Every Body Can Get Stronger

 

We come in all shapes and sizes but one thing is for sure, no matter what size you are or body type you have, every person can afford to put on more muscle. Every person has the opportunity and should be provided the opportunity to become a stronger human being. Forget losing fat, forget the scale, and forget what pant size you are for a second…and think about whether or not you would be able to defend yourself in the unforeseen chance you had to. Are you strong enough for example, if you needed to lift something off of someone? How often do you perform proper push/pull exercises in your life i.e. back, chest, shoulders, triceps, and biceps? Do you have enough lean muscle mass to support your everyday movements? Your joints? Ligaments? What about your bone density…have you ever worried about Osteoporosis in the near future or possibly right now?

 

A human being with a very low amount of muscle mass is scary. It’s not healthy to be weak, and I think it should be more of a scare for people when their body is taking hits from everyday movements. Our populations posture is a mess due to hunched desk and driving posture, our kids schools very rarely offer after school sports programs and gym is optional for older grades.  When members in our society want to lose weight they say, “I want to lose fat,” Or, “I want more energy and better sleep,” or “I want less cellulite and more tone,” or, “I need to do more cardio.” Rarely will you hear “I need to lift more weights,” and this is especially rare for women. For a number of reasons, one of them being it simply has not been in our culture and historically speaking it was inappropriate or “faux pa” for women to weight train until late 90’s.

 

However, in my opinion, one of the biggest deterrents for woman weight training are often other women’s spiteful comments themselves. For example, when a women regarded to the public as “in shape”, begins to eat healthier and workout, they somehow feel ashamed and try to hide their fitness. An individual who may not look like they need to lose weight will often hear comments such as, “you don’t need to work out, you’re already skinny,” or “why are you eating healthy you don’t need to lose any weight.” These comments can be degrading and made the person trying to live a healthier life feel embarrassed about trying to get to their fitness goals. Every single person deserves to be a stronger human being, and add more lean muscle mass to their frame. There is no reason any human being, regardless of their size or stature, should feel hated on for exercising and eating healthier. People who make these types of comments to others may be insecure themselves and feel threatened by you, or they genuinely believe you don’t need to work out because they only see exercise as a form of torture or something “larger” people do. The later view is old school. The younger generation cannot hold the excuse of they didn’t know adding muscle and changing your body fat % to lean muscle mass ratio is a good thing. Becoming a physically stronger woman should be celebrated, as it’s the first time in history it’s widespread throughout our culture. Skinny-fat is no healthier than being obese, and I would say there is a way higher proportion of skinny fat people in our society than obese. Skinny-fat is dangerous, it’s scary, it means out of your total body weight you hold more body fat than muscle. You could be 110lbs but weak as all hell, and BF% high…this is highly alarming.

 

Adding more muscle to your frame also helps with a healthy pregnancy, delivery, and keeps you more fit post-pregnancy. More woman than ever are starting to “prepare to push”, and are realizing the massive benefits from strengthening your muscles and core can be highly beneficial for an efficient delivery and recovery.  A skinny-fat woman would have more lose and stretched muscles and skin during recovery, and now that the babies here it’s going to be extremely hard to start a new gym routine from scratch. Make sure if you do not have kids yet, to be hammering the weight training and packing on as much muscle as possible. Do not believe people who say you are young and do not need to work out, exercise does not have an age or a timeline. That being said, if you do have kids, it’s not too late for you either. Start where you are and do what you can, I recommend saving up some money and investing in a trainer. Time is not on a busy moms side, so showing up for an appt. and learning proper form and having a program written for you can save you a lot of time and make the process more efficient. Further along for woman approaching menopause, weight training should be a huge priority as this age group is losing muscle faster than they can gain. Osteoporosis is a huge risk, and muscle can help increase bone density dramatically. Not to mention, muscle changes the bodies shape and can help counter gravity…if you know what I mean.

 

Lifting weights is not scary. Gym intimidation is built up anxiety from the unknown just like anything in life…a new job, a first date, an important exam. There are tons of different barriers people go through that deters them from using the gym, but negative comments from other people should not be one of them. Condescending comments to one another about what we eat, or how we workout need to stop. Just because they do not appear to be out of shape to the public’s eye, does not mean they are not suffering their own health battle. Some may be born more genetically blessed than others, or have a head start, but that doesn’t mean they should max out their potential or stop trying to get stronger just because you determine they look good in clothes. Having muscles to use and grow, to be able to move and exercise our bodies is a gift. No matter what size or shape you are. We all have muscles we can work, we all have opportunities to get stronger and no woman should feel that path is not for them. Having the ability to lift more weight is for everyone, it solves a lot of problems people complain about most often anyways. The fat loss, improved energy and sleep, less cellulite…more muscle does all of those things.

 

Next time someone tells you they are working out and eating healthier, don’t make them feel embarrassed or ashamed about it. Encourage them to keep going because it’s not easy, encourage them to try hard and not give up, because they will want to. Your words can make or break someone progress, be nothing but positive and wish them the best. It’s their body, they deserve to be strong, safe, and healthy for as long as they physically can.