Body Image as a Female Strength Athlete

Body image and all the ingrained societal sexism that drives it to be the THING that it is, is really complicated. To set the tone, I'd like to refer to the following article from The Good Man Project:

CrossFit's Problem with Women, and Ours

It starts to delve into the intricacies of gender dynamics that I don't have the words or thought coherency to even begin discussing. For instance, when CFHQ posted the Talayna picture and people pushed back, they then posted the one of shirtless men climbing the rope, trying to say "see, equal opportunity!" Only it's not. 

Their camera angle and his leg position are at least each about 45 degree off from it being about the same thing. Then there is the whole issue that women are in booty shorts of their own volition, but is it because they truly want to be or are they taught they want to be to further their desirability/ popularity as female athletes. 

What does it mean to be a female athlete? Particularly one who wants to market her abilities for sponsorships and speaking engagements and the like? It's enough to make my head explode. 

But it was the Sherry Stiles article that really prompted me to give my own 2 cent rant.

Sherri Stiles on Perceptions of Fit Women

She tears apart on a comment by a guys that states "women don't look good all muscled up." This commenter makes the assumption that (1) he is the purveyor of all that is aesthetically right and (2) women do what they do for the sexual attention of men, end of story.

From ironemotion.spreadshirt.com and you can find them on Instagram at "Iron and Emotion"

Can you say male privilege loud enough to match the audacity here? I doubt it.

What's discouraging is that this mentality is insidious. It's so assumed that it doesn't even have to be spoken most of the time. And when it is said, you have both men and women nodding along like, "oh yeah, of course."

What kills me is the visceral reaction of many men when presented with the image of a strong women. I'm not here to say that all men should find muscles and a 400 lb deadlift hot, but this reaction isn't the gut level, visceral push back that one gets when presented with a women who is devoted to marathoning, cycling, yoga, or dance. It's only when that devotion takes on characteristics of what society considers "masculine," like strength, competition, and aggression.

After reading a particularly heart wrenching article on Jezebel made me think more about the issue. One of the comments I left was:

"As a black belt, I started seeing more and more how women behave different as a protective mechanism, just to get through their days. I started seeing how people treated me different because I was a competitive martial artist. How their attitude changed. As though my femininity was based on my susceptibility to victimization." 

And herein lies the issue as I see it: those that have the deepest, most severe negative reaction to female strength athletes I tend to find are the same men that rely on external cues to assess their own masculinity. They are the guys that haven't yet found comfort and an innate sense of self, of who they are as a male human, and need comparisons to others in the outside world. And to be presented with an image that puts their external cue system it jeopardy is problematic. Their reaction turns aggressive, a "masculine" reaction in response to a perceived threat to their masculinity.

What is masculinity? Why do we still need to divide ourselves and our habits between masculine and feminine?

Here is an interesting documentary that is in the making:

Anyway.

What does this have to do with body image? Dare I say almost everything?

Starting at ground zero, with the expectation of human dichotomy between men and women and their often unrealized need to be masculine and feminine by comparisons to each other. And then you have people like me, and there are lots of us, who reject that notion that I care to be feminine in a traditional way that means I'm smaller and weaker than a man. (I'm the Newman, and I do what I want.)

The bafflement that ensues.

The aggravation that arrises when even in weight class sports I'm classified as almost too big because I'm over 165 lbs. The wonder by people that "why don't you just cut weight?" Because I don't fucking want to.

Having been told years ago that my choice of pursuits might be off putting to men.

How do we fight it? First, recognize it. Realize that you don't have to work in that dynamic. Just because it was set up before you got here doesn't mean you have to play by its rules. And this goes for anyone who wants to buck trends.

Happiness doesn't come wrapped with a pink or blue bow.

My Current Training: Staying Sane with Multiple Focuses

I was going to write an update on the weightlifting meet, but got bored editing video. So here is this blog entry instead:

-----

Or is it focii? Or is that only in my now-defunct genetics training?

As mentioned, I train for weightlifting, powerlifting, strongman, with aerial circus stuff thrown in for good measure. I've played with programming for myself mostly because I don't know any coaches that program for such multiple end goals.

Watch someone I know come out of the woodwork and say, "hey, jerk face, I do that!" Whatever, fool.

So far, since I began training again post shoulder surgery (almost a full year ago now!) I've been able to make progress in all fronts. I posted a two week rotation that I was doing last year, and have since changed it up again with the addition of strongman and the current focus on pure strength.

The challenge is to not over do it, I'm older and can only recover from so much in a week, and still hit the important pieces. As things start to taper and specific weaknesses show their limiting power, it will all have to change again:

Anywhere I have (A), (B), and (C) means that each week it's a little different, with either one or the other lettered options being done.
HS = heavy single
OH = Over head
Rest means I rest. Like, take as many naps as I can fit into the day between clients and classes. Seriously. Naps are good for growth hormone.

Dare I Discuss It? Knees that go places...

The hub-bub hasn't ended. People are still talking, blogging, facebook-ing, and meme-ing about what should be done with the knees during squats.

I hesitated to even write this because someone some where won't like it. Then I thought, but I'm basically a nobody. Therefore, let the rant begin!

I pretty much only hear this discussion come from my foot in the weightlifting world. And let me just say this. As a whole, weightlifters are pretty whiny. Really. We are. Whiny and self righteous. We're like a bunch of orthodox Christian something-or-anothers, and our way is right and we're going to shout you down because science, credentials, and whatnot.

In fact, I'm whining here because I'm a weightlifter. It comes with the territory, like menses and uteruses.

Guess what cue I heard last Sunday during my strongman training session? Grab the handles and push your knees out really hard before you pick it up. Oh, interesting.

Guess what cue I heard a lot of when I was focusing on powerlifting training? Push your knees out, spread the floor and get your hips through. That's funny.

On a recent episode of "Offline", a CrossFit HQ discussion panel series, the issue of "knees out" was the main topic. It was basically Kelly Starrett arguing his point against Jacob Tsypkin and Quinn Henoch. You can find the episode HERE.

I don't feel like reiterating everything about the debate here. Other than to say you might want to watch if only to look at Ariel Stephen's quads. They are a thing of beauty. (Creepy enough?)

Also on the panel was Lon Kilgore. He seemed to basically throw in his two censt with Kelly and then sit back and watch the debate unfold. That's because he's a powerlifter, not a weightlifter. See above note about weightlifters.

Moving on.

In my experience, I've had to tell every single one of my new athletes coming into CrossFit, powerlifting, or weightlifting to either (1) push their knees out, (2) spread the floor with their feet, (3) screw their feet and hips in. All of these cues elicit the same effect: stabilize tracking of the knee, raise the arch of the foot, and greater activation of the glute meds.

In my experience, I've told maybe 5 athletes to not be a fucking ballerina and push their knees back in. These were athletes that took the "knees out" cue too far and had increased their range of motion enough they could be a high class stripper. It's really not what we're looking for either, but generally if you're going to see this it's going to be a more intermediate athlete who has the motor control and range of motion to do such.

I still want these athlete to screw their feet in and/or spread the floor. Don't get slack and let your knees gimbal everywhere. But "knees out" may no longer be the right cue for them.

This is where self directed athletes and less experienced coaches can run into problems. The "Becoming a Supple Leopard" book is meant to address the needs of the majority, and the majority can use the knee out cue to get the right squatting motion down.

I don't doubt that PT's like Quinn have seen people hurt themselves by overdoing the knee out movement. I've seen athletes that have pushed it so far as to atrophy their VMO and end up with knee pain. Atrophied muscles are never a good thing. Time for sissy squats and hack squats to build that back up. But again, this is rare. Between San Francisco CrossFit and United Barbell, I'm working with hundreds of people a week, and I've seen this only a handful of times (<10).

I just really want more people to squat heavy.

Where do I tell people to track their knees when they squat? I generally ask they have their knees push over their pinky toe. Most beginners can't do that, but trying to will keep the pressure on the glute meds. And those that can won't try to turn their squat into a plié.

Done.

LET THE RAGE BEGIN!!!

Review: Death by Food Pyramid by Denise Minger

What I really want to say right out is that everyone should read this book.

There are three main parts of this book:
1) How the current nutritional guidelines came to be, with all the crazy politics that push science around
2) How to interpret science and how the science battle played out to against culture to create winners and losers
3) Using the past, a different kind of logic, to deduce what we know to be good, what we know to be bad, and what can be attributed to individual variance.

I find the politicking around nutritional guidelines fascinating. You see the interplay between people who REALLY want to do right by the country, who value the scientific process, get steamrolled by lobbyists and politicians with their greatest interest in re-election. There is a level of intrigue that makes the story, for what might seem like such a dull subject, pretty riveting.

Then comes the second part, which really is the meat of the book. It starts with a primer about the most common terminology you find in the scientific literature with highlights on where the media and people with agendas tend to misinterpret them.

It then follows the research of a handful of nutrition scientists. Minger does a good job taking a measured approach the the characters that history has labeled "good" and "bad". After all, they all really wanted to fix the growing problem of heart disease, and just didn't have a wide enough scope to see what they needed to.

The last part is where this book really cemented itself in my heart. Again, following her trend of being, gasp, reasonable, Minger takes a look at three diets that are commonly touted as The Cure, and have a loyal following: Paleo/ Primal, Mediterranean, and Plant Based (covering vegetarian and vegan). Rather than take sides, she analyzes what each of these simultaneously includes, then in a flip of logic, discusses the similarities in what they all reject.

Here Minger also touches upon know genetic variations that can change how one person responds great to, say, a high fat diet and another responds great to a high starch diet. This helps to explain why each popular diet has thrivers and failures.

All three main diets also have a "look at our ancestry" element to their arguments, so Minger takes us back to Weston Price and his study of native cultures, looking at how they ate, how little disease they experienced, and more importantly, how the switch to modern living changed that disease profile.

All in all, this should be a book that anyone with even a passing interest in health, and anyone with a deep interest in health, should read.

Surviving the Open (for those of us who care, but don't care)

As much as I don't CrossFit myself, as much as I chortle when someone asks me for my Fran time, as much as I proudly say, "I've been a strength athlete for the past 6 years," I actually do look forward to the CrossFit Open.

The excitement is palpable. It's a time when members of each box rally each other on to "make it count" and push a little further. For many, it's their first taste of competition and being on a team. The fraternity and fellowship is so much fun to watch form and take off. Last year I was even a little disappointed that I couldn't do the workouts, still being in a sling and all.

This year I'll be doing the open.

Well... I'll be "doing the open."

Because I AM a strength athlete. I will be competing at USA Weightlifting Nationals this year. I will certainly be doing a powerlifting meet at the end of the year, and I hope to find a not-too-far-away strongman competition to participate in.

So doing the open for me is something else entirely. It's a chance to stand alongside the athletes I coach day to day and get in the trenches with them. It's my turn to participate in a community activity as something other than Coach.

How on earth will I survive? I have a sort of game plan. Namely, it means I'll be breaking each workout up into intervals. So for example:

Seven minutes of burpees will become 45 sec on and 15 sec off of burpees for 7 rounds.

A 12 minute AMRAP will becomes 3 min on, 1 minute off for three rounds.

And so on.

When I know what the time frame I'm looking at is, I'll be programming my phone for some sort of interval breakdown to set at the same time.

Luckily, these will be done on Friday, and I don't have to go heavy again until Sunday. Cheers to survival!

Review: NutriForce Whey Protein

I like to try out new things. I like to know if the hype is deserving.

I thought that drinking whey protein was hype when it was first suggested to me. So I tried it and I was all "Hey! Muscles! This is awesome!"

Recently, I had a sample of the NutriForce whey protein with Belgian chocolate curls in it. It was fancy, tasty, and delicious. Kelly is sponsored by NutriForce, and actively uses the stuff so I though I'd give it a try and jumped for a full 5lb tub of it.

With in the first few days, I had to begin mixing it with my normal Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey. The NutriForce protein is so sweet, PLUS the chocolate curls, I had to use the Optimum Nutrition protein to soften the impact on my taste buds.

After a couple of weeks I found myself so annoyed with the chocolate curls. What was a neat thing at first became an impedance to quickly downing a protein shake. I'd have to strain it through my tongue and teeth, then chew the curls.

Finally, a couple weeks more down the road (remember, a 5lb tub is lasting me a long time because I'm mixing it 50:50 with my Optimum Nutrition) I'm switching my diet up and trying to get a higher % of calories from protein. Now I'm dreading the second protein shake and counting down the scoops until I'm done.

Does it work? Well, it's protein. So yeah. But better than your standard? Not that I can tell.

Thing is, if you don't take it, or don't finish it because it's not tasty enough, it's not going to do you any good. So pay no attention to the images of Annie Thorrisdottir on their banners, marketing won't make you stronger.

(Or do pay attention to the image of Annie T. She's quite the specimen.)

Trying New Things: Strongman!

I made the promise to myself that I would start training in Strongman after the American Open. It's been a little over a month of Sundays, about six or seven of them now, and I feel like I'm well on my way to getting the competition bug for this new endeavor of mine.

Why must I always fall for the obscure sports?

So it might be a while before I actually get to compete, or I may take my chances at traveling to one. Regardless, I'm having a blast. Some of the things I'm learning to do:

Tire Flipping

The only tire they have is a 750 lbs one. I've flipped a tire before, but I was never instructed how. Being given the small cues, like how to decide where to put your feet and how to drive your shoulders into the tire make the 750 lbs tire more manageable than the 600 lbs one I first touched.

What's nice is that every person has a spotter on each side, just in case the person flipping gets stuck, slips, or loses grip, the tire won't come crashing down on the working athlete.

Front Carries/ Connan's Wheel

These are terrible. The front carry training device we use is a yoke with the normal bar switched out for a thick pipe. You have to carry it in your arms in front of your chest and you aren't allowed to front rack it. This one gives me trouble because I've always been trained to take in a large breath and hold it during a lift, and that would be a recipe for disaster here. So you have to take shallow, quick breaths during the carry as to not pass out.


Farmer's Walks

CrossFit programming isn't a stranger to these, but we certainly don't touch the weights I'm expected to carry now. Each handle is ~25 lbs and we warm up with 45 lbs plates on each for a total of 115 lbs per hand. As the warm up. It only goes up from there.

This is certainly one of those moves where you just want to go to your happy place as you walk along, because your hands are not going to be happy if you grab them right. I find myself pushing my skin back into place after I run the course with these.


Log and Axel Clean and Press

Both of these moves are definitely more brute force than even your typical Olympic clean and jerk, as they both have an intermediate position between the floor and your shoulders.

With the axel, the continental clean, you bring it up to your belly to switch grips before flipping it to the rack. For the log, you dead lift it to your thighs, adjust the grip and basically roll the thing up the body. For both, all that talk about "prioritize the spine" and "neutral spine" gets thrown out the window.

Hand Over Hand

Just like it sounds, you drag a sled (maybe a vehicle) towards you by an attached rope. My tiny, lady hands had a hard time holding the rope, and would instead clamp the rope with my upper arm against my ribs and pull back with my whole body. There was something around 300 lbs of sled and plate weight I was trying to drag.

And in summary, this is what every new endeavor does to me in some way, shape or form: