“Is this your fighter… This is my fighter…”

I love the ladies…
My ladies to be exact. My ladies make my job totally worth it. Early mornings, late nights, long hours… it’s all worth it. What is Zach rambling about this time? It’s simple.

STRONG IS BEAUTIFUL

What? I know this site is for pillaging, heavy squats, and planning how to defeat the zombies. But it’s also here to spread the good word of lifting iron. My ladies love to lift. Some of them lift the house. Some out lift the boys and look damn good in a cocktail dress after (I look pretty good in a cocktail dress too, thank you squats).

They like to pull, push, swing, and jerk heavy weight. I’ve seen some scream during lifts and others cry after because they never thought they’d be able to do what they just did. It makes my job worth it.

I’m as hard if not harder on my lady lifters.

“That weight isn’t gonna pick itself up.”

“I don’t care what got in the way Joey, you should have caught that clean.”

I even told my Ma one time, “I don’t care if you cry, but not on the platform.”

They all listen, better then most of my guys. I’d do anything for my girls. Even take a whole week on Old Country and dedicate it to the fact that “Strong is Beautiful.”
There will always be ignorant people who don’t understand what we do. It’s too bad too because they’ll spend their whole life trying to convince other people that a certain look is what’s right. Sad ignorant people. You’ll hear from a number of different people this week what we all already know. “Strong is Beautiful” – Z

And here we go…

“Her arms are too big. All of the girls there have big butts. I don’t want to get bulky.” Do these sound familiar? I squat, I do pushups chest to deck, I like to pull heavy things off of the ground, every day I strive to get stronger, but to some it seems having muscle definition in my arms is a bad thing and having a nice toned backside is undesirable and my heart breaks when I hear this, not because of the ignorant hurtful nature of such remarks. But because they really don’t know what they are missing out on.

Let’s take things back to July of 2009. I walk into a CrossFit weighing in at 165, a weight that for my body type I never thought I’d be. I’ll save you all the time from reading why I let myself get to this point and we’ll just sum it up to instead of putting on the freshman 15 when I went to school I put on the sophomore 25. I dropped 10 pounds doing the traditional CrossFit most of us fell in love with right away and in January of this year Z started me on my own separate program with Johnny because we were interested in a heavier lifting program. Anyways, this is when I began to really fall in love with heavy lifting.

Fast forward a few months and a couple of what we know as Caliber Cycles (strength and conditioning cycle for those of you unfamiliar). I am stronger than I have ever been, yet I am the smallest I have been since high school. I weigh 140 lbs which is actually what I weighed when I graduated. I run into people I went to school with and they say I am the skinniest they’ve seen me. I’ve lost the fat that I had on my arms. But now that they are leaner ignorant people say “bulky”, what? Oh and I have a squatters ass that is all muscle, yet smaller than it was a year ago, and some say it’s “too big”, weird. It’s funny because when I started lifting heavy weights I lost  another 15 pounds and it gave me a lean athletic look.

It would be really easy for me to let these comments get me down but I don’t. Why you ask? I feel better about myself than I ever have. Through getting stronger physically I have gotten a lot stronger mentally, I have a confidence in myself that I have never had before. Most men will tell you that a confident woman, one who walks with her head held shoulders back, is more beautiful than one who walks around with her head down and shoulders slouched forward. Being strong makes women more confident and being more confident is beautiful. “Beauty is a state of being content and strong… strong in body, mind and soul.”

Don’t get down on yourself if someone says your arms are “bulky” just because you are strong.
Most people look much bulkier in the gym than they do on the street. Tight fitting gym clothes and muscle pump can make you look very different, as any fitness model knows! The same woman who seems ‘bulky’ in the midst of a workout will look fantastic in a little black dress at a party. (gubernatrix)Embrace your strength. If you feel better about yourself now because you feel strong that is beautiful. Be proud of the hard work you have put into your body, and know that being strong is a beautiful thing.

Since I have started lifting weights my life has changed drastically. Getting stronger everyday has made me believe in myself, it has made me a much more confident woman. I don’t obsess over how much I weigh, I once told Zach, “I don’t care how much I weigh I just care how much I lift.” As I said before it breaks my heart to hear people talk negatively about women lifting and it is simply because lifting and getting stronger will make a women feel better about herself and in a society that tends to tear women down finding a way to make a woman stronger in mind, body, and soul is hard to find and I have found this through lifting.

I have seen many of you, just like myself, become stronger, more confident women, you are all beautiful! If someone makes a negative remark about you being strong just remember how strong and confident you feel when you hit a big lift or when you PR on a workout, carry that feeling with you throughout every day. You know how working out has changed your life and with that it is our job to help inspire those around us so that they can share the benefits we have gained by becoming stronger. Don’t hesitate to share your story with others and help spread the message that “STRONG IS BEAUTIFUL”.

I don’t remeber where exactly I found this but I think it’s appropriate.

“I am a Crossfit Woman

I sweat
I grunt
I curse
I bleed

I am a CrossFit Woman
I will not shy away from failure
I will not hide me emotions
I will not quit
I will not hold back

I am a CrossFit Woman
I am a competitor
I am a daughter
I am a friend
I am a CrossFit Woman
I am confident
I am strong
I am beautiful
I am a CrossFit Woman”

Posted by: Roo

gubernatrix, . “The toning problem: why women are missing out when it comes to weight training.” All around strength training (2010): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2010. <http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2009/02/the-toning-problem-why-women-are-missing-out-when-it-comes-to-weight-training/>.