, Santa…wink, wink) got me my first weight training set when I was 13 – you know, one of those benches with the leg extension/leg curl attachment that came with a few bars and about 150 lbs worth of plastic covered cement circles, along with the complimentary black & white poster of some ripped dude performing all the various exercises which served as the “program” to follow.

Remember that? 

Yeah, that one  – I was hooked.

It only made sense that, once I was finished with my baseball career, that I’d gravitate towards a career in fitness. I majored in Health Education and after “surviving” my student teaching experience – it really wasn’t all that bad – I decided that spending my days teaching prepubescent students the food pyramid and the difference between boy-down-there-parts and girl-down-there-parts wasn’t my gig.

That and I didn’t want to have to wear a tie everyday.

So once I was done with my internship at a corporate gym (as part of my concentration in Health/Wellness Promotion) I decided that helping people get more fit, healthier, and stronger was more my bag and I became a personal trainer and strength & conditioning coach.

That was twelve years ago.

In the years since I’ve grown as a coach and as a person. I’ve seen how the fitness industry has changed, evolved, and rolled with the ebbs and flow of coming and going fads.

Ahem, Thigh Masters and Shake Weights anyone?

All in all, however, I recognize that as a whole the fitness industry is saturated with well intentioned people wanting to help people in any way they can to lead healthier and more meaningful lives.  I’m proud to be a part of that.

As with any industry, though, there’s always the outliers that bring the “douchey” to the douchiest power.

Much like how the judiciary system is rife with shady lawyers who give all other lawyers a bad reputation by hanging out in emergency rooms passing out business cards (and bad advice), the fitness industry is equally as much of a culprit.

One of the biggest problems I’ve noticed (and have tried my best to curtail) has been growing bigger and bigger for some time.  And now, it’s gotten so big a lot of people aren’t sure we can actually fix it.

And that problem is pretty obvious: the way women are portrayed, packaged, and marketed when it comes to fitness. And there are finally some people who are ready to push back.

Lemme explain…

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve definitely seen what I’m talking about. If you open any magazine, whether it’s fashion or fitness or anything else, you see women in hyper-sexualized ad campaigns who are photoshopped beyond all recognition. (<— Exhibit A).

And not just “regular” women. I’m talking about women who are models or professional athletes, beautiful women who are being subconsciously told they aren’t good enough as they are, so they need to be digitally enhanced.

 

As if the false imagery weren’t bad enough, the subliminal (and I’d argue they’re not so subliminal) messages that much (not all) of the mainstream media regurgitates towards women is borderline tragic.

Key words such as “toned” and “sexy” and any other equally as nefarious adjectives used to sell people an often unattainable look are used ad nauseam by the fitness industry.

Worse still is that you have women becoming fitness celebrities because they have a bubblicious derriere (or what I like to call a metric shit-ton of anterior pelvic tilt) and are able to market themselves and build a cult following on Instagram.  And even worse still, they’re seen as health and fitness authorities.

It’s unfortunate, and it sucks.

And it needs to stop.

Many of you may recall this past weekend I shared a “special edition” guest post by my friend, Neghar Fonooni, titled A Woman’s Journey of Strength: How Lifting Changed My Life Forever. It was amazing and received a ton of love on social media.

Neghar is someone who “gets it.”

By that I mean that she isn’t just helping women get into amazing shape; she’s helping them realize that they’re beautiful before they step into the gym, and that while losing weight is great if that’s what you want, it’s not the key to happiness.

This is a really, really important point. Neghar is not one of those “anti-fitness” or “anti-weight loss” fitness professionals who thinks that anyone who wants to change their body is making a mistake.

Instead, she thinks that anyone who wants to change their body should do it the right way, and for the right reasons: because YOU want to, not because you’re trying to conform to some societal standard, or because you think it will make you happy.

Which is why I’m more than happy to introduce everyone to her Lean & Lovely program.

Whether you’re a woman who trains or someone who trains women, this is a fantastic 12-week fat-loss program comprising of three phases lasting four weeks each, with each phase having a slightly different focus in terms of training, nutrition, and mindset.

The overarching concept is based on kettlebell training (which is Neghar’s wheelhouse), but everything from bodyweight exercises to barbell training is included.

The long and short of it is that it’s an amazing program that will help women get fit and gain confidence all while loving their bodies and not hating them!

Unlike a lot of program out there this one does NOT sell sex or use target terms to make a woman feel she’s not sexy enough or has to look a certain way to feel sexier.

Rather, the message of Lean & Lovely is for women to meet their body where it’s at, and to be more mindful of the transformation – both physically and mentally.

Every part of this program is incredible, and every part will help you in some way. Here’s just a few pieces…

  • Firstly, as mentioned before, there are 12 full weeks of amazing, fat burning workouts
  • Then there’s the comprehensive Nutrition Handbook, which will teach you how to lose fat without dieting
  • There are over two dozen bonus “sweat session” workouts to do whenever you like, with minimum time and equipment
  • Instructional videos to teach you how to do every exercise in the program.
  • A series of MINDSET exercises and strategies to help you be happier, more positive, more productive, and make the program more effective

The L&L program is on sale THIS week only for 50% off, which is a STEAL given the numerous other things offered in the program.

And there’s much, much more.

Also, to sweeten the pot I’m going to offer everyone who purchases the L&L program through this site my 75 minute webinar Training Jane from Joe: Do Women Need to Train Differently Than Men?

I’m actually releasing this as a stand alone product in a few weeks, but am going to hand it to you – FOR FREE – by sending me your L&L receipt.

Just send me an email (make sure to include the receipt!) with the title “L&L Giveaway” to: [email protected]. Okay, that’s it. Click below to see for yourself what I’m talking about.

—-> Lean & Lovely <—-