MTheads

The Perfect Weightlifting Blog

I'm having trouble finding good weightlifting blogs.  I've found a few I enjoy reading, and I ought to throw those up on my blog list, but they are often unsatisfactory.   Many fitness blogs are more about the ads than about fitness.  Or they are about finding clients for fitness trainers.  Or they are devoted to pictures of the writer in tiny bikinis looking for clients.  Or they are infrequently updated.  Or they are dogmatically devoted to a particular way of lifting weights that comes off as insulting.  Or the authors are too young and have too many adorable pictures of their cats and boy friends.  Maybe I'm too picky. 

Many women blogs on weightlifting also have a feminist slant that I don't enjoy.  I dislike wallowing in a miasma of testosterone resentment while reading the word "vagina" over and over.  For me, being a feminist is about not having to think about my sex every single second of my life.  And I hate the word "empowering."  And "partner."  Dated and stale.  I'm difficult to please, I admit it. 

All I want is a nice straight forward site about lifting weights from a woman's perspective exactly the way I'm imagining it in my mind; updated every day would be a plus.

 

I Could Rip Off Your Arm Workout Philosophy

I want to get really strong.  Why?  Who knows.  Just do.  Weightlifting also keeps me in much better shape than either aerobic exercise or yoga ever did.  Studies show how important weight bearing exercises are for women.  Muscles burn more calories.  An effective weightlifting program doesn't demand much time.  So why don't more women lift weights of some kind?  My thoughts:

Some women seem to be devoted to cultivating that engagingly brittle-boned and cute look over the "I could rip off your arm" look.  And while skinny arms and the inability to stand up straight may work for teenagers and supermodels, it's not an overall healthy look to pursue.  Talk about a failure of feminism!  Women are strong inside, but few really want to be strong outside.

Yes, yes, I know, women are out there getting in shape by the billions.  But many of them are exercising to be thin and small, motivated by an oddly compelling image of feminine frailty, whether they admit it or not.  Not all women, of course.  I know athletic women and women who lift weights, but they are the minority.  So many women have a fear of muscles and of appearing unfeminine, even at the risk of health problems like bone and muscle loss as one gets older.  I know, because I've been told so.  Muscles are not what they are after.  Which is a shame.

I fight this image with my daughters.  I encourage them to run as hard as they can, jump as far as they can, lift things, push things, pull up on things, and to never let the unhealthy images of women as mere clothes hangers influence them.  I want them to take pride in their strength and physical competence.

I prefer the "I could rip off your arm" look.  To get that, here are my goals:

Right now, my goal is to bench press my weight which is around 110lb.  My max one rep is 95lb.  I'm lifting 90lb regularly for my heaviest set.  I don't have goals for anything else right now, just to lift heavy and to failure.  I met my goal for pull ups, which was ten.  Now I'd like to do ten wide arm grip pull-ups.  But I mostly lift intuitively, trying to make myself sore the next day.  When I stop being sore, I change up my routine, which is why I've started doing dead lifts.  Those are hard. 

 

Snobbery Is A Funny Word..Like Rubbery Or Shrubbery

I just finished Joseph Epstein's Snobbery: The American Version.  I found the book through an article of his in the Wall Street Journal about the state of higher education (about which he has little good to say).  Mr. Epstein describes snobs as either insecure status seekers who fear being thought one of the masses or as arrogant prigs ever on the lookout to prove their superiority.  That sounds about right. And while Mr. Epstein has many good points about what constitutes snobbery and all the ways we engage in it, I think he overestimates snobberyas a motivator in our lives.  Status seeking behaviour isn't always about leaving other people behind, sometimes it's about finding people like ourselves; people who like the same things we do.   Aspiring to elevate one's tastes can also be about exploring what all life has to offer.

It's also not snobbish to want a nice car and to live in a good neighborhood.  Just like it's not snobbish to want to spend time around people we consider our peers in intellect and interest.  We should be picky about what we buy, who are our friends, and how we spend our time.  Resources are finite.  Life is short.  I think snobbery has little to do with our actual choices - sushi vs Vienna sausages.  Those are a matter of taste, preference, and culture.

Instead, snobbery is making a virtue out of our particular tastes and then measuring other people with ourselves as the measuring stick, and finding them wanting.  Snobbery is making choices with the neighborhood's collective opinion in mind.  Snobbery is to think people slightly less human, just a tiny bit, for being lower class or less sophisticated than we imagine ourselves to be.  Snobbery is to elevate shallow preferences over acts of good character when judging other people.  Snobbery is not nice.

Snob motto - For me to have worth, there must be others who compare poorly.  And this must be obvious to the casual viewer.

The book made me ask myself if I was a snob.  I don't think so, although Mr. Epstein would probably interpret this as a snobby opinion in itself, one that implies superiority - I'm not a snob, not like all you other losers.  But I can suffer from arrogance, which is akin to snobbery (but better).  So, I've made a list of all the good reasons I ought to work on not being snobbish, even if I'm not.

Why being a snob is self-defeating:

1) Snobbery impairs our ability to think clearly.  It's difficult to judge people and events objectively under the influence of our own infallible tastes or when obsessed with how our judgements will be viewed by our peers. Snobs have to accept the fact that they do not see the world as it actually is.

2) Snobbery is a sign of insecurity.  The guy really comfortable with his station in life doesn't overmuch care what car his neighbor drives, or, better, doesn't care what his neighbor thinks of what he drives.  Snobs worry a lot.

3) Snobbery is a character flaw.  Of course, most of us take great care to hide our snobbery from outsiders because we know this. 

4) Snobbery is a form of self-flattery and deception.  Better to know your true self.  The rest of us do.

I'll go work on eradicating all feelings of superiority while I'm making a sandwich. 

 

Stupid Picture Friday! Call Over Your Friends!

Feel free to throw out some captions.  Here's mine:  Banana slug makes fatal error in choice of wintering over hidey hole.