If you’re just joining our fitness coverage (which is mostly meaningless, since this is only our second installment), you can catch up here.
Today, as advertised, we’re discussing goals. This is really the most important part of beginning to strength-train, and, you know, life and stuff. Partly because it provides focus, and also because it helps you cut through bullshit like a hot knife through fudge. This will happen to you a lot, particularly if you read a whole bunch of different things about fitness on a regular basis, like I do. You need to know when to tune it out, and when it’s not applicable to your situation.
Example:
“Don’t waste your workout by eating a PowerBar/drinking a Gatorade afterwards. You might as well not have bothered.”
Well, now, that really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, doesn’t it? I love eating after I train. If I go up on my weights or do an extra set, I will probably go home and make a cheeseburger. When you’ve created a bunch of wonderful little micro-tears in your muscles, it can be lot of fun to sit there gnawing away and imagining you’re sending protein in to patch up the gaps with new tissue, possibly with Innerspace-esque visuals. After a normal workout, I’ll often make a ridiculous recovery drink involving whey protein, whole milk, a banana, and a dollop of chocolate-almond butter. Am I “wasting” my workout by consuming something super-calorific? Well, no. Because MY goal is to increase my strength, and to love using my body, and to enjoy going to the gym.
As to Gatorade, well, I don’t do a lot of steady-state cardio. It bores me, and I like to get my cardio via doing stuff with weights and burpees and box jumps and stuff like that. Also, to be honest, I don’t do great with anything that tells me how many calories I may or may not be burning based on me occasionally gripping elliptical sensors with sweaty hands. I’m a lot better off, personally, not having information like that. So I’m rarely in a situation where I feel like I need to get Gatorade into my body. My friends who are cyclists? Cut some of them open, and they’ll bleed lemon-lime. Their goal is to cycle for a hundred miles, and not die by the side of the road and have vultures eat their eyeballs.
When people say something like “don’t waste your workout,” they have a very particular image in mind. It’s a woman whose body they disapprove of, doing a form of physical activity they don’t believe will improve her body. You hear this a lot on strength-training boards, sadly, from people who should know better. I hate it. There are lots of people who go to the gym to use the elliptical at a low setting for thirty minutes while they leaf through a magazine. Lots. They are not all deluding themselves. Maybe their goal is to have a little time to themselves, to break a mild sweat, to rehab a knee, to read a trashy novel, to get their company to give them a small break on their health insurance premiums. I don’t know. Maybe they like Gatorade. It’s not my business. I don’t need to feel better about my slightly SWOLE BRO attitude towards training by finding a counter-example to eye-roll at. Neither do you.
So, what is it you want to do?
Let’s say you want to get strong. That’s what I want, so this is what I’m going to be assuming, as we get going on this thing we’re doing together. What a great goal! How clever of you.
Where do you want to get strong? Probably everywhere, really. One of the nice things about functional strength, which is what we’re going for, is that it’s great for building up all the little stabilizers and supporting infrastructure that help your larger muscle groups get the job done. So, you know, the difference between using a machine which targets your shoulders, and physically picking up free weights and doing an overhead press with them. Oh, maybe one side at a time, so your core has to try to hold itself so you don’t fall over! Let’s do that! Let’s do it while standing on a wobbly thing so it really improves our balance! We’ll get there.
Hey, that’s another great moment in goals buffeting up against fitness advice. There’s a new Norwegian study, which I am not even bothering to link, because it’s not important to what we’re doing, which suggests that the recent trend towards working out on unstable surfaces (Bosu balls, wobbly benches) doesn’t really activate any extra muscles and is a waste (WASTE, again) of your time.
But maybe your goal is to improve your balance. Mine is, because I do very balance-intensive sports when I’m not in the gym. So, yeah, I’m going to add instability elements to my training. It works great for me, and what I want to accomplish.
You see what I’m getting at here. Your training regimen is your own. If you like what you’re doing, and you’re using good form and reasonable caution, it is impossible for it to be a waste of your own time.
Since we’re talking goals, and this is early on in our fitness relationship, what a great time to talk about the number one dog-whistle lady-athlete freakout issue of all time, which ideally we will handle now and never speak of again.
WHAT IF YOU GET BULKY?
I dunno, man, we’ll use you to insulate our homes? What does that even mean?
I’m being deliberately obtuse, SHOCKER, fooled you, I know what it means. It means that the person saying this or having it said of them is worried that they will get big muscles, and look like a dude, and then someone will hold them down and give them a spray-tan and a spangled bikini and they’ll never be able to play a Henry James heroine in a major motion picture again.
WELL, let’s just dive on in.
1. Maybe you actually want to get huge muscles and a spray-tan and a spangled bikini. It’s not my scene, but lots of women think it’s fun. Chase that glorious rainbow, shine on you crazy diamonds, etc.
2. YOU FUCKING WISH YOU COULD GET BULKY. By which I mean that many people would be really happy if it was that easy to put on muscle. Those fifteen year old boys you see with their noses pressed against the glass at GNC have two thoughts in their heads: a) masturbating, and b) getting bulky. It’s really hard! Some of you can do it, though. My dear friend, Aurora, who will be my fitness video co-star, can pack on muscle like she’s juicing 24/7. It is INSPIRING. It is FRUSTRATING. For me! ‘Cause I can’t. My arms are pretty great-looking and great-working, and I’m almost at the point where randos might say “ugh, her arms are so manly,” but I’m still working on it. You’ll see! But Aurora is the best, because when she starts training, invariably some jagweed will weigh her and say “girl, imma take ten pounds off you, through EXERCISE!” and she’s all “whatever, you can try, but it ain’t happening,” and then you see her two weeks later and she needs new t-shirts because she can NO LONGER FIT HER BICEPS INTO HER OLD ONES. She’s adopted. I think her bio-parents were circus folk.
3. No one wakes up bulky. Maybe you’ll train for a long time, and get to a point where you like your muscles, and don’t want them to be bigger. So, you’ll do different stuff. You won’t lift heavier things. Maybe you’ll pick up a sport, and just enjoy what you’ve got. Problem solved. Hand to God, you will not close your bathroom cabinet, catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, and go OH NO I’M BULKY NOW.
The last meaningful thing I want to say today is about people preying on the above fear to sell you their services. If someone promises you “long” muscles, instead of, y’know, short stubby muscles or whatever it is you have, via their whatever system, they are full of shit.
You are to say to them: “I do not know if I am comfortable allowing a personal trainer to literally slice into my body and remove my muscles and tendons and reattach them to my bones in a different manner,” because, hey, that’s the only way to lengthen your muscles. Your muscle insertion points are genetic, they cannot be changed. You can build muscle, or lose muscle, and some big muscles are weaker than some smaller muscles, but there is not a goddamn thing you can do to make short muscles long. Not a goddamn thing.
Okay. Let it begin.
See you back here Thursday after next, when we’ll talk about the perfect being the enemy of the good, and give you your first set of things to try doing yourself. On a related note, this would be a great time to make sure you have well-fitting shoes, something to work out in that allows freedom of movement and that you feel comfortable wearing around other people, including a decent sports bra if you are a lady, and a place to train in. Any gym will do, including the YMCA, and if you only have access to your own apartment, we’ll have some ideas for you too.
Tags: BULKINESS, feel the burn, fitness, goals, strength training for fun and profit, workplace wisdom
Nicole, I’m super-interested in getting stronger, but I have really bad knees and am afraid of lifting.
How are your joints? And how are they now that you’ve been doing the gym thing?
So I too have bad knees, and I have actually found that working on my quadriceps has really helped reduce knee pain. By building up my quads, I’ve taken pressure off my knees. But you do have to be careful and focus really hard on form. I have pushed it too hard sometimes (where I hear a crunch in my knees) and had to take a few days off to recover.
I am interested in the answer to this question! I have bad knees, a bad shoulder and elbow and wrist, and a bad back. (Geez, I sound like a mess!)
Hey! so depending on what type of knee pain you have will make an impact on what type of exercises may aggravate it. Have you seen a sports doctor about your knees? Do you have a diagnosis?
I personally have patella/femoral syndrome and patellar tendonitis in both knees, and balancing out my muscles with exercises like squats and lunges really helped these problems.
But I just got a new problem that has unstabilized my knee (not yet diagnosed) and I’m pretty sure that those exercises could eff it up more. I’ll let my doctor help direct my care when I see him.
So – medical guidance is key! Along with a health amount of personal research and listening to your body. Good luck!
To be clear, I was not asking Nicole to help me with medical advice. I was asking her to recount her experience if any of it is notable joint-wise.
FANTASTIC!
My knees are good, my husband’s knees are all messed up from a Bad Martial Arts Incident, but have not been made worse by strength-training. But, yeah, doctors and stuff, like you already know.
With bad joints, it’s really really important to make sure your form is good, because that will to some degree protect your joints (i.e. when you squat, you make sure to drive with your quads and not let your knees collapse in) and to do mobility work. Mobility work will help a lot, because almost everyone lacks flexibility somewhere (except those crazy people who can do scorpion pose and what have you and of whom I am so envious it hurts) and a lack of flexibility can contribute to injuries during strength training. Your body will compensate by shifting stress onto joints, like the aforementioned knee collapsing. If you can improve your mobility, you can make lifting substantially safer.
I also have really bad knees. In my case, it’s a combination of flat feet, high Q-angle (the angle of your femur between your hip and your knee), and playing a high-impact sport for half my life. My quads are actually too tight, which pulls my patella up and makes my tendonitis worse.
I have a lot of body-weight-bearing PT-prescribed exercises to stabilize my kneecap. (Many are pretty pilates-esque, I think.) When I do those regularly, I can handle heavier lifting. I also wear a double strap cho-pat to hold my patella where it belongs. Otherwise, I mostly do machinese/lifting that allow for more delicate adjustments in weight/movement–mostly either body-weight exercises or machines that isolate one or two muscle groups. Though when I did squats with a bar in high school, I was okay as long as I kept the weight reasonable and my movements slow. If a machine or exercise consistently hurts or cracks my knees, I stop doing it permanently. There are so many kinds of exercise and exercises that there’s always an alternative.
Hi! Chiming in because I have essentially the same problems, and I pushed too hard with lifting heavy like, three times in a row and blew out my knees. Nicole please please please devote a lot of time to form when lifting barbells because I’m clearly fucking this up.
I have patellar subluxation (my kneecap sometimes dislocates) and I was luck enough to work with a physical therapist and then a personal trainer. We worked out specific exercises to help strengthen my thighs, hips, and back. At this point, my knee only gets weird when I slack off for a long period.
THIS IS SO GREAT I AM SO THRILLED. Also, can you please at some point talk about whey protein and when/why you need it? And how to consume it? I am training for a half-marathon but I am under the impression that stronger (bigger?) muscles will help me.
You need protein, but for your purposes, eating food will be just fine! I like whey protein, but it’s not necessary for most people most of the time. Just eat!
And the LORD came down and did sayeth unto Nicole: Go forth, my child, and tell them of the joy of a post-workout turkey burger on toasted Ezekiel bread. Encourage them to partake of the bounty that is the meat aisle at the Whole Foods next to their gym.
And Nicole did, telling them of the mighty truth, upsetting the GNC franchise, and causing her readership to rejoice mightily, and it was good.
Could you recommend good/cheap/tasty protein powders anyway, though? As a vegetarian, I’m also interested in opinions from people who aren’t spambots because the shit costs a ton of money.
I’ve never looked into the protein comparison to other things, but I love toasted wheat germ. I doubt it compares to protein shake mixes, It’s got a nice kick of protein, tastes a little nutty in my smoothies, and is made out of things that I know what they are! (Wheat. It’s made of wheat, and enriched with vitamins I think.) I like it as an addition to dairy proteins, so I can get more protein without more yogurt. And it’s like $5 for a jar at the grocery store.
I’ve heard great things about the Sunwarrior Vanilla Vegan powder. Can’t vouch for it as I’ve never tried it, but many bloggers I like swear by it.
If there’s a Trader Joe’s near you they have a whey that comes in a few flavors and is not very expensive and I put it in my morning shake every day.
I am really hoping that companies will pay me eventually to tell you about various protein powders. Personally, I use either Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard whey protein or NOW Foods Whey Protein Isolate, they’re great.
Thaaaaank you all for recommendations!
Cross training once or twice a week will really help stabilise your muscles and make you less likely to get injured. You can even swap it in for one of your easy runs. What kind of schedule are you following?
I’m doing it with team in training and the schedule is pretty relaxed. short run once a week, tempo run once a week, long run on the weekends. (and we are supposed to do strength and cross-training once a week as well).
Obviously depending on how serious you’re taking this, but I would add in a speedwork session, too. There are some good ones on the runner’s world website. I think it’s good to have four runs and a crosstraining or strength session for half marathon training, it builds you up faster and makes it easier for you on the day.
I thought a tempo run was a speed workout? Intervals? No? I did a half-marathon last year, too, but I’m trying to get faster. :/
A tempo run is a short to medium run at a faster but consistent speed than normal. Speedwork is specifically interval training. If you want to get faster it’s the best thing I can recommend, as that is its specific purpose. Sadly it’s also the least fun 🙁
If you’re training for a half-marathon, you probably don’t need to focus on protein consumption too much. If you switched to exclusively strength training or bodybuilding or something along those lines, the usual recommendations range from .6-2 g of protein per pound of bodyweight. I’ve seen good results at around 1 g per pound.
Can we talk more about how your muscles are connected and how your body works in general with the cool cross-cuts? Because I am fascinated. I had no idea they were connected in different ways with different people, even though that makes so much sense I’m like duh of course they are, everything ELSE in your body is dictated by genetics and small biological variations.
And yet in all my years of reading fitness magazines, no one has ever mentioned how the muscles work inside there. I want to know more about that!
I’m currently doing a lot of walking to prepare for my walking Hadrians Walls for charity in september, plus yoga for strength and flexibility.
My goals are simple – increase my lung capacity, be able to walk ten miles a day (I can do 5-8) and be less stiff.
I know those are silly, petty little things and not really fitness thread suitable…
That is not at all silly or petty! I think Nicole’s whole point (not to speak for her or anything) is that whatever your fitness goal(s) is/are and whatever you’re doing to achieve it/them, it’s all good, and these threads are the place to talk about them, ask advice, discuss progress, etc. without expecting judgment or anyone telling you what you’re doing isn’t enough or is a “waste of time”. I definitely struggle too with feeling like what I’m doing is silly and petty; I’m just embarking on my first ever real attempt at getting in shape and I’m proud of myself if I can run/jog 2 miles in 25 minutes. So I’m personally impressed that you can walk 5-8 miles a day 🙂
Thanks. I’m not an especially fit or athletic person – I used to enjoy running but my knee hurt every time so I stopped – and most of the stuff I like to do doesn’t seem like working out to me. Perhaps because I like it. I LIKE walking, I LIKE yoga. I’m not very good at them but I like them.
As for the 5-8 miles I can walk it’s all cheapness. I live four miles out of town and the bus is £2.50 for a single so I refuse to pay that much when I can jsut walk. Then I have to do stuff in town and come back,
You’re not especially fit or athletic and yet you walk 5-8 miles a day? That sounds fit and athletic to me! I’m happy when I can walk 2 miles a day on the treadmill.
Ha, you wouldn’t say that if you heard me wheezing on the upslopes, or complaining about my feet for the last two miles.
I’m 2 stone overweight too, which I think effects my fitness self-analysis.
Shut UP no don’t shut up come hang out with me. I love walking! And I pretty much don’t work out regularly, even though I admire Nicole and her beautiful, beautiful muscles to no end. Walking!! Walking across fields and over hills and dales and whatnots! WALKING.
I went on a lovely ten-mile walk last sunday. We went out to the norfolk (UK) coast and did some of the coastal cliff walk. It was misty and the sea was grey and it smelled so fresh and it was lovely.
I would like, one day, to do the entire coastwalk. You can actually walk most of the coast in the UK t – It only breaks for towns and villages. It would take, at a conservative estimate, most of a year.
I need to start using Jos’s heavy weights rather than my stupid light ones but I can’t be bothered at the moment. I need to add exercise in slowly or I get overwhelmed and I stop.
I love walking! I go for a walk every day, and when I was living in Boston I walked everywhere! And my friends would say “We should take the T to get to blah blah blah because that’s really far!” and I would reply “I walk there three times a week!”
However, I am increasingly interested being more fit. I have started having a harder time hiking up steep things, and am worried about how I would fare on a long backpacking trip in my current state of fitness. (I’ve been drinking a lot of beer)
Ohhh I love the coast walk! I’ve done parts of it, mostly in the Southeast and Southwest. One day I’d love to do the coast-to-coast up around Robin’s Hood Bay.
Walk with me, Mallory!
Walking is great. Sometimes when the weather is nice I feel like I could walk forever.
Don’t forget the stiles! Oh god, I want to walk over so many stiles.
Oh wow, have a great time! The area around Hadrian’s Wall is so beautiful! I got forced into a Coast-to-Coast once and while walking is not for me the scenery was lovely.
Wait did you to the St. Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay one? I WANT TO DO THAT ONE.
I’m really looking forward to it!
PIMP TIME: If you want to sponsor me, you can do! Just click here http://www.justgiving.com/Caitlin-Blanchard1
Phew done. We’re going as a group (all woman) so I need to figure out which sites are NON-NEGOTIABLE for me while I’m there so we don’t spend most of each day arguing.
If I like it I may do it with my husband one time. He loves walking holidays. We went to Brecon last year and walked the mountains there which was exhausting as this was pre-training.
Oh God, three of my friends did that exact walk last month, only they RAN IT. You are a much more sensible person!
Also you are not silly or petty, it’s still a massive undertaking.
We’re doing about thirty miles of it, in Northumberland. As well as the walks we’re gonna be taking in some local attractions.
I’d like to do the whole thing one year. If I keep my walking up post-hadrians, maybe I can.
I dunno, it seems like a very easy thing to me but then I have Jos who could probably honestly just walk from lands end to john ogroats and only get a blister, and I have a friend cycling the whole of the British Coast so I feel… silly
That is a damn good goal. And then you can spend your walk pretending to be a Roman soldier OR a Pictish neighbor and not wishing you were dead and unable to breathe.
I HOPE WE GET UPDATES!!
You absolutely will, if you want them! My mum wants us to do a blog about it so I’ll link it when it goes up.
I’ll be taking my notebook and hoping I get some inspirations.
yesss!
Girl, I am currently doing a lot of walking to prepare for my trip to Disney World next month since we are the kind of people who are there from open to close. AND my “a lot” is less than your “a lot,” so you do not need to feel silly AT ALL.
Well, I’m just back from a sevenish mile walk, mostly through the heathland near my house.
So.
I did more.
My goals for the next month are to go swimming at least 3 days a week, do some Pilates/yoga 4 days a week, and actually get my ass to the park so I can do some incline push-ups and inverted rows (bent over rows with 5lb weights isn’t really doing it :/).
I am trying so hard to get stronger. I’ve got cardio down, I no longer breathe like I’ve been running for my life in front of a charging herd of wildebeest with 300 pounds of late library books strapped to my back in shoes that are melting to the desert floor, so that’s cool. But I want to be able to lift heavy things for myself and to be able to move furniture on my own and so on. So I’m doing a lot of work in the gym with the weights and forcing myself to do situps even though I hate them and pushups even though I hate them even more.
I do have to say, though, the first feelings of “hey it’s working” when I could do all 12 reps of the shoulder thing after spending weeks trying to do maybe four and going “I can’t do it, my shoulders have atrophied from never lifting anything above my head ever, how am I not a hunched elderly woman” was pretty damn awesome. I feel like Wonder Woman!
p.s. can we talk about stretching sometime? I need to figure out more of how to do that, because flexibility is something I really want that I do not currently have.
Push ups and planks are my nemeses. I hate that I pretty much HAVE to do them 🙁
the only thing I have found, for me, that makes pushups and planks bearable is doing them while watching Star Trek. The time just flies by. At warp 8 even!
The ExRx exercise reference has stretches listed alongside the lifts, organized by muscle, and with written descriptions and animated GIFs. Pretty handy resource: http://exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
Oh, thank you!
I feel like Wonder Woman reminds me that I actually bought myself some flag-blue boy shorts and a tomato-red camisole. I just need to put on the star appliques and I’ll have Wonder Woman scanties to wear either for weight-lifting at home or to wear as underthings, just as a reminder to myself that I AM MIGHTY.
Stretching! Yes! Short answer: no one thinks that stretching cold is a good idea anymore (i.e. before you work out).
I do 5-10 minutes on the rowing machine or the elliptical or whatever to warm up, then I lift/do whatever, then I stretch at the very end. And we’ll talk about it, but there are lots of great stretches.
Are you a Kelly Starrett fan(/devotee)?
I’m excited about the stretching post, as although I am a flexible lady, I recently started getting pain just above my kneecap. My physiotherapist said it was from my quads being too tight and I should stretch them for a full 30 seconds after my run. Which, I was stretching but NOT for 30 seconds. So now I set a timer on my phone and stretch away and it has helped IMMENSELY.
The name is perfect and I am still just so thrilled about this column.
My goal is to wake up and look in the mirror and go OH YES, I AM BULKY NOW.
Also love the dig at “long muscles.” Long feminine muscles! Only ones ladies should have.
You are my soul mate. I pulled up a picture of Nia Shanks and showed my girlfriend, squealing “LADYFRIEND I WANT TO LOOK LIKE THAT!” She thought it was awesome.
Long muscles can kiss my ass. Peasant stock, assholes! SHORT MUSCLES!
YES. I WANT TO BE BUUULLLKY BULKITY BULK.
Fortunately, I am built for bulking up, so this happens and it is AWESOME.
If I woke up one day and looked like She-Hulk I would be an extremely happy woman. 😀 /lifts car over head
Short muscles FTW! Every time I see slender legs with so-called long muscles, I remind myself that my thighs are bigger because they push me up hills all the freakin’ time. Bulky, no. Strong? You betcha.
This is all wonderful.
I want to be able to walk for long distances without whining and complaining. Which sounds dumb, but it would be nice to not be the whiner going “but can’t we just take the car, I mean, it’s a mile and a half!”
Also I gave up artificial sweeteners and the withdrawal was heinous. I had no idea you could actually mourn the loss of Crystal Light in your life, but it turns out you can! Complete with sad dreams where you wake up and think “god I wish I had some raspberry lemonade right now”
“You need to know when to tune it out, and when it’s not applicable to your situation.” YES. Oh my god, yes. When I first started lifting I was so excited about it that I became a fitness information junkie, which led to feeling stressed out and overwhelmed by all of the (often nonsensical) fitness writing on the internet. Focus and goals are sooooo important.
I’m really thrilled about this series, Nicole! (and I am with you on having no bulkability, what’s a girl gotta do to get some man-arms around here, jeez)
I have joined a fitness message board and the people on there call that misinformation “broscience”. Which seems apt.
Hey I like the name choice! Toast related and all.
I wanted “That Must Be Jelly Because Jam Sure Don’t Shake Like That.” That’s when Mallory struck me with her wand. When I came to, I had a chipped tooth!
can someone please ban this TROLL
This is great and you should hang out in the comments more, Nick. (Melis, we’re KEEPING HIM.)
My goals are a) to be able to do 10 proper push-ups on my own without collapsing (I can currently do none), b) to be able to to 5 pull-ups on my own without making a huge effort while not being able to lift one single inch of my body off the ground (I can currently do none) c) to be able to hike a high peak without feeling at several points that I am dead on the way up and the way down and d) to be able to successfully hop on and accomplish even a small rail on skis without banging down hard on my hip and causing a bruise so extraordinary that when I show it to people they go “Arrggh! Stop trying to do rails! Why would you keep trying to do that?”
How are you on the knee push ups? I can do a bunch of them now, even though I’m still crap at the proper ones. I figure I can maybe move up to the harder ones when I’m strong enough.
So I came up with this ridiculous goal last week, which was to be able to do 30 regular push-ups by my 30th birthday (roughly 3 months away from now). But I read that doing the knee push-ups doesn’t really build the muscles necessary for regular/straight leg push-ups? Can someone tell me if this is true?
(Also I have no idea how I am going to accomplish this goal. I can do ten straight leg push-ups with my arms out perpendicular to my body, but like one-half of one with my elbows tucked down by my body. How do I get better at those kind when I can’t really do a full one? Now I probably bend my arms at a 15 degree angle before I panic about going down any farther…
It is sadly true. To build up the strength to do full push-ups, try doing them on an incline instead of on your knees. You can start on a wall! Or a bench or the side of a couch. Gradually decrease the incline until you can do them on the ground.
There’s a program that helps you build push-ups – just google “100 push-ups”. The plan aims to get you to doing 100 push-ups, but you can just stop at 10!
Oh hell yes. I used to be a gym person and count those calories burned and then shamefully walk over to the weights section and then either run away or do some minor arm work. Now, I do a sport that is the perfect mix of strength and cardio but I haven’t been able to do it this summer and am feeling my muscles weaken and my happiness – general and body love – fade (what is UP with that). I don’t like it!
My goal is to stay strong when I can’t do my sport – I’m excited to learn about strength training so I can walk back into a gym and own it at the weights. TEACH ME!
What sport? I… need a sport? I don’t know.
Boxing! Non-competitive. A fantastic and challenging workout. I’m pretty much obsessed. The key is finding the right club that is welcoming of all people – not an easy task in itself.
Oh, man. I want to try boxing so badly!
(Watching womens’ boxing in the Olympics was the jam. SO MUCH FUN.)
Definitely do! I wanted to for several years before starting and wish I’d gone for it sooner.
And yes, women’s Olympic boxing was/ is great – it’s just a shame how few weight classes they get compared to the men!
The Starting Strength work out routine is a good one for beginners, although you may want to have a spotter. Book: http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Strength-3rd-Mark-… or website: http://startingstrength.com/
whoop, thank you!
YES. Oh god, I’m so glad to find another woman who isn’t afraid of food or strength training. It’s funny, people tell me I have “yoga arms.” I haven’t done yoga in 8 years. I have push-up arms, but nobody would ever default to thinking a woman has nice muscles from such a “masculine” exercise.
YES!!! Had someone say “I like your yoga body” to me once. Nope, you like my boxing body, actually.
Do I need to acquire weights? I want to de-smooshify my arms.
Yes, although you might end up with my situation, which is arms that have muscle hidden under fat.
This is also my situation, but I started doing (very very very small amounts of) light weight lifting about a year ago, and I just feel way better about my arms and arm strength. I do five or six exercises with either five or eight-pound weights, in two sets, mixing that with some stomach exercises, and it’s really low-intensity – probably too low-intensity, actually, but even that little bit has made me feel much better about my body. So I am very excited about this! To learn how to be stronger!
Also, THIS:
“When people say something like “don’t waste your workout,” they have a very particular image in mind. It’s a woman whose body they disapprove of, doing a form of physical activity they don’t believe will improve her body.”
I recently read an article that said you it’s pointless to go for long slow runs, because that won’t burn as many calories as interval training. Well, sure, but my long slow run in the morning is one of my favorite parts of my day. So fuck off, article.
ME TOO ME TOO.
But it’s, like… sculpted fat. Fat with obvious divots where the muscles are! It is awesome and I love it and I love how when I lift something heavy, those muscles pop right up and are there.
MUSCLES UNDER FAT LET’S MAKE IT HAPPEN
You muscle under fat ladies are my heroes right now. I started weightlifting to get back into the gym after my anti-depressant made me gain 30 pounds. I came to love it because it helped me mentally deal with that physically weak feeling that often comes with depression. Sort of like, “I feel weak and tired all the time but LOOK AT ME LIFTING THIS SHIT.”
All that was well and good and life-affirming, except I’m still fat AND I have the bulking gene(s) that most of the women in my family also carry. So I have to deal with people’s shock when I can lift stuff or people, which is sort of a weird social situation. It’s nice to hear from other people who appreciate muscles under fat.
You speak truth. But, you know, I don’t get it, because there are dude hockey and football and rugby players galore who are essentially all fatmuscle. Not to mention the stereotype henchperson of a villain in movies. S
Why do guys get to have the fatmuscle option, but ladies not so much. I find it annoying.
Oh God yes. Not to get all gender essentialist or anything, but in general women tend to naturally have more fat on their bodies than equivalently fit men and it bothers me SO MUCH that this is not something that people commonly understand or expect.
I too am looking for ways to de-smooshify. I got little hand weights and I do little exercises with them every other day or so. And I’ll tell you, I don’t know if it’s working (although I think it might be!), but I feel like a total muscular badass when I life with them. Like I could, at any point, FLEX and split the sleeves of my t-shirt while yelling “WELCOME TO THE GUN SHOW YEEEEEEEAAAHHHH”. Not that I would, but I COULD.
“Not dying by the side of the road and having vultures eat my eyeballs” is also one of my goals!
No but seriously my goal is to SWIM. I love swimming. Why am I not swimming all the time? Oh, that’s right, because I am lazy and took a long break and now I cannot do laps like I did before, which makes me feel bad and then I don’t go swimming because I feel bad…the cycle, it is vicious.
This ends today! 3x/week. It’s happening.
Dooooo it! Even if you’re slower than before, I enjoy just being in the water. You’ll get back up eventually!
Yeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssss, I want to be able to jump in the pool and swim around like a happy seal!
That is a very good goal. I was coming right down here to say so!
Protip: don’t piss off the gods by stealing fire and giving it to the humans. You will maybe keep your eyeballs, but you will daily lose your liver.
I want to lose weight but also BE STRONG because I guess I am a lot better at getting strong than at being thin, and I want to be able to rescue my friends from a burning building if I have to. My dad is a police officer who benches 350 lbs but is basically shaped like a rectangle; I think I take after him in some ways. However, I am meeting all of my weight lifting goals and it’s nice to have measurable progress.
It’s hard to build muscle when you’re eating at a deficit, but I’ve been trying to do that and somehow I am putting on muscle and getting stronger but also putting on weight and not getting thinner so TAKE THAT SCIENCE. Ugh.
I do have a dude friend who is also trying to lose weight who keeps telling me that if I want to lose weight I need to stop lifting weights and just do more cardio, which might be true, but I also want to be strong, so.
That dude is dead wrong for like ten jillion reasons, and i am verrrry hesitant to give out fat loss tips, yikes, but it’s a pretty uncontroversial assertion that muscle burns calories faster than… not-muscle, and that a whole shit-ton of cardio can lead to your body resorting to eating muscle, not fat, to keep itself fed.
Could it be that your body just hasn’t caught up to the changes? Like those kids going through puberty who put on weight then grow like a foot in 3 months.
Also, I am doing this diet/eating plan/life style change that has given me some good results and if you are looking for different eating plan info, I’m happy to share that.
I’ve been swimming twice a week and while I love it, I really want to start running again and maybe doing some at-home weight lifting/strength training, although that part is mostly an excuse to watch Army Wives. I also might have found a field hockey club in my area!!! But if it’s only for kids I think I’ll do a 10K or half marathon this fall….in order to run I need motivation (ergo, field hockey or a race).
Any other Toasties still trying to play a sport they peaked in about ten years ago??
Yes, field hockey! brought so much joy to my life in high school and college. Whenever I hear the old “find a workout you love and it won’t feel like a workout” advice I think idly about finding a local field hockey league. You have prompted me to actually go find one.
Yessss at getting strong! I’m doing a beginner lifting program and it is kicking my ass (having serious trouble ascending/descending stairs). The burn feels so good though. The goal is to one day squat/deadlift/bench my bodyweight
My goal is to run. To be able to start running and not worry about stopping for a good long while.
I want to be able to rely on my body to carry me through when I decided to do stupid shit like climb a mountain this afternoon.
Also, I want abs and muscly arms.
Can we have a thing where Nicole answers our fitness questions? My fitness has questions and the internet is full of weight loss garbage.
I can always take a stab at it. I am also working with an actually certified trainer for our videos, so he will be better equipped and I can ask him things to answer for us!
Yay! That is exciting.
YES to fueling before & after! Chocolate soy milk post-run for the win (I pick soy instead of dairy because it seems to have fewer extraneous ingredients than dairy chocolate milk).
I did a long ride this morning & am now drooling at Nicole’s burger description.
Also not sure how to describe this, but I do love that ravenous, body-tired feeling that lasts all day after an especially long workout. I mean, I put stuff in my body that helps it recover, but do you know what I mean?
This is excellent! Yay performance-based goals. Yay figuring out achievements and ignoring advice that will only shame and won’t get you there!
I have so many goals that I don’t really set out to map out how to achieve them, though. Probably because my main goal is to maintain my sanity. I am probably addicted to exercise – I’ve struggled with compulsive exercise (so being able to take a day off when sick or injured or because I was really due for it was a HUGE accomplishment) but I also find that the endorphins rush is really, really necessary to maintaining sanity. I often find myself starting to feel a little sick around 5 PM like my body is craving my gym time or frisbee time or grabbing the free weights at home while watching ESPN time.
I get pretty bulky (despite being 5’2″). I am not super cut but there’s definitely a lot of muscle mass going on. My calves, shoulders, and arms are really disproportionate to the rest of my body. I think that is awesome. Nonetheless, I want to be STRONGER STILL. It drives me nuts when people are stronger then me. Even, like, linebackers. Though I am SERIOUSLY not happy about the fact that I can’t do a pull-up. I refuse to accept “I am a lady” as an excuse. I’m pretty sure the fact that I don’t practice them and thus aren’t working those specific muscles in the right way is the reason. I should maybe buy a bar for my house so I can get on this one because I CRAVE doing a pull-up.
Besides wanting strength, I play a sport so my other major goal is to get better at it. Truth time: I am kind of shitty at ultimate frisbee. There are girls out there who are SO FAST and SO QUICK and they turn around and get the disc and I am like whoooaaa how did you change direction like that. So speed (which I probably need to buck up and do more intervals) but also agility (which I have some ideas but mostly don’t really know how to improve).
I do really love having a sport to guide my goals, though. I’m really prone to being one of those obsessive counting wanting to wish myself into zero body fat oblivion type people and I have to push that little voice away. Having goals that are about scoring and playing defense and being strong helps so much.
ULTIMATE! That sport is so fuckin’ hard, yo. My sister played varsity for three years on our high school’s national-championship-level squad and that game is like soccer except with no referee and extra wind interference. So much running! So much zooming back and forth! And so many injuries from throwing yourself in the dirt!
Damn, that is impressive. I am nowhere near that level (though there’s a lot of REALLY good players in my area). It is definitely really intense (especially when those super fast girls show up) and it took me a long time of playing pickup before I really enjoyed playing instead of feeling like it was a more social alternative to running. I couldn’t hack it at all in soccer as a kid, so it feels kind of like an extra level of achievement to be able to play ultimate now.
Oh man, I can tell I’m going to love this series. I can do cardio all day but my strength training is pretty much zero and I can tell I need it.
One time I talked to the ex-head of marketing of Lucozade UK, and he said no one actually needs sports drinks (discounting protein drinks, which are for a different purpose). You just dump a bit of salt in fruit squash for the same effect. He was so happy they couldn’t fire him for saying that anymore!
It was really hot here last week. I ran outside & water was not cutting it. So I made water + salt + a sugar packet in my office pantry.
I think for most cardio (30 mins-1 hr), you are fine without anything but water. But I think there are benefits to some more specialized sports drinks like Hammer HEED. Maybe just because I’ve used it with more success than gatorade or powerade (which is the worst, it’s just pure sugar).
Also for super endurance, Hammer Endurolytes are magical. I don’t know what’s in there but it works. Cramp-free for a half iron on a blazing hot day when many of my co-competitors were dropping like flies.
Haha hmm I promise I don’t sell Hammer products! I just think they are well-researched and can be beneficial.
Yeah definitely. I did a half marathon last year and by 80 minutes I was begging my friend for these little glucose type tablets that she had. Down the back of her shorts. Beside her sweaty arse. I was that desperate.
Yeah, when I was doing long runs our coaches basically just handed us a couple of salt packets from local fast food restaurants and told us “At mile X, eat this or dump it in your water.” Some people still stuck with the Gatorade, but salt packet worked best for me.
(HI BB!)
Hi! I love how many of us made it here.
Oh I need sports drinks, but I need them to cure my hangovers. 😉
I used to use them to CAUSE hangovers. Just add vodka!
ok, just a little anecdata, because I can’t hold it in. I know that I put on muscle like a TOTAL weirdo, and its not normal, and my mother/grandmother are also stubby little bruisers like me, and this is not what anyone else should expect, but… i really, actually, *did* wake up one morning and say, “holy eff, i am bulky.” I’ve been lifting for about a year and a half, and, when I started, I was trying to cram in a gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight, which is probably part of why I put on so much muscle so fast. Basically, i am a fatter version of Julie Foucher (http://bit.ly/1bm9OMZ) (ie, there is fat on my body, unlike her)
i don’t know why i am sharing this. it is weird and flattering and weird again to have strangers stop you to talk about your muscles. but mostly WEIGHTLIFTING IS THE BEST IT CHANGED MY LIFE EVERYONE GO LIFT WEIGHTS GOD BLESS YOU NICOLE FOR THIS COLUMN THE END.
oh oh, also, when I started lifting, i was really deliberate about protein consumption. Mostly through meat. So much meat. Powders, eh, you probs don’t *need* strictly, but they helped me get to 1 g protein per lb of bodyweight. Some nutritionists scoff at this and say that the body can’t absorb so much protein, some swear by it. It seemed to help me.
I’m studying nutrition and those scoffers can suck it.
You can have triple the actual required amount of protein for your body before shit gets real. Just make sure you’re drinking a shit ton of water to help clear the ammonium out of your liver/kidneys, but you probably already know that!
TL;DR – you’re doing you and it’s working, so yay!
I’m guessing the disconnect here is that Nicole is just saying that it’s literally impossible for you to gain twenty pounds of muscle overnight whereas you probably had your impressive progress creep up on you slowly and gradually to the point that you didn’t notice it until it all at once struck you.
Let’s be besties. Or, less creepily I too am a lady who has bulky muscles. It’s not just from lifting, but a life time of playing sports where it pays to have huge thighs.
Do you get that fun thing when you try on pants and if they fit over your legs they will be gappy at the waist?
I’m going to need this series more than once every other week.
My goal is to move my ass every day and get stronger, especially in my upper body. I am, like, congenitally without shoulder meat. I bike commute year-round in Minneapolis so I feel like I have decent endurance (also the capacity to endure weather-related bullshit). But I have also just quit my boring office job to freelance again, so I will have a) no built-in reason to ride and b) probs no money to join the Y when the weather gets rough.
Im trying to be a climber and whilst learning the techniques are all really fun, I need to physcially be able to lift myself and it is HARD. So that’s my goal.
It’s so nice to have a sane place to talk about exercise. I found that I felt like I was running out of fuel mid exercise and couldnt sleep afterwards. I tried to read up on it trying to find nutrition advice on the internet leads you to dark dark places and I had to run away. (I did hear that having carbs after exercise makes you sleep which really helped! But I still dont know how to fuel up properly before).
It’s interesting because my arms did get bigger and at first I didnt like it and then I didnt like myself for not liking it. I think it was less about the bulk and more that I had a template in my head as to how I am shaped and changing body shapes seemed to rewire that template. But anyway that didnt last long once I started seeing the stuff that I could do with my new strong(er) arms. I want to be a strong!
i am so into this as well! i am training for a half-marathon, so my goal right now is to…run a half-marathon in a few months.
BUT: i’ve been through two cycles of intro-aerials classes (rope/silks/trapeze) and gave up twice because i didn’t have the upper-body strength to progress any further. i bought a doorframe pull-up bar in an attempt to change that, and haven’t touched it since.
help/tips specifically regarding upper body strength/pull-up training would be awesome!
sub-goal: to be less afraid of using machines at the gym
Ahh, I’m doing aerial as well! I literally fell off the silks (from like 6 inches off the mat) at the end of my first class of our Beginning 2 series because my arms couldn’t lift me anymore to shake off my footlocks.
I’ve been trying to beef up my upper body strength to get to the next level of silks, and it’s hard! I don’t have any great advice, but I can definitely commiserate.
What I’ve been trying: I’ve started going to the gym a couple times of week in between classes and using the assisted pull up/dip machine, so I’m only lifting about half my body weight, and do a couple sets of 8 each of those. If you don’t have access to one of those, I also try to do at least 10 yoga-style pushups with my elbows in close to my ribs (on my knees, or 5 on my toes) every day, though that doesn’t always happen. Other things like just circling your arms, with your arms sticking straight out from your shoulders, at varying sizes of circle, for a couple minutes, helps build up shoulder strength and flexibility.
With the door-frame pull-up bar, maybe just try some straight-arm hangs if you’re like me and struggle with pull-ups. You can probably also do shoulder shrugs! We do these in our warm ups – hang with your arms apart, keeping space between your arms and ears like you’re trying to hold a grapefruit on either side of your head, then shrug your shoulders ten times. Most of the action is actually in your shoulder blades.
Hope those help!
I don’t know if you’ll see this, because I am two weeks late to this thread, but I guess you might be subscribed to replies?
Anyway, I too am taking aerial classes! And I completely could not do a pull-up two months ago, but now I can do two in a row! Or three, even, if conditions are favorable! My weak spot is core strength, but it will get there some day…
For pull-up training, if you can’t do any pull-ups yet, get a chair under your pull-up bar and use it to boost yourself up to the top of the pull-up, then lower yourself down with your arms as slowly as possible. You can take part of your weight in your feet, if it helps you feel in control of the motion, especially at first. Going down slowly uses the same muscles as going up! Bent and straight (with engaged shoulders!) arm hangs are probably also good to practice so that when you go back to class you are ready to just hang out there with bent or straight arms as you try to wrap or unwrap stuff.
My goal is to get to a point fitness-wise where a) I have more energy and b) I am in a position health-wise where I can have a healthy pregnancy. The other day I didn’t want to work out and I told myself that I was in training for pregnancy. I know that sounds dumb, but the fear of pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes is so much more motivating to me than the fact that none of my clothes fit the way I want (although that is ALSO a key motivating factor currently).
That doesn’t sound crazy to me at all! pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes are serious health issues! Being unable to fit into your clothes is definitely inconvenient and as good a reason as any to get healthy, but I think fear of developing a serious disease is a damn good reason to hit the gym and the health food aisle!
I’ve been strength training, but it’s so booooring. My goals are to be able to do 20 regular pushups and 5 pullups, to improve my balance, and prevent injury from my other activities (triathlon stuff mostly).
I think what I hate about it is the sets and reps. When I bike or run I just do it and get that flow where the time goes by quickly. And I get that runner’s high. After I weight train, I just feel weak and drained.
I do weight train right now (at least I did yesterday) but I’m filling in the time until I can find a way to get strong that I actually like. And don’t say Crossfit. I’m not spending $200 a month to join a club unless they do the exercise for me.
Oh my god, crossfit is $200/mo? What the fuck even.
Weight training leaves me feeling weak and drained if I didn’t get enough sleep or didn’t eat right before going to the gym, and I’m bored within 15 seconds of beginning any exercise ever unless I’m listening to my ipod, so perhaps those are things to consider. Some people have problems with nausea if they eat immediately before lifting, but I wouldn’t go to the gym at 5 if my last meal was lunch, for example. No joke, I would say the hardest part of lifting weights for me is getting enough sleep and still having enough hours in the day to go to the gym.
I’ve been debating getting a set of Fit Decks – my problem is I can never think of enough exercises to keep strength training interesting, so I end up doing the same thing over and over. There’s one based on Crossfit, “high intensity lots of reps not a lot of rest” whatever whatever that looks promising?
I think working out with other people helps me a lot; I’ve got two lifting buddies, which works out great because by the time they’re done with their sets, the 3 minutes between sets has passed and it’s my turn. If I was just sitting and waiting during that time instead of spotting someone else, I would be suuuuuper bored.
Oh, man, y’all. My repetitive stress injuries are such that my WRISTS BETRAY ME. My goal is for them to heal so I can lift weights and not wake up the next morning and have hands that won’t grip.
So I guess, that means working on back/abs/legs till the end of summer. And cardio. Which is boring and I don’t want to do, but should do because it is good for your heart.
I hear you. With my back injury, exercise means practicing a non-stop scrutiny of my own bodily state: Will this make the pain better or worse in the short term? In the long term? Will this prevent me from pursuing other goals in the short term? In the long term? Will this particular bout of PT make my spasms subside, or will I wake up crying in the night? Or both?
And then there’s the background voice telling me (accurately or otherwise) that others are judging me for how much or how little exercise I perform, to which I have to say: VOICE, THAT IS SOME BULLSHIT.
I’m sorry you’re in pain, and especially that it’s a pain that prevents you from doing the exercise you want to do. Be kind to yourself.
Ugh- I am sorry about your back, too. Man, injury sucks. Hopefully we will both be back at whatever it is we like sooner rather than later.
And yes. The Calculations of Pain are exactly that. 🙁
I would love to be able to a) go on very long hikes b) lift heavy things c) feel like a badass.
I was feeling depressed just today because I lack the courage to go to the (free! in my building!) gym. I hate HATE exercise classes (HATE them) and anything that involves bouncing or disco beats. But weight training intrigues me. But I know nothing about it! And there is so much bad information/dumbassery when you google “exercise for women” out there! So this is For Me and I am excited.
love the name! love the dig at long lovely lady muscles! love that the background of the toast has littles champagne flutes toasting (only just noticed that)! and I’m off to a two weeks martial arts training camp tomorrow with great plans to return as bulky as possible!
I seem to get an automatic thumbs up when posting a comment. not complaining, not requesting this to change! its like the site is thumbs-upping me for simply commenting. I feel appreciated and I like it!
It does that to me too!
ahhh this is so. good. I started doing strength workouts like, six weeks ago, as part of my general ‘be more healthy” plan, and it is hugely gratifying to see HOW FAR I can go in that time! I mean I’m still doing pushups against the wall because I can’t manage an incline or floor without being desperate and wobbly and unstable, but I’ve gone from “ugh, help, I feel sweaty and desperate” to “aw yeah, let’s grind out these push-ups like a total muscular badass”. Which is a GREAT feeling. I should think about goals now! Maybe I should make it a goal to be able to lift a 24-pack of beer with each arm and walk them across a backyard to a pool party.
If any of you ladies are in or near Santa Barbara and looking for a group weight lifting class that’s not crossfit and just for ladies lemme know. I have one that I love super hard.
My goal is sizing down a couple times by 2014. I’m not as concerned about the actual number on the scale, because I’ve been starting strength training and I hit the elliptical a few times a week. So my waistline gets smaller, and my muscles get more toned, but the weight just tends to redistribute itself. Today I fit into a skirt I was struggling to wear just a couple weeks ago, and that’s a much stronger indication to me that I’m doing better than losing a pound or two would be.
I want to make my eye muscles stronger so I can read more books. INTENSE EYE MUSCLE WORKOUT.
LIFT THOSE NOVELS CRUNCH THOSE POEMS HUP HUP HUP
Probably way late to reply but there’s a pretty old book by WH Bates on eye exercises to ‘cure imperfect sight’. I don’t know how good it is but it certainly helped my reading stamina, largely by relaxing my eye muscles, which seems counter intuitive but still works.
Also, I love, love, love this whole The Toast, all the way out in Australia!
Love this series: the name, the toasties, all of it!
I’m almost halfway through my marathon training; my goal is to keep up with my runs and add in some strength & flexibility exercises a couple times a week, mainly to prevent injury. After the marathon, I’ll be ready to lift heavy and get Big.
Sometimes I go to the gym at work and just do the elliptical for half an hour because cardio is good for your heart and my job is boring. So thank you, Nicole, for not judging me, and I’m super excited for this series!
I hesitate to even say this but is it possible that there too many pictures of toast on The Toast?
I hope you guys launch some more series(es) that explore the other meanings of “toast.” I propose “The Clink” which would be stories of people getting drunk and waking up in jail. I’m available to write the first one let me know what your expense budget is like.
Obviously, future toast-related columns could include
– The Jam: musical reviews/events coverage
– Of The Town: profiles of up-and-coming young artists, politicians, and cultural figures
– The Maillard Reaction: pithy highlights of science news
– Pain Perdu: a weekly round-up of underreported and overlooked news and cultural events
– I’m Toast: a lifestyle feature for the over-exhausted, mostly detailing entertaining for the overtaxed
Yes! Please make of all these, Toastmasters thx.
I could write the hell out of I’m Toast, Darlings: Entertaining for the Chronically Lazy.
Listen up, Norwegians: You will have to pry that Bosu out of my cold, dead hands. Back it right the flock up.
Related: I was showing off my SICK TRAPS to my trainer today. (Then I told him he was making me look like a linebacker because la la la gender norms la la la.)(Still though: SICK TRAPS, Y’ALL.)
The bulky thing gives me teh sads because I’ve been training for 10 years and I push decent weights – I do! I do! and I still look like a long distance runner with a few little skerriks of muscle on top. And I soverymuch want to be bulky. And my genes so will no co-operate. I don’t do any cardio, just to spite my genes, which would loooove me to do it. But I shan’t, so there. Tried eating more, just got fat so that was a big fat Fail. And I can’t be friends with Aurora or any other of these millions of women who only have to look at a weight and poof! They’re all Bulky and shit. My goal now is not to obsess about what I’ll clearly never have and not blame those who can. It’s going really well. Meanwhile, wheee! Weightlifting is the best thing in the world and everyone should do it, because it’s awesome.
I literally just finally became a gym member today and I am so scared to go in for my initiation visit. I’m going to do it today so I can’t put it off and it won’t be so scary anymore.
But like, I don’t even know what I would make as my goal. So far it has been to lose weight (which plateau currently, but 30lbs lost since a year ago), and then it was to not feel like death after working out, and then it was to go for runs and not feel like death afterward. Now I don’t know. Thus the gym?
I want to become stronger, but I have never been a sports-y person, and I don’t see that as a logical progression for me personally, so I don’t have the “get stronger for X reason” motivation.
Also, working out and eating “better” has made me a different enough person already and I have vague fears of what I’ll become like with a goal. Everything I’ve successfully changed has been more of a “this is just what I do now” kind of thing. I’m not sure if I work well to goals, and I wonder how important they are in fitness if that’s not who you are to begin with?
Hey lady! First of all, congratulations to you on getting your diet and exercise to such a great place that you were able to lose the weight you wanted to! (Note the order in which I wrote those things 🙂
I think you actually already have a goal! The goal is “I want to become stronger” which is a great one to have. Tell that to the person you meet with today. They’ll help you drill it down into a course of action. You’ll be great.
What underwear do folks like for high intensity work outs? I have mostly figured out the sports bras, but I’m still looking for underwear that don’t ride up or feel gross when I sweat.
Nicole, thank you for addressing the question of individual, idiosyncratic goals! I routinely feel alienated from exercise advice aimed at women, which all-but-uniformly assumes we’re obsessed with slimness and an impossibly narrow range of prettiness.
This column provided a big chunk of my motivation today. An accident a few years ago left me with a chronic back injury, and some days just getting down onto my exercise mat for my PT is a challenge… but once I’m down there, I CRUSH IT, Y’ALL.
Every day, I tell myself, “You can be in pain and get stronger or be in pain and get weaker. Which one do you choose?”
What are some tips for really really really basic beginnings to excercise? Like, right now I can’t make it up one flight of stairs in my building without feeling like I’m going to pass out. I was playing pool recently and had trouble holding the pool cue because it was too heavy.
And so I would really like to try and get my strength/endurance up enough to do like, basic life tasks like carry groceries home without dying and walking up stairs without needing to take breaks but I feel like most exercise stuff assumes you can do stuff other than sit on your ass/take naps and so even beginner stuff starts out on wayyyy too advanced a level. And also I’m nervous because a late high school experience with disordered exercise (and eating, to a lesser extent) makes me nervous about exercising, which is why I stopped completely, which is why I can no longer go up my stairs. But also I really want to be able to go up stairs. Ideally 3 flights (I live on the 3rd floor, so it’s a useful benchmark).
Does anyone have tips for really really reallllyyyyy beginner stuff?
I figure maybe you just need to keep doing what you’re doing, but gradually increase it? Like park your car at the furthest away end of the car park and haul your shopping to that. Walk up one flight and take the lift the rest of the way. Then build from there.
That sounds doable! Baby steps!
Definitely start out just walking farther whenever you can.
Also, you should consider talking to your doctor. Especially with the not being able to hold up a pool cue. Sounds like something might be off.
Yeah, I’ve just started seeing an endocrinologist to see if there is a thyroid issue (I have near constant fatigue and brain fog) and I’m trying to find a GP who wills see me after work. Hopefully that leads to something : )
First of all, GO YOU, GET DOWN WITH YOUR BAD SELF.
Second: It’s so intimidating, isn’t it! I kind of want to raise my hand and go “um, I can’t do a push-up, where do I sit”. This allows you to start at any angle you’re most comfy with. I’ve found a lot of good things by googling “Body weight exercise”- this is all stuff that uses just the weight of your own body as resistance, and it varies from crazy stuff (handstand push-ups?!) to nice beginner-friendly stuff like leg raises and wall push-ups (I talked about it upthread, but you can start by literally just leaning against a wall and using your arms to push yourself off it, like vertical push-ups).
That said, I am absolutely not an expert and would love to hear suggestions from better-informed folks?
Thanks! I feel so motivated now : ) I like the idea of using my own body weight as resistance. Yesterday I was trying this thing where I lie on my back and lift one leg up and down and then switch to the next leg. It was soooo tiring but I think that’s the kind of start I need, because adding any weights would be too much for me. I was talking to my boyfriend about it after reading your comment and he said some places sell like 1 and two pound weights so once I can lift my own body I can add that and bit by bit increase it until I can add a little more.
they dooooo, I got my little 3-pound weights at Dick’s Sporting Goods and they sell 1 and 2 (and 4 and 5 and 8 and 10)-pound hand weights for a pittance, and they are covered in neoprene and in pretty colors.
I was just about to ask the exact same question. Like, literally what if my goal is to be able to walk up stairs without getting winded? And to be moderately in touch with how my body is? Except that I’ve never ever enjoyed any kind of exercise and generally feel super embarrassed whenever I do any kind of exercise in public? And whenever I try to look into how to start exercising, all I find are tips on losing weight/getting the perfect body, which make my feminist self feel nauseous?
For stairs, do you have a big book? Or something big enough you can stand on it with both feet and have to step up to do so but not fall over and die?
Just step on and step off. Put on some Rihanna. Literally listen to Rihanna and step on and off this thing. When you get really good at it, stand on something higher, or hold something heavy-ish in each hand as you step up.
LIKE DIAMONDS
I am also embarrassed by exercising in public, which is why I do all my stuff at home in front of the TV. After a few weeks I am starting to feel less embarrassed. (I totally feel you on the feminism aspect tho, I am fighting that out on a regular basis with myself.)
Well, first of all, I’m thrilled you’re interested! As others have mentioned, walking IS a great place to start. Try going for a walk and then walking faster every three minutes, for about a minute, then slowing back down. Try lifting, like, a can of soda a bunch of times. Try it with your elbow bent, and with your elbow straight. Try lifting it over your head. Stand facing a wall, lightly brace your fingertips against it, then push yourself up onto your toes. Just go up onto your toes/ball of your foot, then back down, until your calves are tired. Stand in the middle of your room and lift your left knee up. Then switch.
To begin with, just make your muscles tired, do it a little longer, and stop. That’s all. And, obviously, talk to your doctor, if you have one or access to one, and make sure you’re not also dealing with medical issues that make you super-tired.
I will note, too, that those medical issues can be not at all serious things. Like iron deficiency anemia! Doesn’t matter if you’re the buffest gal on the block, that will make you utterly EXHAUSTED. But it is both super-common and super-easy to treat (iron pill, ta-da).
Thanks so much for these tips, I will start trying them this weekend!! I hope that eventually I can get to a point where not only can I do basic life stuff but also I can maybe try some of the things in your videos. Also I love the stepping on a book idea you told sednarea51, it sounds like good practice (and that way I can do it at home so that my neighbors don’t see me huffing and puffing up the stairs).
One thing that my trainer ( I had a personal trainer for a while and that was great) said was that pushups are both the easiest and best thing you can do for your uper body strength and if you are a complete newbiew you can start with 5 or however many you can do and just add an extra push up each week.
Other good things are to start getting off the bus a stop early, take the stairs instead of the lift or escalator. And gradual increases are great.
Gradual increases sound good! Is there a way to do that for pushups. Every time I try them I can’t lift myself off the ground? Would just building arm strength work for that? Another commented suggested I start with things like soda cans for weights, maybe once my arms are a little stronger I could move to a pushup.
Start with wall pushups! Stand parralell to a wall with your hands flat against it and push out. Do as many as it takes to get tired. Then, add another each week. Once you’re doing twenty or thirty with no problems you can probably start replacing a couple oif wall pushups with floor pushups at the rate of one a week.
Does anyone have any suggestions of strength training things I can do at home? I think at this point in my life I am probably not going to become a gym person, but I would like some things I can do at home. I am willing to acquire some basic equipment (like weights and … other stuff I might need), but I just don’t really know where to start.
Yes! Great. We’ll be doing some great at-home options, but if you’re open to acquiring stuff, I would recommend a 10lb kettlebell, a mat-like thing if you don’t have a carpet, and….well, you’d be surprised how far that will take you. We’ll be talking a lot about kettlebells and what to do with them.
Yessssssssssss! Woot, I am excited for this! I do own a yoga mat, and I can totally acquire a kettle bell. I am super excited about this!!
AWESOME, I am really interested in trying out kettlebells at home but am also kind of intimidated by them. Instruct us, O Toastmistress
You are gonna be so sick of hearing about kettlebells.
never, give me your kettlebell infos, I crave them
My goal is to do a real push-up by the end of the summer. At the beginning of June I could do 0 lady push-ups and now I can do 7.
My interest in strength training was precipitated by my interest in skiing bumps. Not only do you need to be somewhat athletic to navigate more difficult terrain, but everything jiggles when you come off a large bump. More muscle = smoother landing + less jiggle.
Skiing is why I do literally anything. I would just lie in bed and pour Milk Duds into my face if I didn’t want to ski anymore. And we are talking about the merits of lady push-ups next time, as part of “perfect as enemy of the good”!
My husband bought DDP Yoga because he is a huge wrestling fan and I tried it. It was hard but in a good way. I’m going to do the beginner program and stick to my 80% good eating plan.
My boyfriend almost bought a condo from DDP. There was a life-size cardboard cut-out of DDP in his hallway closet 🙂
That’s amazing. Apparently, DDP will randomly call people who’ve bought the program to check in and see how they are doing. So of course my husband hasn’t tried it yet and now he’s paranoid about answering the phone.
“I don’t need to feel better about my slightly SWOLE BRO attitude towards training by finding a counter-example to eye-roll at.”
YES YES YES. The condescension that’s often heaped on, say, yoga or the elliptical or Zumba—that it’s not a REAL workout—is pretty crazy-making. Pretty interesting coincidence that such things are often lady-dominated!
Yep yep yep. That bothers me so much. I think if you manage to find the thing that makes you feel great while using and moving your body–your Happy Exercise, maybe we could call it–well, that is is such a PRECIOUS GEM of an accomplishment and should be treasured. I did ballet my whole life. I love moving that way. I love dance and yoga and choreography. I can’t help it, I need some art to my movement. To try to become a runner, then, may be an entirely lost cause. AND I THINK THAT’S OKAY. Is that okay??? I think it’s okay.
For a long time my strength goal has been to be able to put my carryon bag in the luggage rack on a plane without wanting to die afterward, but I have a feeling that the problem there is as much the fact that I have to stand on my tiptoes to reach the damn thing as it my arm strength. Or maybe my choice of exercise. at one point I could do 10-15 real pushups pretty consistently but I feel like there are a lot of muscles involved in lifting something over your head with your arms at full extension that pushups just do not address. Maybe I should straight-up put heavy things on a high shelf as a workout.
But once I finished grad school I stopped flying so much and now my main goals are to feel less shitty when I’m stressed after work and to sleep better. Intervals on the elliptical are great for the first goal, progress has been mixed on the second.
You’re basically just military pressing your luggage. The overhead/shoulder/military press involves lifting a barbell or dumbbells to shoulder height, pressing them straight upward until your arms are fully extended, and returning them to shoulder height, and it’s literally all you’d have to do to gain strength for that particular function, although any kind of work dedicated to strengthening your shoulders, arms, and traps will assist you in that motion.
Oh, of course! I’ve done military presses with dumbbells before but never managed to make the connection with the luggage thing in particular. Too focused on push-up numbers! I should get back into free weights. Thanks!
I love talking about fitness, I love learning how to do new things with my body, and I love body positivity AND I LOVE NICOLE. This column is the best and you are the best and I second the earlier comment that this should be way more than every other week!!!!!
I want to share some awesome resources for everybody!!
FITOCRACY!!!!!!!!!: I cannot emphasize enough how much I love this website. It seeks to “gamify” fitness and it is the single best tool to help you separate exercise from calorie burning. This is really important to those of you who, like me, are trying to get in shape without spiraling into old unhealthy ways of thinking. You win points for working out and they are NOT tied (as I originally thought) directly to how many calories you’ve burned. I am completely addicted to Fitocracy and would love to be everybody’s friend. There’s a Hairpin group! We can also start up a Toast group too! Nicole, whatcha think? Oh yeah, EVERYBODY ADD ME!
The other great thing about Fitocracy is that they have beginner “quests” you can go on and here’s an example: (light walking) + (walking up stairs) + (stretching). Another example: (pushup) + (bodyweight squats) + (flat leg raises).
One last Fitocracy note, I swear: I’m currently doing the Arnold 1% Fitness Challenge. The idea is to commit to spending 15 minutes of your day (that’s 1% of a day!) to working out every day. There are a number of workouts to choose from. The emphasis is on working out consistently, not weight lifted or pushups done or whatever.
r/fitness and r/xxfitness: Guys, I think I’ve made it pretty clear how much disdain I have for the wider world of Reddit. However, the r/fitness subreddit is pretty fantastic, in no small part because it has a mod who is very firmly committed to making it a female-friendly space. Be warned that it is dominated by bodybuilding types and a lot of the “do it perfectly or don’t do it at all!” perfectionists so take everything with a grain of salt and don’t get overwhelmed. However, it can be a great resource and place of support. The FAQ is fantastic. There’s a ‘moronic Monday’ questions thread where you can ask anything without worrying that you sound dumb. Arnold Schwarznegger is a casual commenter!!! Like, doesn’t just come in for an official interview, he just pops in on his off hours to give advice and encouragement!!! I don’t spend a lot of time in r/xxfitness but it’s the women’s fitness group.
r/progresspics: I know, I know, scan the skies for the Horsemen, I’m recommending another thing on reddit! Please take note that this is a group dedicated to showing before/after shots mostly – but not exclusively!! – involving weight loss. If you are sensitive to this kind of thing, please don’t feel the need to visit. However, for those who are interested in losing weight, I think this is the most inspiring thing I’ve ever seen. These are real people losing weight who are all happy to share what they did to get there and how long it took them. It helps you set real expectations, both in the sense that you know you won’t magically grow 5 inches and get bigger boobs, but also in the sense that no matter how much weight you might want to lose – somebody has done it, somebody is out there doing it right now, so if that is your particular fitness goal, it is absolutely possible and here is some photographic proof of it.
One last thing, I swear! This is a general resource for anybody trying to adopt ANY new habit. It’s called Lift (not to be confused with the ride-sharing app). You set up what kind of habit you want to track, and then check in when you do it, and if you’re a numbers/chart/graph motivated kind of person, it will give you all kinds of feedback. I’ve been using it to track my new year’s resolutions. Just checking in is somehow motivation enough, who knew? I feel super satisfied when I check off all my goals for the day.
Sorry for writing a novel but I’m obsessed with self-improvement stuff and I get really evangelical when I find things that help me a lot. I hope these resources are helpful to you guys, please ask me questions if you have any. And let’s be fitocracy friends!
I just added you on Fitocracy *and* I’d like to suggest that you consider adding r/weightroom or r/weightlifting to your regular rotation of fitness/strength training reading! <3
I’m so excited about this column! Sane, feminist fitness coverage is exactly what I’ve wanted for a long time, so thanks for making that happen! So goals: I’m about to start a semi-desk job and I want to be doing enough exercise to keep me healthy in spite of the extra sitting, I would love to improve my posture through badass back muscles, I have some weak links in my flexibility that I’d like to ruthlessly eliminate, and on a pure vanity note, it would be fun to see if I can get a six pack, even if I don’t keep it for very long.
A day late, but YES EXCITING.
My goal at the moment is modest – be active more days than I am inactive – but that is partially because I’m recovering from an injury. (Which I think I’ve mentioned like 5 times here already? IT IS BUMMING ME OUT.)
As someone who’s never worked out with anything weight-related except under the strict supervision of a trainer, can I put forth a humble request that the “how to do things” videos/instructions are still clear even if you’re new to all this?
Love this, and can’t wait to read more.
I have recently started working out (for the first time in my adult life!) and I’ve been crazy disappointed in the quality of information and motivation out there for women. It’s all, GET TINY NOW! And I know that’s what a lot of people want, and it’s part of what I want, but it gets tiring super fast when that’s all there is to it. I’m finally getting my rear in gear because I’ve finally found a way to get my chronic migraines, a real work-out deflater, under control. But the medications I’ve used to get them under control are now burying me under excess weight. But a pain-free me can hit the gym to make up for what the medication lacks in finesse AND to make some overall fitness goals. I’m really excited to keep reading this series. Don’t bum out on us and quit writing! I’ve been looking long and hard for something to really give me some real motivation to keep going. I think I finally found it.
Setting goals is vital to your success, I have found that out (the hard way) myself. Having something to work towards will give you that motivation to get there, and a definitive line to reach each time