Deze video spreekt voor zich!
My mother is an avid CrossFitter. She trains upwards of five days a week and reads blogs and watches videos and goes to competitions. She has always been athletic and excelled in sports and various activities. She competed in the US Nationals for swimming when she was younger, and played ice hockey in the boys’ leagues (there weren’t any girls’ leagues) into her teenage years.
But, she never lifted weights. For most of her life, girls just didn’t do that kind of thing. If they did, it was pretty ineffective resistance ‘toning’ (see above, although it is a great pic). Not heavy deadlifts and front squats, snatch balances and cleans, weighted pullups and toes-2-bars.
And here we come to one of the greatest benefits of the CrossFit movement. CrossFit has made real training, such as the movements listed above for example, accessible to everyone. Prior to CrossFit, how many women (or men for that matter), outside of specialized programs in high schools and colleges, were being exposed to Olympic weightlifting? Powerlifting? Agility work? Gymnastics movements such as muscle ups and levers? Practically none, and even in those college programs it was often frowned upon.
Where did women in their sixties go a few short years ago to learn all those skills? Hah, no where. Snatch grip deadlifts for my mother? Split jerks? Overhead squats? Virtually unheard of. But CrossFit has changed all that. It has opened up whole new worlds to everyone, but especially to women and the middle aged and above.
But more than just making this kind of training accessible, CrossFit says you can do it. Old, young, male, female, athletic, not athletic, out of shape, in shape, whatever. It doesn’t matter, there is the attitude that you can do it. Squat snatches, pullups, resisted runs–you can do it. No matter who you are, you can do it. How completely liberating is that.
Not only can you do it, but it is even expected of you. At first this sort of freaks people out. It scares them. Confronted with something they have never been told they could do, there is almost always the idea that “I could never do that“. But that attitude changes. It steadily morphs into one of I can do it. Maybe not right now, but in a while, with perseverance. Because, all around you in the CrossFit gym there is the underlying attitude of you can do it. It is the most positive place most people have ever seen.
Not only can you do it, but the tools do help you do it are available. Stiff and inflexible? Try these stretches and mobility work. Overweight? How about this nutrition plan and this workout schedule. Weak? This back squat and power clean program will add some plates to the bar. Knee pain getting off the couch? Let’s see you squat and, by the way, ever heard of myofascial release. Yes, you can do it and we will help.
There is always a lot of buzz about the CrossFit Games, star athletes, WOD times and weights, but I think you can do it is maybe the unsung hero of the CrossFit movement, because that great attitude, engendered with weights and lifts and pullup bars, starts in the CrossFit box and ends up in every aspect of your life.
You can do it.
Stop met jezelf uithongeren, doe het zonedieet en of paleodieet. Eet groenten, vlees, vis, kip, noten, zaden, wat fruit, weinig zetmeel, en geen suiker. Werk met lichte en zware gewichten! Werk hard en zwaar!! Intensiteit in je training geeft resultaat, en niet de eeuwige cardio trainingen, die nog steeds aangeraden worden in de sportscholen.
Laat je niet in de luren leggen door films, tijdschriften, fotos, mode, modellen, en ideaalbeelden over mannen en vrouwen. Dit is cultureel bepaald, en dat is in strijd met wat de natuur voor zowel mannen en vrouwen in gedachten had.
Adobe doet goede zaken, dmv fotoshoppen worden foto’s van vrouwen misvormd tot niet bestaande ïdeaal”beelden. De modebladen barsten van de vrouwen met een eetstoornis.
Stereotype uitspraken: Mannen moeten sterk zijn en vrouwen moeten zacht en fluffy zijn en workouts doen met roze halters en aan “toning ” of “sculpting” doen. Belachelijke termen overigens voor sterk worden (= spieropbouw).
Waarom zouden vrouwen niet sterk moeten zijn ? Sterk zijn is leuk, of je nou man of vrouw bent. Denk je dat vrouwen 40.000 jaar geleden niet sterk waren? Moet je er dan uitzien als een bodybuildster? Alsjeblieft niet! Bij CrossFit zijn we daar niet mee bezig, we trainen hard, en het gevolg van hard werken is een sterk en goed uitziend lijf. Je ziet er dan goed uit in je blote vel. Bodybuilding maakt een karikatuur van het “ideaalbeeld” van de mens, meestal met behulp van steroïden. Dat heeft niets met fit en sterk te maken. Bodybuilding is op zich niet slecht, maar is eenzijdig wat trainingsarbeid betreft. De spieropbouw kan zeer onevenwichtig zijn, doordat het lichaam niet functioneel, getraind wordt, maar dmv geïsoleerde spieroefeningen.
Spieren geven vorm aan je lichaam, vet hangt alleen maar aan je lijf, en flubbert. Je kunt slank en vormeloos zijn, maar ook slank zijn en tegelijkertijd goed gevormd (=gespierd). Strong is the new skinny. Er zijn veel skinny fat vrouwen (en mannen), de oorzaak ligt door het jojo-effect, en verkeerde dieten. Elke keer als je een dieet begint, dan verlies je vet, maar ook spiermassa. Als je daarna weer aankomt, dan is het vetaandeel groter dan de spiermassa die erbij komt. Herhaal dit een aantal keren, en je raakt steeds meer spiermassa kwijt, en wordt eigenlijk steeds vetter. Je kunt dus gelijk blijven in gewicht, maar steeds vetter worden.
Een goed, sterk en fit lijf krijg je door krachttraining, en niet door langdurig op een stepper te staan , of door alleen cardiotraining. Natuurlijk alle beetjes helpen, ook cardio. Het grootste trainingseffect op je lichaam krijg je door intensieve trainingsvormen, en krachttraining me oa zware gewichten. Vrouwen roepen altijd meteen “Ik wil niet breed worden”, de omvang van je spieren neemt wel wat toe, maar dat is gewoon mooi! punt uit!
“Women are meant to be strong.” Realiseer je dat vrouwen ook bedoeld zijn om sterk te zijn, dat heeft de natuur bepaald, en niet de cultuur. Zoek een CrossFit Gym in de buurt en ga eens langs voor een proefles. Je zult er geen spijt van krijgen, en het verandert je leven. (klinkt stom, maar het is echt zo)
Voeding is de basis van je gezondheid, en je fitheid. Het “Zonedieet” en/of het “paleodieet” is een uitgebalanceerd dieet. Niet een afvaldieet, maar een andere, en gezondere manier van eten, zonder jezelf uit te hongeren. Op internet is veel info te vinden over Paleo en Zone.
Oakland County CrossFit about Women, CrossFit and myths.
Women As I was pondering what to write for today’s post I noticed an article posted to FaceBook by D-Pain (aka Dana). It is titled” “LIES IN THE GYM”. It shows us that one does not have to go far in the average gym (obviously not a CrossFit Gym) to find someone willing to hand out bad information. This article outlines many of the myths that women are hearing about fitness and strength training.
Let me summarize several of the myths this article touches on.
1. Weight training will make you huge and masculine.
2. Men Train. Women Tone.
3. There is a difference between toning, sculpting and firming.
4. Women should stick to machines and stay away from free weights.
5. Women shouldn’t work on their leg and butt muscles, otherwise they’ll get to big.
6. Weight Training Turns Fat into Muscle
7. Women should only lift light weights to not get “bulky”
To quote a famous fitness author, “Women are not a special population. They are half the population.” In an article written by Mark Rippetoe he points out that Women DO respond to heavy physical stress (i.e. lifting heavy shit) differently than men. However, women get the best results when they train for performance (the whole premise of CrossFit and what we do), because even though there are differences between men’s and women’s response to training, there is no difference in the quality of the exercise needed to produce the stress that causes our bodies to change. The different responses men and women see in training are not the ones that the industry, media and popular culture have presented as fact. This unfortunately has had a detrimental effect on women’s training.
The answer to our questions on how to get there are right in front of us. The results, in terms of both performance and aesthetics, admired by the vast majority of women, continue to be routinely produced by advanced athletic programs. Which then amazes me how “body-sculpting sessions or low intensity machine based circuit programs were the approach sold to the public. But then again, “easier” is easier to sell.
The fact is that aesthetics are best obtained from training for performance. It becomes very simple, if you want to look like a lean athlete (the standard most active women strive to emulate) you have to train like an athlete, and the unfortunate part is that most people lack the “sand” for that. Despite this unfortunate truth (most truths seem to fall into this category), the fitness industry continues to see appearances first, as though it is independent of performance. Appearance cannot be trained for. Think about it: I know how to make your squat stronger, but how do you program Bun Blaster sets and reps for a tight ass? I may be able to double your pull-ups in a month, but I don’t know how to give your back that V-Shape everyone craves without increasing your pull-ups. Every single aspect of programming for resistance training that works at all does so because it increases some aspect of performance, and appearance is a side effect of performance.
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Appearance is a side effect of performance.
Appearance can’t change unless performance does, and the performance changes are what we quantify and what we program. Your appearance when fit is almost entirely a function of your genetics, which are expressed at their best only when your training is at it’s highest level, and this level is only obtainable from a program based on an improvement in your performance in the gym. To top it off the best improvements in the gym occur when participating in a program that looks more like performance athletics (i.e. CrossFit) that one that looks like waving your arms or legs around on a machine.
More Unfortunate Truths:
* Your muscles cannot get longer without some rather radical orthopedic surgery.
* Muscles don’t get leaner ….. you do!
* There is no such thing as “firming & toning”. There is only stronger and weaker.
* The vast majority of women cannot get large, masculine muscles from weight training. If it were that easy, I would have them!
* Women who do look like men have taken some rather drastic steps in that direction that have little to do with their exercise program.
* Women who claim to be afraid to train hard because they “always bulk up too much” are often already pretty bulky, or “skinny fat” (thin but weak and de-conditioned) and have found another excise to continue life sitting on their butts.
* Only people willing to work to the point of discomfort on a regular basis using effective means to produce that discomfort will actually look like they have been other-than-comfortable most of the time.
* You can thank the muscle magazines for these persistent misconceptions, along with the natural tendency of all normal humans to see reasons to avoid hard physical exertion.
Women will not get big bulky muscles because they just plain don’t have the hormones to build them. It is the difference in the hormonal profile between men and women that causes their performances to also be different. There are several aspects of a woman’s performance that will different from those of a man, all of which depend on neuromuscular efficiency, and all of which are a direct result of lower testosterone levels and the effects that testosterone has on motor unit recruitment, central nervous system excitation and other neuromuscular factors.
You might now be thinking that because there are such big differences, then it must be true what the fitness industry says about the necessity of gender specific programs and exercises. This could not be further from the truth. Women may lack higher levels of testosterone, but we are built the same when you look at our body structures. We are not as different as bunnies and fish. Men and Women, however, both recruit motor units into the same patterns to cause muscle contractions…..just to different degrees. A real world example would be that physiologically, Aaron Rogers and your grandmother operate the same way, in the same sense that Labradors and Toy Poodles are both dogs.
What does this all mean? That the type of stress (i.e. training / heavy strength) will cause the best results in both men and women, only the degree of results will vary. For example, Squats work better for everybody than leg extensions, leg curls, and the Bun Blasters because of the quality of stress they produce. “Squats are performed with the same muscles by everybody, they are hard for everybody, hard enough to produce system-wide stress for everybody – and this is why they work for everybody. Men are more efficient at responding to the stress of squats in terms of elevated testosterone levels, and in this respect men can get stronger and bigger faster.” (Rippetoe) What this doesn’t mean is that women are not served well by using “less efficient” ways to produce stress on their bodies. We just wont get as strong or big as men. J
So what should we do ladies? We need to be doing barbell exercises that demand strength, balance, power, coordination, and mental focus to produce a type of stress and adaptation that is superior to either low-intensity floor exercise (or walking on the treadmill) or isolation type machine exercises (i.e. bicep curls, leg extensions). It is the stress that causes the adaptation, and the quality of the adaptation is dependent on the quality of the stress. For example, an exercise that does not involve balance cannot cause an improvement in balance. The stress on the body must target the parameters that need improvement or these parameters will not see adaptation. It is this simple fact that is ignored and/or misunderstood – by the fitness industry, and thus the value of squats, deadlifts, presses, cleans, and combinations of barbell movements with gymnastic skills and track & field skills goes unappreciated and therefore causes an incorrect education of our society.
The other unfortunate aspect is that holding businesses to these truths would complicate their businesses. It is very hard to find qualified staff to train members at optimal levels of skill and intensity. And it will continue this way as long as the standard fitness center pays minimum wage for trainers. Qualified coaches generally get paid more than fitness centers are willing to spend. All hope is not lost! This paradigm is slowly breaking down and we can thank CrossFit! As CrossFit grows and it becomes harder to ignore the results of honest work done at high intensities, the “fitness media” is taking notice. You see more stories featuring the benefits of weight training versus aerobics-only programs.
It honestly isn’t rocket science, as most things in life work in a way that you get out of an effort what you put into it. This is something that we all know, however, we still crack and are willing to believe people who tell us otherwise. We hear 20-min a day and you could look like this, or all you have to do is walk on the treadmill. Unfortunately it isn’t true and we know that because we are smart people.
To summarize my experience as a CrossFit Coach and Affiliate owner for 1 1/2 years, on top of 10+ years in the fitness industry, is that not one of the 180+ women we have trained has gotten bigger and stayed bigger. I have seen a couple women get bigger as the body begins its transformation. However, bigger is temporary. Usually lean mass increases first. Shortly thereafter, a layer of fat melts off the top of the newly acquired lean mass. As soon as that happens, the women are thrilled. For the clients that incorporate a zone/paleo approach to nutrition, the results come quickly and without fail. For those that do not make dietary changes, the process takes longer. And don’t forget that strength will have longer lasting benefits than the immediate tight ass or smaller waist. It will help you open jars, carry your own groceries, move your own furniture, stay mobile and osteoporosis free so you can enjoy a long active life! So get started and pick up some heavy weights to start making the changes that you want to see.
