Nevertheless, as an athlete, trainer, coach, or pregnant woman, it’s also important to understand what exactly happens during pregnancy. Obviously there’s a lot more going on than an expanding waistline. Although pregnant women can usually still follow along with typical exercise programming, whether that’s weight training, running, or CrossFit, it’s still important to remember that this is a special time in a woman’s life, and training should reflect that.

I’m not saying that to scare any pregnant women away from their kettlebells and pull up bars. On the contrary, I have found that being active during pregnancy can be even more satisfying and effective, as have many of my clients. There’s something special about training during pregnancy and feeling that bond before your baby is even born. Sensing your baby wake up as you stretch after a morning run or fall asleep while you do some kettlebell swings is a singular feeling. As a trainer or coach, helping a pregnant woman train through an entire pregnancy and then watching her finish off those months of training with the marathon that is labor and delivery is humbling and inspiring.

If you are pregnant or training a pregnant client, you will probably find that learning about the physiological effects of pregnancy only confirms what you already know or observe in yourself or your client. Just as it’s encouraging to know the changes the baby is going through at every stage, it’s also exciting to know what’s happening in your body at various stages of pregnancy. It can help you understand why you feel the way you do, and how your body is actually working to support your baby’s growth, even if some of the results are less than pleasant. So what are some of these changes? Let’s start with the cardiovascular effects of pregnancy and discuss heart rate monitoring during the prenatal period.

Heart Rate and Pregnancy

Women talk a lot about the common first signs of pregnancy, morning sickness being the most infamous one. For me, one of the first tell-tale signs, even before nausea or fatigue, is unexplained breathlessness with relatively low-intensity activity. I feel winded halfway through an easy run, or break out in a sweat after an embarrassingly low number of kettlebell swings. That’s because during pregnancy, a pregnant woman’s blood volume increases by as much as 40 percent. To deal with that increase, the heart volume must also increase by 15 to 20 percent, but that takes some time. As pregnancy goes on, you or your client will probably be able to handle higher intensity exercise much more easily, since the body has adjusted to these changes.

If you’re used to using a heart rate monitor, you’ve probably heard that it’s not the best indicator during pregnancy. That’s because your resting heart rate changes pretty dramatically during pregnancy, due to the increase blood volume. At this point, experts agree that Rate of Perceived Exertion is a better indicator of how hard mom is working.

What Does This Mean for the Exercising Woman?

Obviously, these cardiovascular changes are going to affect exercise. What’s really fascinating is that exercise helps the pregnant body accomplish these changes and deal with them better. In his book Exercising Through Your Pregnancy, Dr. James Clapp notes five cardiovascular changes that occur both during exercise and during pregnancy:

1. Increased overall blood volume

2. Icreased skin blood flow response

3. Increased heart chamber size

4. Increased blood volume pumped at each heart beat

5. Increased oxygen delivery to tissues

Clapp’s conclusion, not surprisingly, is that “…women who exercise regularly during pregnancy have more circulatory reserve, which improves their ability to deal with both anticipated (exercise, work) and unanticipated circulatory stress (hemorrhage, trauma, anesthesia, and so forth).” In short, a, strong, fit, and active pregnant woman is a blood-pumping machine. Exercise enhances the mother’s ability to deal with the increases in blood volume, skin blood flow, heart chamber size, and oxygen delivery because it also increases these factors. This is what Clapp describes as an “additive effect” of exercise during pregnancy.

These effects hold true for women who exercised before their pregnancy, as well as those who are taking their pregnancy as an opportunity to become more active. Overweight clients, for example, should be encouraged to exercise during their pregnancy at a proper pace and intensity. A 2010 study found that a regular walking program decreased resting heart rate and helped maintain heart rate variability in overweight pregnant women. “The results suggest that an exercise program could attenuate the increase in blood pressure and the loss of parasympathetic tone associated with pregnancy, especially in overweight women.”

What Does This Mean for the Exercising Baby?

Mom isn’t the only one we have to worry about here – baby is exercising too. What effect, if any, does this have on the developing baby? Will exercise stunt baby’s growth by depriving her of oxygen? A 2003 review of the medical literature concludes: “Controlled prospective studies have demonstrated that moderate prenatal exercise during the second and third trimesters is useful to improve aerobic fitness and maternal-fetal physiological reserve without affecting fetal growth.”

As a matter of fact, an active mom’s heart rate might actually line baby up for lower heart rate and increased heart rate variability. A 2009 study on the effects of aerobic exercise during pregnancy found that “At 36 weeks gestation, during the active fetal state, fetal heart rate was significantly lower in the exercise group (p=<0.0006). Post-hoc comparisons showed significantly increased heart rate variability in the exercise group during the active fetal state at 36 weeks gestation for both time and frequency domain measures.”

The implications of this phenomenon are particularly important during labor and delivery. A fit baby will be more resilient during the stresses of labor. As Clapp notes, “The first thing we looked at during labor was the babies’ heart rate responses to the contractions of labor. We found evidence that the babies of the women who continued to exercise tolerated the stress of the contractions much better than either the controls or the women who stopped exercise well before term.”

The studies on the cardiovascular effects of pregnancy continue, but so far the research is promising. In short, it seems that a tough mama makes a tough baby. So next time your client seems embarrassed when she’s huffing and puffing after two minutes of brisk walking, remind her that it’s a good sign. She’s doing more work than she probably realizes.

Keep an eye out for future articles detailing the amazing changes that happen during pregnancy. If you’re looking for an exercise program to do during pregnancy, check out our Complete Pregnancy workouts, which are specially designed for pregnant women at all fitness levels.

The post Training For Two: The Cardiovascular Effects of Pregnancy appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Writing an article aimed at women is new territory for me. I never saw a need to write about training in a different format for females. I write training articles for humans. And last time I looked, women are humans too. Any article I’ve ever written applies to men and women equally. 

Train Like an Individual Human

When it comes to physical training, the biggest mistake trainers make is training women differently than men. And the biggest trap women fall into is thinking they have to train differently than men. If an untrained group of men and an untrained group of women do the same training routine, what happens?

Both groups get stronger. 

The things that build strength and hypertrophy or speed and explosiveness in a man do the same for a woman. A woman on a powerlifting program consisting of the barbell squat, deadlift, and bench press will get stronger in those movements. If a woman trains the Olympic lifts the same thing happens; she gets stronger and more explosive.

The only difference is in the goal of the individual. Where do you want to be a month from now, six months from now, two years from now, or when you hit 40, 50, 60 and beyond? Goals change as a person ages, but basic objectives such as remaining injury free, keeping decent levels of mobility, and maintaining basic strength levels should always be a concern no matter what your age.

If a man or woman plays a particular sport, the sport will dictate what exercises, movements, and skills practice they need to get better. The method doesn’t change based on gender. Rather than looking for a magical routine specifically designed for women, what matters more is following a program consistently, putting forth effort, dialing in your nutrition, and getting enough sleep.

If you don’t apply these elements to your training, you could follow the best routine designed by some guru women’s trainer and you won’t make a step toward achieving your goals. But apply those four points while following a “men’s strength and conditioning routine” and you will make loads of progress.

How well you execute a program matters a lot more than if it has “women” in the title. [Photo courtesy Cara Kobernik]

No Program Applies to All Women

Any program must be scaled to fit exactly where you, as an individual, are right now, on this day. Squats strengthen legs and butts for a man or woman, yet as an individual, perhaps you find it more advantageous to train front squats or goblet squats rather than back squats. It isn’t really a gender thing, it’s a genetics thing.

The size of your frame, length of your legs, or width of your hips all affect how well and deep you squat. You can’t change how you are put together and these inherent physical features determine how well you respond to exercises and movements, particularly at more extreme ranges of motion. Some people are built to squat massive weights, man or woman, and others are built to press weights overhead, or do tons of pull ups easily compared to others.

Ignorant trainers may feel all women should be able to squat deep with a very wide squat stance, because as they view it, they are built to give birth. But that viewpoint doesn’t take into account an individual woman’s bone structure. No matter how hard she tries, the way she’s built may not allow her to deadlift or squat with a wide stance.

In both men and women, muscles are attached to bones via tendons. The muscles contract and tendons pull the bones and voilà! Things move. However, things like pregnancy and monthly cycles can affect training, and women need to understand how their bodies are affected by hormonal levels. This element is as specific to the individual as hip structure.

Your Goals Aren’t That Different

When it comes down to it, what do most women want out of their training? To look and feel healthier, to look good naked, to be stronger and more “toned,” or be more athletic. Same thing most men want, come to think of it. Funny thing is, whether man or woman, if you train hard to be more athletic you get all those other things as part of the package.

There are general things that prove true for most men or most women. Most men want bigger muscles, bigger arms and chest. That’s hypertrophy. Most women want a well-shaped, toned butt and well-toned arms. That’s also hypertrophy. They both want flat stomachs. That comes from eating well. Many women are duped into thinking they need “specialized” programs different from a man to get the same results.

Let’s look at losing body fat for example. Healthy eating comes down to what works best for an individual. Some women respond better to higher levels of healthy carbs and lower levels of fat and protein. Other women are the opposite. Some women do great on a vegan diet and others on a paleo diet.

Guess what? The same is true for men. If a man or a woman responds better to a vegan diet, there is no magical formula the woman should follow different than a man. There is no vegan diet for women or vegan diet for men. There is simply food. Find what types of food and what combination of macro ingredients (fat, protein, carbs) work best for you.

The same holds true for aerobic training. If you follow the Maffetone formula, it doesn’t matter whether you are male or female. Follow the formula and it works.

Women’s Training is a Sales Tactic

I will not sell you a bunch of bull that lunges are the best butt builder for women or that Tae Bo or some spinning class is the ticket. You want a great butt? Track down “The Glute Guy,” Bret Contreras, learn how to perform hip-thrusts, and follow his programs. You want to sprint like a world-class athlete? Look up Barry Ross and his sprint training programs. You want to do strongman-type training? Follow what strongmen and strongwomen competitors do in their training.

The best advice I can give any woman is don’t waste time on “women’s training” programs. Those people have something to sell. If you follow what the fastest, strongest, and best conditioned men and women of the world do, you will get stronger and faster. You will get the body you want and reach the goals you have set for yourself.

A kettlebell swing is a swing whether done by a man or woman. The technique is the same. It builds the same muscles and strength in both genders. How a movement or program affects the human body is not determined by gender. 

The only thing that changes is what works best for you as an individual. You may be in a different age bracket, have injuries others do not deal with, have health issues others don’t have and have different goals. The only thing that may make the performance of a movement somewhat different is how your body is put together. However, the technique you use will still be biomechanically correct even though there is room for play in all skills.

Don’t Be Afraid to Go Heavy

Look for a program that fits your goals. Try it out and then tweak it to fit your individual issues and preferences and weaknesses. Dial in your technique, sleep well, and eat healthy. Don’t be afraid to bump the weights up on that barbell or to grab a heavier kettlebell.

Moving more weight with proper technique and the right amount of effort will get you where you want to be faster, safer, and better than any program designed by somebody selling you on the idea that as a woman you need to train differently. Be smarter than that. If you want to make the best gains of your life, find a well-educated trainer who will lead you, push you, teach you, and treat you with respect as an individual.

Continue by reading The Truth About Women’s Training, Part 2.

Ladies: Want to “tone up?” That’s just adding muscle mass, and here’s how:

10 Commandments of Muscle Mass for Women

The post The Truth About Women’s Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Sophia is, most importantly, all kinds of smart. She is astute about fitness as a lifestyle and as a business. She is also very insightful about what people want from fitness. Oh, and she’s a mother of two.

The more you talk to accomplished athletes, the more you realize how directly involved they are in developing their own training. They take advice, but they are in tune with what their bodies need. In this interview, Sophia talks as an accomplished athlete, a mother, and a woman. Her journey through fitness is filled with signposts that anyone can follow to reach their own goals. The teacher is the student. She scales her own personal experiences to relate to fitness ambitions that may not lead to competition gold.

It’s a refreshingly common sense approach coming from someone who has lived it. A premature birth, ashtma, injury, and trauma all figure in the story. How the athlete adapts to these circumstances is a telling indication of how all of us can do the same. We may not end up winning any medals, but we can certainly win our own battles.

The post A Woman’s Journey Through Fitness appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Make sure to read part one The Truth About Women’s Training first. One of the things I see in training nowadays is more women getting out there. And by out there I mean outdoors. I think it’s great when women are willing to get dirty while training. Dust, dirt, mud, chalk, sweat, rain, snow…bring it on!

Being adventurous and trying new things is an excellent way for women to branch out, leave the gym environment, and get their hands dirty. To me, it’s cool to see a woman chalking up. It tells me she’s serious about her training. I love the fact that more and more women are using things like sledge hammers and tires, sandbags, bumper plates, and heavier kettlebells.

Today I’d like to discuss some movements that I consider essential for any woman (or man, for that matter) to learn and master.

Whatever it used to mean to train “like a girl” is changing. And that’s a good thing. [Photo credit: Rikard Elofsson on Flickr | CC BY 2.0]

The Kettlebell and the Construction Crew

I’ll tell you a story about my wife, Ginger. One of her co-workers had heard about kettlebells and wanted to check them out, so when I went to pick up Ginger one afternoon, I brought a 24kg kettlebell with me to show him. I demonstrated a few snatches, the bent press, and a couple of Jeff Martone’s moves. It just so happened that a construction crew was there expanding part of the building. As I’m showing Ginger’s co-worker the kettlebell, the construction workers walked over and started eyeing me.

When I set the kettlebell down, a few men went to pick it up and set it right back down commenting that it was “heavier than it looks.” Ginger walked over, grabbed the kettlebell, and knocked out ten perfect kettlebell swings. Then she set it down, smiled, and went back to work. I was like, “I’m with her!” and everyone laughed.

It was fun to see a rowdy group of construction workers get “schooled” by my wife, and she clearly enjoyed it, too. So ladies, don’t be afraid to up the ante and work on getting stronger.

Push and Pull for Upper Body Strength

First up is the good old pull up. If you can’t do them, your new goal should be to be able to do three strict pull ups. And no, kipping pull ups do not count. I hate that CrossFit bull crap. Be a woman and do real pull ups. Get strong instead of learning to cheat. And for the record, I don’t know this girl, but these are real pull ups. Once you get good at pull ups, you can explore other fun options like rope climbs.

Next on the list are push ups. Women can do these and do them better than a lot of guys. Don’t imitate the goofball men you see who only go down part way and pop off 20 reps in 3.3 seconds like it’s a race. Work the pushup properly and it will work for you. Remember, your goal is to get strong. Once you get stronger with push ups, you can build up more enduring strength with them and then explore difficult variations of explosive pushups. Here is a primer on some of those variations.

Lunges and Single-Leg Deadlifts for Balance and Power

The tactical lunge, or what some call a reverse lunge, is a great way to build lower-body strength. I like performing all the reps with one leg first before working the second leg. Focus on being smooth, controlling the movement, and building strength through proper technique. Don’t go fast and wobble all over. Reach your leg back smoothly, plant the back foot, dig in with the entire front foot, and power up.

Once you can do 30 reps per leg, elevate your front foot on a 4-6 inch platform and build the reps back up. As you get stronger, the elevation will allow you to be able to drop the back leg deeper into the lunge and work the front leg more. This will work your glutes like nobody’s business.

The important thing to remember is don’t try to go too fast and get sloppy. Learn to control the movement and maintain proper alignment of the feet, knees, and legs. If you control the movement and the speed you will get much stronger. Once you can perform these with control and strength, then you can graduate to doing lunges with a kettlebell and alternating legs.

Don’t wear bulky gym shoes. I suggest you do these barefoot or with minimalistic shoes like Five Fingers. As a matter of fact, do all of your leg work barefoot or with minimal shoes. Build proprioception in your feet and you will walk, run and hike with more precision and less chance of twisting an ankle. Don’t cloud the message your feet are sending you with bulky cushioned shoes.

My next suggestion is to learn how to do proper one-leg deadlifts. I know a lot of people swear by the barbell deadlift, but if you do not have access to a barbell, single leg deadlifts work great.

I actually prefer them compared to the regular deadlift. Single leg deadlifts teach balance and rooting of the foot, build strong ankles and knees, and can help running mechanics because of their unique strengthening and stability carry-over. For many people, especially those with prior back issues, the single leg variety can work wonders. This video takes you through some great progressions.

Add in some hip thrusts and goblet squats, and you will build a pair of strong, functional, and great-looking legs from the glutes on down. Once you master those, throw in some sled work and hill sprints and there won’t be much you can’t do when it comes to sports.

Explore the World of Athletic Movement

Women’s fitness should be about more than aerobics classes and tiny plastic dumbbells. Try some Turkish get ups and windmills with kettlebells to build total-body strength and stability. I would also include things like rope climbs, rope skipping, sledgehammer hits on a tire, kettlebell swings, and hanging leg raises.

Focus on getting strong and performing any movement with skill and grace. Walk as much as you can. Hike, run, cycle, canoe and get out there and enjoy the air. There’s enough here to keep you busy for years. If you stick with these things for a solid year or two, you won’t believe how much more capable you will be. And your friends will be amazed.

Strong is a lot more than the new skinny:

Beauty in Strength: The Rise of the Strongwoman Athlete

The post The Truth About Women’s Training, Part 2 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Here are their stories.

Aimee Everett

Aimee Everett started lifting in the summer of 1996 when her volleyball coach sent her to train under coach Mike Burgener. Shortly after, she quit volleyball and became a full-time lifter under Coach B. She soon made her way to the American Open and trained and lived at the Olympic Training Center Junior Training Camp for the next four years.

After a five-year break from the sport to finish school, Aimee dove back into weightlifting full force in 2005 and began training new lifters for Coach Burgener as well as assisting him with CrossFit Weightlifting Certifications. Aimee dove head first into learning all of the finer intricacies of coaching from Mike Burgener and credits him in paving her way to being the coach she is today.

“Everything I have right now- I really believe he paved the way. Who I am as an athlete, a coach, as a person is totally him. From my programming, to the way I love my athletes, to the way I scare my athletes with my yelling, and to my total devotion to my team and gym family.”

Bob Morris and Lynn Jones from the Olympic Training Center as well as her husband, Greg Everett, have also been huge influences on her coaching style.

“There just weren’t women coaches around me when I was growing up in this sport. Today, I am lucky to have Ursula (Garza Papandrea) to look up to as a female coach. She paved the way.”

When asked if she felt she was held back in any way because of her gender:

“Honestly I’ve never even thought about it being harder to break into this sport as a “female” coach until you asked me this question. I just knew there was one female international coach and I wanted to be the second. Period.”

Aimee has now accomplished that goal and is the second female international USA Weightlifting coach ever. Her lifter, Jessica Lucero, is on the National Team, won the National Championship in 2015 in the 58 kg class, and is a national record holder in the snatch. Spending “a bazillion” hours working with Jess to get her to where she is today is what she credits as her biggest coaching triumph. Aimee and Greg Everett own Catalyst Athletics, one of the most respected weightlifting resources in the United States.

Emmy Vargas

Emmy Vargas started lifting as an 18-year-old in junior college, when her shotput coach took her to see now weightlifting Hall of Fame coach Bob Takano to make her stronger and more powerful. One of her first experiences was seeing Diana Fuhrman (six time world team member, four time national champion) lift in Bob’s weightlifting gym. Emmy wound up getting a scholarship to Cal State Los Angeles as a thrower (ended up with a 45’ throw), but quit her throwing scholarship as her love for the sport of weightlifting grew.

Bob referred to Emmy as “the doormat” because her personality and confidence at the time were so small. He told her she needed to learn to grow fangs. His encouragement must have worked, as Emmy became a national team member, represented the USA at the World championships, won a silver medal at the Pan American Games in 2007 in the super heavyweight class, and made it to three Olympic trials (placing in the top 10 each time). She is also the lightest woman in the history of American weightlifting to clean and jerk more than 300 lbs (142 kg). Anyone who knows Emmy now knows she is no doormat.

Emmy started coaching weightlifting on a bigger scale when her friend Andy Garcy, who was the head coach for Pinnacle Weightlifting in Colorado Springs, unexpectedly passed away in 2009. At the request of his team, she agreed to help coach them through their upcoming meets. The Pinnacle team wound up with podium finishes in the School-Age (now Youth), Senior (third place at Nationals), University Level (second place) as well as Master’s Nationals and the Master’s World Championship that year. Her passion for coaching was ignited full force.

As a long-time resident of the Olympic Training Center, Emmy also credits resident coach Bob Morris with helping her develop her coaching style. Emmy is now the Head Coach of Barbarian Barbell where she coaches both women and men in the old school way with no loud music playing. She believes being able to hear the timing of the lifts is critical.

She doesn’t believe her greatest triumph as a coach has happened yet:

“I have high standards. As I’m still coaching and learning, I can’t answer that question, but I do hope I’ll be able to say I’ve helped change some folks’ lives for the better.”

Her goals as a coach, however, are high. She’d like to get someone on an Olympic team or put someone on the international stage. When asked about her “best coaching secret”, she said it is being a coachable coach. Her advice to anyone looking to get into coaching the sport is apt:

“Lift in a meet. It’s one thing to tell people what it’s like to lift, it’s another to have experienced being called upon in a moment when you’re spasming and you’re dehydrated, and you’re being called upon to make a big lift, and you only have 2 minutes on the clock to hit that lift under high pressure.

You can be that feel good coach, but in my opinion, you’re not going to be a good coach. The coach has to be willing to take the heat, to keep the athlete focused on the task at hand. Being able to handle the heat live in a meet is critical, so get out there and coach. Coach at different levels. The game changes at each level. When you get to higher levels, the pressure changes. When you’ve got lifters trying to make teams or set national records, it’s much different than just helping someone get a PR.”

Lindsay Yocum

Lindsay Yocum was introduced to the sport of weightlifting post college when she started her first job at Velocity Sports Performance (VSP) in Redondo Beach more than ten years ago. Since then she has partnered with Sean Waxman at Waxman’s Gym, where she coaches weightlifting and one of their competition teams. She also continues to utilize weightlifting at the strength and conditioning level for her athletes at Marlborough School, a college preparatory school in Hancock Park.

Ken Vick and Sean Waxman have been her mentors. Lindsay believes her capability has not been measured by her gender but rather her experience:

“Post college I was green to the sport of weightlifting, just having earned my CSCS and my USAW level 1 coaching certifications but not really having the “hands on” experience that it takes to develop the coaching eye and learn the art of coaching weightlifting. Luckily I did have a supportive mentor (Ken Vick) and professional peers that took the responsibility of honing our craft seriously. I quickly went from having a handful of reps under my belt to thousands and I am fortunate enough to have a natural proclivity to understanding, identifying and correcting the lifts as I coach.”

Unlike all of the other women in this story, she did have one flagrant example of being denied a role specifically because of her gender. After paying her dues at VSP coaching youth (8-11 year olds) and middle school athletes, it became apparent that her superior was holding her back from coaching high school teams:

“His reasoning was that he believed I couldn’t demand respect from a group of high school aged boys. Let’s just say that I proved him wrong and that I do not credit him as a mentor, hence why he remains nameless. “

Lindsay trains both women and men and like all of the women in this story, believes that people are attracted to coaches because of their knowledge and coaching style, not their gender:

“I think people in general regardless of their gender gravitate towards a coaching style that they deem compatible with their learning style. I think the most important part of developing trust with an athlete is a) knowing your stuff and b) telling them what they need to hear, instead of what they want to hear.”

She doesn’t believe that she’s had one moment of triumph as a coach, and her goals are simple:

“For the most part… my satisfaction (in coaching) is derived from the fact that I am directly influencing an athlete to achieve their personal best. Whether that is teaching the athlete how to properly lift, motivating the athlete to train through challenging times, or creating confidence in an athlete to perform under pressure and at their best, coaching is a means to teach people to strive to actualize their potential as a human being.

Female coaches inspire female lifters. And that’s a good thing. [Photo courtesy of RX’d Photography]

Alison Parakh

Alison Parakh got her start in weightlifting while studying physical education at the University of Oregon, where she majored in exercise physiology and also received her Masters. She competed a bit in graduate school, but became so busy coaching that she didn’t have time to train. She doesn’t credit anyone as being a mentor in weightlifting, per se, but does mention Jimmy Radcliffe, the Head Strength Coach at U of O as an overall strength-coaching mentor.

There was one time that she felt singled out as a woman. She found out she was being interviewed because of a quota that required females to be interviewed. She also admits that back when she first started coaching strength and conditioning in the 1990s, networking opportunities seemed far more difficult because of being one of only a handful of women in a male dominated industry. She has noticed a change recently though, in that “there are a lot more women in the industry now, and it seems that being female isn’t so much of an issue as it might have seemed before.”

Alison coaches both men and women and also believes that:

“It comes down to what you know and how well you communicate, and if you can communicate well, and you know your stuff and can help an athlete improve, I find it doesn’t matter (if you’re a man or a woman).”

Her greatest accomplishment as a weightlifting coach so far is having their club officially recognized as USAW sanctioned this year and already having two lifters who qualified for University Nationals. Alison prides herself on recognizing talent, wooing them to her weightlifting club, and seeing her lifters improve. Her goals as a coach in the sport of weightlifting are simple: “to continue to learn, improve, and help athlete’s succeed.”

My Coaching Journey

I found weightlifting through Team CrossFit Academy in Monrovia in 2008. I joined their newly sanctioned USAW team and began competing in local meets. Shortly thereafter, I opened my own gym, CrossFit Survival. After focusing mainly on coaching CrossFit for the first few years, I decided to form a USAW sanctioned team, and switch my focus to studying and learning as much as I could about coaching weightlifting.

I took Coach Mike Burgener’s CrossFit Weightlifting seminar in 2010, followed by short seminars with Jacob Tsypkin (accompanied by Ariel Stephens) as well as driving my lifters down to the San Diego area to study with Edgar and Evelyn Hernandez of E2 Olyfit early on. From there, I studied under Greg Everett, taking his Level One Seminar as well as passing the demanding Catalyst Athletics L1 Certification in 2014. In 2015, I jumped at the opportunity to study with Hall of Fame legendary weightlifting coach, Bob Takano, completing his 100 hour internship and receiving one of the highest scores at that time on the most demanding test I’ve ever taken.

I credit Eric Le Clair and Bob Takano as my mentors, but wish to acknowledge Michael Keating as well. In terms of coaching both men and women, I coach both. At first I had a hard time getting men to trust me, but once again, I think that had to do more with my belief in myself. As I’ve racked up more hours and learned from greater and more knowledgeable teachers, my confidence has risen to the point where I know I have something valuable to offer both men and women, so I know their trust factor has more to do with that.

My greatest triumph was coaching Laurie Espinosa to a first place win in the Masters National Championship in 2016 in the 63kg weight class for her age group followed by a first-place win at Youth Nationals for Mike Melendez, my 69kg 13 and under youth lifter in the same year. Laurie went from someone who was overweight, stressed out, and had never even lifted a barbell to someone who worked her ass off and earned the right to be called a national champion. Mike spent two years in CrossFit Survival’s Kids program struggling with asthma and learning proper movement. By the time we disbanded it, he had become a confident athlete. I asked if he’d like to try weightlifting, and he adapted to it like he’s been doing it his entire life.

My goals are to help my athletes achieve their goals—plain and simple, but I help them set higher and higher goals for themselves, so anything could happen. I co-coached a senior to Nationals in 2015 and am excited to be taking a lifter to Youth Nationals in June and two master’s lifters to the American Masters in November.

A look back at females in Olympic weightlifting:

Women’s Weightlifting: A Journey of 25 Years

The post An Equal Playing Field: Female Olympic Weightlifting Coaches appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Many women fear they will become too muscular as a result of strength training. While this fear is on the decline, you might be surprised how common it still is. Unfortunately, many high profile “celeb” trainers perpetuate the misinformation.

Trainers such as Tracy Anderson warn that lifting anything heavier than 3lb dumbbells will cause the following problems (these are verbatim quotes):

“The stronger one muscle gets, the more it shuts up all the other things.”

“As you age, the stronger you make your bicep, the worse your skin (under your arm) is going to sag. You can’t ever get to it because the bicep is too overbearing.”

“It’s like your muscles get in an abusive relationship with themselves. The strong ones say ‘go to sleep’ to the smaller ones.”

I’m not sure if Anderson makes comments like this because she’s uneducated, because she’s a charlatan, or some combination of both. The end result is that the consumer becomes disempowered, and her followers are no closer to their goals by following her advice.

Anderson’s statements and methods aren’t just outdated; they’re absolute nonsense. 

Some celebrity “trainers” would say this athlete will get too bulky from lifting weights. Doesn’t seem to be the case.

“What if I Get Too Big?”

Me: “So Lisa, I want you to think back to when you were in the best shape of your life. How old were you then?”

Lisa: “Mmm, let’s see, probably when I was nineteen. I was doing track in college and was really happy with how I looked. I’d love to get back in that kind of shape.”

Me: “The reason I asked was to point out something that you might not have considered. The reason you were in your best shape ever at nineteen is because that’s when you had the most muscle. As we age, for a whole lot of reasons, we tend to lose muscle. Muscle is a big driver of metabolism, so losing it sets up a negative cycle. You lose muscle, which causes a drop in metabolism, which causes you to gain body fat, which further lowers your activity levels, which causes more muscle loss, and so on and so forth.”

Lisa: “Interesting. You’re right, that would have never occurred to me.”

Me: “What I do with clients is to help them interrupt this vicious cycle, and I happen to be partial to strength training.”

Lisa: “You mean like lifting weights? I never wanted to lift weights because I don’t want to be all bulky. I actually want to be smaller, not bigger. I’d really like to sculpt…”

Me: “Here’s the deal: there really is no such thing as toning, or sculpting, or contouring. Muscles can get bigger through training, or smaller through disuse. That’s it. A lot of trainers won’t tell you that because they think their female clients will become disinterested and leave.

That’s why I started off by asking you when you were in your best shape ever. I wanted to provide you with a different context with which to view muscle. We’re not trying to “gain muscle,” per se. We’re just trying to re-establish the level of muscle you had when you were nineteen. When we’ve achieved that, you’ll have a faster metabolism, which means you’ll be leaner, which is your ultimate goal.”

Lisa: “Okay, but what if I do get too big? Maybe I’m an outlier or something.”

Me: “Well I’ll tell you something: there are no women who feel they have too much muscle. None.”

Lisa: “Come on… What do you mean?”

Me: “Any muscle you do gain happens very slowly, and if at any point you feel you’re getting too muscular, all you have to do is reduce your training, or maybe even discontinue it temporarily until you lose it. Muscle isn’t permanent, believe me, It’s much easier to lose than it is to gain.”

Lisa: “Okay, that makes sense. I guess I was concerned because I always see these super-bulky chicks on magazine covers, and there no way I want to look like that.”

Me: “Yup, I totally get it. The thing to keep in mind is that the media promotes the most extreme examples, not the typical. And most of the super muscular women were kinda that way to start with, so when they started bodybuilding or powerlifting or whatever, they happened into an activity that they were good at and where they didn’t feel like a freak for being bigger than typical women.

Think of it this way. When you watch NBA basketball players, those guys aren’t tall because they play basketball. They’re good at basketball because they’re so tall. Make sense?”

Lisa: “Yup totally. But is lifting totally necessary?”

Me: “Nope, not at all. It just happens to be something I’m very passionate about. By the way, lots of women whose aesthetics you admire are big-time lifters. Figure skaters, volleyball players, dancers; many or all of them do weight training as part of their sport. But if you end up not liking weight training, there are many roads to Rome, and the main thing is to find safe, effective activities that resonate with you.

Tell you what, though. How about you give me a month, and I’m betting I can win you over. Deal?”

This Week’s Training:

Volume: 96,090lb (Last Week: 97,256lb)

Significant Lifts:

• Safety Squat: 175lb x 10
• Bench Press: 195lb x 10
• Trap Bar Deadlift: 340lb x 10

I have no real changes to report from last week. Which, when you think about it, is how training really ought to be: smooth, predictable, and unremarkable. I often quip that the training of novices is often characterized by its drama, unpredictability, and brevity, so I’m glad my own efforts in the gym seem to be pretty much the opposite of that.

Bodyweight: 201.6lb

Volume: 30,510lb

Goblet Squat

• Set 1: 35lb × 10
• Set 2: 35lb × 10
• Set 3: 35lb × 10

Safety Squat

• Set 1: 65lb × 10
• Set 2: 115lb × 6
• Set 3: 155lb × 2
• Set 4: 175lb × 10
• Set 5: 175lb × 10
• Set 6: 175lb × 10
• Set 7: 175lb × 10

Leg Press

• Set 1: 90lb × 10
• Set 2: 180lb × 8
• Set 3: 270lb × 6
• Set 4: 360lb × 10
• Set 5: 360lb × 10

Trap Bar Deadlift

• Set 1: 135lb × 10
• Set 2: 185lb × 5
• Set 3: 225lb × 5
• Set 4: 275lb × 2
• Set 5: 300lb × 5
• Set 6: 300lb × 5

Seated Calf Raise

• Set 1: 90lb × 10
• Set 2: 90lb × 10
• Set 3: 90lb × 10

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Bodyweight: 199lb

Volume: 24,395lb

Bench Press

• Set 1: 45lb × 10
• Set 2: 95lb × 8
• Set 3: 135lb × 6
• Set 4: 175lb × 4
• Set 5: 195lb × 10
• Set 6: 195lb × 10
• Set 7: 195lb × 10
• Set 8: 195lb × 8

Chin Up

• Set 1: 5 reps
• Set 2: +25lb × 5
• Set 3: +25lb × 5
• Set 4: +25lb × 5

Hammer Iso-Lateral Incline press

• Set 1: 90lb × 8
• Set 2: 155lb × 8
• Set 3: 155lb × 8
• Set 4: 155lb × 6

Hammer Iso-Lateral Shoulder Press

• Set 1: 50lb × 10
• Set 2: 95lb × 8
• Set 3: 95lb × 8
• Set 4: 95lb × 8

Dual Cable Low Cable Curl

• Set 1: 100lb × 10
• Set 2: 100lb × 10
• Set 3: 100lb × 10

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Bodyweight: 200lb

Volume: 26,405lb

Trap Bar Deadlift

• Set 1: 135lb × 10
• Set 2: 185lb × 5
• Set 3: 245lb × 5
• Set 4: 295lb × 3
• Set 5: 340lb × 9
• Set 6: 340lb × 10
• Set 7: 340lb × 10

Hack Squat

• Set 1: 90lb × 8
• Set 2: 140lb × 8
• Set 3: 205lb × 8
• Set 4: 205lb × 8
• Set 5: 205lb × 8

Leg Press Calf Raise

• Set 1: 180lb × 10
• Set 2: 180lb × 10
• Set 3: 180lb × 10

Friday, March 18, 2016

Bodyweight: 199.4lb

Volume: 14,780lb

Bench Press (Dumbbell)

• Set 1: 100lb × 10
• Set 2: 140lb × 8
• Set 3: 170lb × 8
• Set 4: 190lb × 8
• Set 5: 190lb × 8

Seated Row

• Set 1: 135lb × 8
• Set 2: 180lb × 8
• Set 3: 180lb × 8

Chest Press Machine 

• Set 1: 60lb × 8
• Set 2: 60lb × 8

Bicep Curl (Dumbbell)

• Set 1: 60lb × 8
• Set 2: 70lb × 8
• Set 3: 70lb × 8

Lying Dumbbell Tricep Extension

• Set 1: 60lb × 8
• Set 2: 70lb × 8
• Set 3: 70lb × 10

More on the Myths About Women and Weights

• 2 Myths About Women and Weight Lifting Debunked
• Women and Weightlifting (And How I Fell In Love)
• Why I’m Not Giving Up My Muscles for Anyone
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

Photos 1 and 3 courtesy of Crossfit Empirical.

Photo 2 courtesy of CrossFit.

The post Bulky Is a Lie: Why Women Need to Lift Weights appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Today we’re featuring three of the strong women we’ve talked to on Breaking Muscle Radio: Kalli Youngstrom, Eva Twardokens, and Artemis Scantalides. They come from diverse backgrounds – bodybuilding, skiing, and StrongFirst – but they share a love for lifting heavy and striving to reach their fullest potential.

Meet Kalli Youngstrom

Kalli Youngstrom is a champion bodybuilder and coach who specializes in nutrition. But like many athletes, Kalli’s career began with a different sport. For her, it was wrestling.

Kalli described why she got into wrestling and what it was like to compete in what was then a male-dominated sport.

In grade four I started wrestling, and eventually I dropped everything else to focus on wrestling. I wrestled at the national level through grade twelve and up to university, and then I had to actually retire because of injury and problems with concussions.

So that was the end of that, and then I had to find something else to do to keep me busy. I’m still competitive, and I can’t not be striving towards some new goal. I met my boyfriend and he was interested in bodybuilding, and that’s how I got introduced to the sport.

Kalli also played many other sports as a kid. So why did she focus on wrestling? She explained:

It was a unique thing, and originally when I started, my brothers wrestled, so that’s how I got interested in it. I would say it’s a little bit more popular in Canada for women than it is in the States still, but it’s really growing in popularity. Here I would say it’s 50/50 now, but when I first started it was definitely less.

There were certain years where I had no female training partners, so it was just me and my coach training with the boys. But I think I naturally excelled at it, and it was so challenging that I wanted to push myself in that way.

To hear more about Kalli’s story, her unique approach to training, and what she has to say about the Size or Shred program featured here on Breaking Muscle, click the link below:

Listen to the Full Podcast With Kalli Youngstrom Here

It’s a tradition to ask all of our podcast guests some bonus round questions to help us get us know them on a more personal level. Kalli’s bonus round isn’t included on the podcast, so this is its premier appearance. Here’s a sneak peek at one of Kalli’s answers to the question, “What’s your least favorite exercise?”

 “Lunges. I hate lunges, and I’ll be honest – that’s one of those ones where you don’t do them because you hate them. That’s the one. But that means that’s the one you probably should be doing. Don’t tell my clients, who probably all have lunges in their plan!”

Click Play to Hear the Full Bonus Round With Kalli

Read about two-time Olympian and weightlifting coach Eva Twardokens on page 2

Eva Twardokens is a two-time Olympian in Alpine Skiing (Albertville and Lillehammer ) and a twelve-year veteran of the U.S. Ski Team. She has won six National Championships, won a world Championship Bronze Medal, and is a World Technical Skiing Champion. She is also a Masters Weightlifting Champion.

Today, Eva works with clients to help them optimize their performance and health through smart training. We loved the insight she offered when asked what it means to be an athlete versus someone who just works out. Here’s what Eva had to say:

I think with exercise, it’s important to understand who you are. You need to quantify yourself and then qualify to work out. And so I came up with the classification of what I call the trainee. The first classification is your down-and-dirty athlete. This is a person who’s training, traveling, and competing 24-7. They’re not holding a job, and they’re paying their mortgage by doing their sport. Generally that person is either a professional athlete or an Olympian.

The second classification I have is called the recreational athlete. Most people hate this. But really, the classification of the recreational athlete is something great. I was a recreational athlete when I did my Olympic weightlifting. I was holding a job…I was doing a lot of other things. It was to satisfy my need to win something other than skiing. And so I did that, and I considered myself a recreational athlete.

And then I have the exerciser, which is what I am today. I’m a person that wants to maintain my body composition and support the passions in my life.

Eva noted that the danger zone often lies with the recreational athlete. As she said, the recreational athletes are the people who go hard in their training without the support of funding and medical professionals to allow them to recovery adequately. She offered advice for new trainees and recreational athletes to help them avoid injury and overtraining:

It takes me back to a conversation I had with my father when I was totally going nuts over exercise and doing too much. I said, “Dad, exercise is perpetual. The more you do, the more you can do.” And that’s partially true, but he came back to me and said, “No, Eva, it’s kind of like a battery. If you run your battery low, you’re going to run out of gas…” And I was like, “No, no that’s so wrong!”

About five years ago I made an apology to my dad for fighting him on that and being such a jerk and know-it-all. I said, “You know what, you were right.”

Eva’s least favorite exercise? “Sumo deadlift high pulls. I think they’re just silly.” You can catch the bonus round with Eva starting at minute 39 in the podcast below.

Click Play to Hear More of Eva’s Training Advice

Read about Iron Maiden, SFG2, and kung fu black belt Artemis Scantalides on page 3.

Artemis Scantalides was a professional ballet dancer for 23 years. Then she received her black belt in kung fu. These days, she works as co-owner of Iron Body Studios. To top it all off, in 2014 Artemis became the ninth woman to successfuly complete the Iron Maiden Challenge, an extreme test of strength involving a 24kg kettlebell press, tactical pull up, and pistol.

Artemis has a goal of educating women about the benefits of strength training. She explained what attracted her to strength training in the first place:

My mission with strength training definitely all started when I realized how amazing it was to be strong…[D]ance is beautiful, classical ballet is beautiful, and it will always be a part of me. But there are other things that, as someone who studied classical ballet for so long and danced with schools like the Boston Ballet and these really big, competitive schools – there are some challenges you deal with, especially as a woman in terms of your body type and self esteem, and if you fit in or don’t fit in. It can really scar you for life.

You have to figure out how to get your self-esteem back, get your confidence back, and find yourself again. And strength training helped me to do that.

Artemis also addressed the idea that keeps many women away from strength training – that lifting weights will make you bulky.

I try to educate women that in society, there is this misconception that women are just going to walk into the weight room and train for general fitness, two to three times a week, and then all of sudden you walk out the door and look like a bodybuilder. It’s a lot harder than that!

I educate women that number one, it’s genetics. How you’re going to build muscle is completely built on your genetic build, your body type, and how you build that muscle. So that’s number one.

Number two: we’re women. We do not have the testosterone that men have. We do not have that genetic makeup to bulk up the way men do. For the majority of us who are training for general fitness, it’s not gonna happen. It takes a tremendous amount of work, from nutrition to a specific weight lifting program to get there. So I educate women about what it really does require.

Listen to the Full Podcast With Artemis Here

Artemis also shared her answers to the bonus rounds questions in a previously unreleased podcast episode. Her least favorite exercise? Squats. “Squats are just really hard, and burpees because I do not enjoy burpees.” (We agree on the burpees.) To hear more of Artemis’s answers to our bonus round questions, listen to the clip below.

Click Play to Hear the Bonus Round With Artemis

Other Amazing Women on Breaking Muscle Radio:

• Valerie Worthington: On BJJ and Life
• Nutritious Movement With Katy Bowman
• Be Your Own Roll Model With Jill Miller
• New on Breaking Muscle Today

The post Training Strength for Women: 3 Perspectives From Real Athletes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

What is a Swole Sister? If you ask me, she’s a badass at heart. She loves lifting heavy, testing her limits, and wants her physical body to reflect every last ounce of her badassery.

She might be nineteen or 79. She might be a working mother of three or a single girl just starting out her adult life. She may be a college athlete or maybe has never done anything athletic in her life. Until now.

RELATED: The New Mid-Life Crisis: Testing Our Limits

Get Started on the Six-Week Swole Sisters Program

You can accomplish a lot in six weeks. You can lose fat, you can gain muscle, and you can build strength and stamina. But if this is your first attempt at lining up your nutrition habits with your workouts, you also must have realistic expectations. What will success feel like? How will I know that I am on way to Swoledom?

The first step to joining the program is to take two full-length photos, one side view and one front view. We recommend wearing a sports bra and shorts (or bathing suit for those who want some hardcore accountability) so you can see your whole body. You will retake these same photos at the end of the six weeks.

“The scale can be deceiving. It is one valid and legitimate data point, but it doesn’t paint the whole picture.”

Why do we harp on the photos? Because it’s easy to dismiss actual results. The scale can be deceiving. It is one valid and legitimate data point, but it doesn’t paint the whole picture. If you have a way to get your body fat percentage calculated before starting this program, do that, as well. Between the scale, the body fat percentage, and the pictures, you will have more than enough evidence of your progress.

You Are Tackling Two Programs at Once

Doing a weightlifting program for six weeks is physically hard work. Doing a nutrition program for six weeks is mentally hard work. Doing both at the same time? It is a feat that should not be taken lightly. 

RELATED: 4 Nutrition Lessons That Can Benefit Anyone

If now is not the time to take on this challenge, that is fine. We love you and still think you are awesome. And we’ll be here when you are ready. This stuff is tough and requires 100% commitment on your end.

But if this is the right time, then what’s the best way to ensure you can get through the whole thing? Join with a bestie. Someone who will hold you accountable to meal planning and meal prep, and to getting your workouts done and sticking it out for your accessory work. Find someone who can encourage you and remind you why you are doing this program.

Lifting Weights Leads to Looking Good

If we were honest, most of us would admit we join the gym for the purposes of looking good and feeling sexy. We have specific ideas and things we want to change about ourselves. We want to get rid of the flab under our arms, we are looking for a flat stomach and hopefully some abs, we want our shoulders to be defined, and what girl doesn’t want to firm up her booty?

“The majority of the female population fears lifting weights, lifting too often, doing certain types of lifts, or lifting heavy because they believe they will get ‘bulky.'”

Many women believe in order to achieve the results they are looking for they must run or do some type of cardio for as long as possible. On top of this, the majority of the female population fears lifting weights, lifting too often, doing certain types of lifts, or lifting heavy because they believe they will get “bulky.” And, even if a woman is curious about lifting weights, finding somebody to teach you how to do it properly can be challenging.

But if you want to lose fat and you want a “toned” body, perhaps there is a better way than just running your heart out.

We Need to Have Muscles

To have definition in our body, we need to have muscles. To have muscles, we have to build them through some type of strength training. If we want to define those muscles, we must work them at higher volume and at weights between 70%-80%.

RELATED: 2 Myths About Women and Weight Lifting Debunked 

The more lean muscle mass we have, the more fat our bodies burn. Anaerobic exercise (weightlifting, interval training, sprints) not only burns more fat, but continues to burn fat long after your workout is completed. While aerobic exercise (low to moderate in intensity and long in duration, like jogging, biking, walking, or swimming) does burn fat and is beneficial for our health, but it is not the most effective way of training when concerned with physical features like defined arms, a nice round ass, definition in the quads, and a tight stomach.

Look at the body of an Olympic distance runner compared to an Olympic sprinter. If your ideal physique leans more toward the sprinter’s body, then Swole Sisters is the right program for you.

RELATED: How to Sprint Your Way to a 6-Pack

With that said, we want to make it clear we are not saying one training method is better or worse than another. We are simply saying each approach has its place and, depending on what your goals are, one program will be more effective for you than another.

The Swole Sisters Strength and Conditioning Program

The Swole Sisters strength and conditioning program uses weightlifting and short intense interval training to help women build lean muscle mass and lose fat. Although it can take months and years to transform our bodies, in six weeks you will see respectable changes. This program is meant to help women get comfortable with a barbell in their hands, and in the process you will find the confidence and the self-esteem that comes from being strong.

“Although it can take months and years to transform our bodies, in six weeks you will see respectable changes.”

Mondays and Saturdays are focused on the clean and jerk. On these days you will also see short sprints and accessory work to strengthen your core and hamstrings.

On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, your strength workout will be a strict press, push press, or back squat. On these days your conditioning will consist of interval work. For example: 3 rounds of :30 max pull ups / :30 rest. This means you do as many pull-ups as possible in thirty seconds, then rest thirty seconds. During the time you work, you should push as much as possible while keeping the integrity of the movement completely intact. You should not finish a round thinking, “I could have done more.” And above all you should train hard, train safe and have fun.

“During the time you work, you should push as much as possible while keeping the integrity of the movement completely intact.”

On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday the majority of your strength work is set up with dashes in between numbers. For example 5-5-5-5-5. The number indicates how many reps you do in each set before racking the weight and resting. The dashes mean you should try to move up in weight each time. These sets are considered working sets, which means each set should be at a challenging, almost maximal effort. You should not be able to jump thirty pounds between sets.

You will see the program suggests a percentage to warm up to. This means warm up to that percentage and then start your sets above that percentage. Again, you should go as heavy as technique will allow. Technique always comes before weight.

RELATED: Why Technique Matters in Olympic Weightlifting

Contact Us for Support

Throughout the program you are welcome to contact us with any questions or for support, both in terms of the workouts and the nutrition lessons. Feel free to comment on this article or on any of the workout and nutrition postings.

Click Here to Start Your Free 6-Week Program

The post Swole Sisters Free 6-Week Workout and Nutrition Program appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Here are the top ten women’s fitness articles from 2014, counting down from number ten to number one:

10. 12 Cycles of Workouts – Just For Women!
By Breaking Muscle HQ

From running a record 10K, to developing core strength, to mastering strict pull ups, these workouts by Mindith Rahmat are designed to help women achieve their fitness goals.

9. Since I Was Nine, I’ve Hated My Thighs
By Becca Borawski Jenkins

If you’re a woman (or a man for that matter), you need to read this article. Becca Borawski Jenkins tells how she has come to find and love herself.

8. The Role of Testosterone for the Female Athlete
By Amber Larsen

Coach Amber Larsen discusses how this important hormone functions in women, and the differences between males and females.

7. Tips For Cultivating a Positive Body Image for Your Female Clients
By Molly Galbraith

Body image is a difficult topic for many women, but it’s also one of the most important. Coach Molly Galbraith discusses this critical aspect of training women.

6. We Are Not Victims of Our Bodies
By Becca Borawski Jenkins

Becca has an assignment for you: stop worrying about what other people think and celebrate what’s unique about your body.

5. What Is Vaginismus? A Guide for the Female Athlete
By Amber Larsen

Athletic women are more likely to experience vaginismus. Amber explains what it is and how to deal with it.

4. The Reality of Stretch Marks: My Body Will Never Be the Same
By Nicole Crawford

Ninety percent of pregnant women get stretch marks. Nicole Crawford shares how she has come to see them in a new light.

3. 10 Signs Your Scale Is Telling You Lies
By Amy D. Hester

The scale is not a source of ultimate truth. Amy D. Hester lists ten signs your fitness is improving – that don’t involve numbers on a scale.

2. My Post Pregnancy CrossFit Comeback
By Erica Saint Clair

Everyone says you come back stronger after pregnancy, but it’s not that simple. If you’re a mom, you’ll relate to coach Erica Saint Clair‘s article about the not-so-easy comeback.

1. Women Are Not Small Men: Essential Info for Female Athletes
By Becca Borawski Jenkins

Why is it so many trainers instruct women as if they were just small men? Coach Becca gives her perspective on how women should adjust their training.

Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of CrossFit LA.

Photo 3 courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post The Top 10 Women’s Fitness Articles of 2014 appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Here are nine of my own gift ideas for the fit woman in your life:

Yoga Tune Up Massage Therapy Full Body Kit

Price: $44.95

Where to Get It: Yoga Tune Up

Description: One of the first items I thought of to put on this list was a full-body massage. And that’s a wonderful gift idea, of course. But instead of a one-time-only deal, why not give your friend or loved one the ability to get a full-body massage every day, for free?

This massage kit from Yoga Tune Up puts the power in your hands. It includes two DVDs with eleven massage routines guided by Jill Miller, as well as two Yoga Tune Up balls and a drawstring bag.

Every Woman’s Guide to Foot Pain Relief

Price: $13.52

Where to Get It: Amazon

Description: If you wear six-inch heels to work every day, this book by alignment expert and biomechanist Katy Bowman will make you think twice. Bowman explains the importance of caring for our poor, neglected feet and gives practical ways to reduce pain in your feet and everywhere else.

Rogue RPG System

Price: $115.00

Where to Get It: Rogue Fitness

Prove the old idea that girls can’t do pull ups wrong with the RPG (Rogue Portable Gymnastics) System from Rogue Fitness. You’ll be able to practice your pull ups as well as more advanced gymnastics moves, since the system also comes with a set of gymnastics rings.

elitefts Eat Sleep Hoodie

Price: $31.95

Where to Get It: elitefts

Description: Who wouldn’t like unwrapping a nice, warm hoodie on Christmas morning? This one from elitefts is the perfect combination of sugar and spice. But really, the online store description puts it best: “You can eat like a cow and nobody will ever know how fat and bloated you are.”

Primal Pit Paste Holiday Spice Gift Set

Price: $72.95

Where to Get It: Primal Pit Paste

Description: For naturally-minded women, it can be hard to find personal hygiene products that don’t contain offensive ingredients and actually work. Primal Pit Paste is my favorite brand. This set contains body whip, sugar scrub, room mist, lip balm, deodorant, and “schmelly balls,” or wooden diffusers. If you don’t want to get the whole set, I recommend the Thyme and Lemongrass deodorant, which would make a great stocking stuffer.

lululemon Mind and Body Kit

Price: $58.00

Where to Get It: lululemon

Keep all your makeup, shampoo, and other personal products in one place during trips to the gym with this bag from lululemon. It comes with mini bags to keep small items and has several storage compartments inside. Not to mention, it’s pretty attractive and comes in three different designs: solid black, silver/orange, and camo.

Unbroken Designs Gift Card

Price: Whatever You Want

Where to Get It: Unbroken Designs

If the woman in your life is a CrossFit addict, a gift card to Unbroken Designs is right up her alley. The company was started by two CrossFit athletes who also happen to be jewelry designers. She’ll be able to choose between strength-inspired jewelry, weight vests, apparel, and keychains.

Anjali Ferocity Yoga Leggings

Price: $59.00

Where to Get It: Anjali Clothing

My yoga instructor was wearing these the other night, and I’ve been thinking about them ever since. The Ferocity leggings are made from recycled plastic bottles and the design and quality are both impressive. The price point is also an advantage, as many boutique companies charge closer to $100.00 for their leggings.

Rockin’ Green Athletic Wear Detergent

Price: $15.95

Where to Get It: Rockin’ Green Soap

Funky leggings are one thing. Funky body odor is a different animal. You don’t want to send the wrong message, but if you’ve heard your lady friend complain about smelly workout gear, you’re probably safe. I use Rockin’ Green for all my clothes and even cloth diapers. If it can get that funk out, it can surely get rid of workout odors.

Stay tuned for more 2014 holiday gift guides!

The post 2014 Fit and Female Holiday Shopping Guide appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The current research on PCOS and resistance training is limited to four studies. In spite of this lack of research, women with PCOS should be eager to get into the weight room. All four studies concluded that regular strength training helped PCOS women lose weight. And let’s not forget about the hundreds of other studies that support the idea that strength training is a pathway to long-term health and vitality.

Strength Training, Insulin Resistance, and PCOS

Women of all ages and fitness levels, including those with type 2 diabetes, can improve their response to insulin by strength training. This is particularly important to women with PCOS because we often suffer from insulin resistance, which is the inability to properly react to our own insulin.

When the body does not respond to insulin, the pancreas produces more in an effort to elicit the proper reaction and restore blood sugars to a safe level. The presence of excess insulin in the female body creates a hormonal imbalance that will boost androgen production by the ovaries. This vicious cycle is at the heart of the polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Progressive strength training increases the size of skeletal muscle and might enhance the muscles’ ability to manage glucose. Researchers believe that these adaptations result in increased insulin sensitivity independent of a woman’s weight. So, even if regular visits to the weight room don’t move the numbers on the scale, a woman with PCOS can still improve her overall health.

Weight Training, Belly Fat, and Bad Cholesterol

Many women hit the gym with the goal of ditching belly fat. This is especially true of PCOS women because we tend to carry our weight around the midsection. A thick middle is not just a problem during bikini season. Many chronic health conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and PCOS are associated with having excess belly fat.

Novice exercisers who want to shrink their bellies gravitate toward moves like crunches that target the abdominal muscles, but they would be better off reaching for a pair of dumbbells. Strength training does a much better job of fighting abdominal fat. A University of Pennsylvania study found that overweight and obese women, ages 24 to 44, who were assigned to an hour of weight training twice a week reduced their proportion of body fat by nearly four percent.

PCOS and high LDL (bad cholesterol) also go hand-in-hand. Fortunately, regular resistance training could help kick that high LDL to the curb. Studies on both healthy women and women with type 2 diabetes have demonstrated a clear connection between strength training and lower LDLs.

The Best Way to Lift Weights for PCOS

Now that you’re motivated to start lifting, you probably want an answer to the big question: what’s the best strength training program for PCOS? There are no specific guidelines for using resistance training as part of a PCOS treatment plan – yet. But don’t let that discourage you. Researchers at the University of Western States are conducting studies on the topic as we speak.

The American Diabetic Association (ADA) has also outlined exercise guidelines for type 2 diabetics, and experts have reason to believe that the same protocols will work well for PCOS women. Type 2 diabetes is similar to PCOS in many ways, such as insulin resistance, excess abdominal fat, high LDL levels, and obesity. These similarities indicate that PCOS women and type 2 diabetics should strength train with the same goals in mind – to encourage physiological adaptions that will reduce or eliminate these risk factors.

The ADA recommends that patients strength train two to three times a week on non-consecutive days. Trainees should perform a combination of exercises that will work every major muscle group. The ADA also suggests that the intensity of these sessions be relatively high, with a recommended three sets of eight to ten repetitions for each exercise.

In order to create physiological changes in your body, the exercises need to progress in difficulty. Once an exercise becomes easy to perform for eight to ten repetitions, the resistance level should be increased or a more challenging exercise should be selected.

Strength training will help you reduce or completely prevent some of PCOS’s most menacing complications. If you are ready take charge of your PCOS, take a step towards the weight room. A strong body is a formidable opponent in the fight against polycystic ovarian syndrome.

References:

1. Boyden TW, Pamenter RW, Going SB, et al. Resistance Exercise Training Is Associated With Decreases in Serum Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels in Premenopausal Women. Arch Intern Med. 1993;153(1):97-100.

2. Cheema, Birinder S., Lisa Vizza, and Soji Swaraj. “Progressive Resistance Training in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Can Pumping Iron Improve Clinical Outcomes?” Sports Medicine 44, no. 9 (2014): 1197-207. May 29, 2014.

3. Cuff, Darcey J., Graydon S. Meneilly, Alan Martin, Andrew Ignaszewski, Hugh D. Tildesley, and Jiri Frohlich. “Effective Exercise Modality to Reduce Insulin Resistance in Women With Type 2 Diabetes.” Diabetes Carw26, no. 11 (2001): 2977-982.

4. Eves, Neil D., and Ronald C. Plotnikoff,. “Resistance Training and Type 2 Diabetes Considerations for Implementation at the Population Level.” Diabetes Care 29.8 (2006): 1933-941. Web.

5. Poehlman,, Eric T., Roman V. Dvorak,, Walter F. DeNino, Martin Brochu, and Philip A. Ades. “Effects of Resistance Training and Endurance Training on Insulin Sensitivity in Nonobese, Young Women: A Controlled Randomized Trial.” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 85.7 (2000): 2463-468. Web.

Photos 1 and 3 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of Savannah Wishart.

The post Take Charge of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome With Strength Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

To be a victim of our body, as women, means to be a slave to the scale, how our jeans fit, how we look in the mirror, and how we looked compared to the women on TV and in magazines. Most of us vacillate wildly in how we feel about ourselves and our bodies, and we spend too much time feeling badly about ourselves physically. Even when we’re actually in fantastic shape and, by all outsider accounts, look amazing.

The Gym Can Get You in Good (Mental) Shape

Getting into the gym can be useful tool in busting out of the body doldrums and creating a more positive self-image. You might not have been “blessed” with the same genetics as the runway models, but I bet you were blessed with something far more useful in your own actual life.

Coach Megan Clements made this discovery when she found CrossFit. After many years of comparing herself to unattainable bodies, she realized her own body was capable of amazing things:

It was the start of me realizing my body is capable of some pretty awesome things. I’ve since found out it can squat and deadlift more than a lot of guys and kicks butt on the rower.The bum and thighs I spent countless hours trying to get rid of actually come in pretty handy. It might not come in the same packaging as the girls on the front of the magazines, but I’m pretty sure most of them don’t have a hope in hell of keeping up with me in a metabolic conditioning workout, let alone out-squatting me.

Megan also experienced that being around the CrossFit community and people who valued what her body could do, rather than how it looked made a difference:

Having grown up in a society where women are valued for how close they come to a conceived idea of beauty rather than what they can do, the whole thing was a little strange to say the least. But, here I was with a room full of people getting really excited about how strong I was, about what my body could do.

To learn more about how Megan came to appreciate her body, read her article “On Being Strong: How CrossFit Ended My War With My Body.”

Creating a Gym Where Accomplishments Matter

As a coach, you may be wondering how to encourage such a powerful environment in your own gym. With so many clients coming into fitness establishments in pursuit of exterior goals, how do you foster an appreciation for the internal and surround it with community support?

Women’s fitness expert Molly Galbraith offered tips for coaches on how to foster better body image in their female clientele. She admitted that it’s a challenging prospect, though, given how conflicted the clients themselves are in their wants and needs. Explained Molly:

When you get to the core of what they are looking for, the overwhelming majority of people simply want to look better and feel better. They want their clothing to fit better, they want to feel confident in themselves and their bodies, and they want to do it in a sane, manageable way.

But one thing a lot of them don’t realize is that reaching a certain body fat, size, or weight goal, won’t make them happy. They need to love themselves and appreciate all of the glorious aspects of their body right now, even if they want to make some physical changes. Those are not mutually exclusive.

To accomplish this, Molly suggested that coaches do the following:

1. Educate their clients
2. Emphasize positive goals
3. Facilitate healthy competition among members

For more details on how to accomplish these three steps, read Molly’s article “Tips for Cultivating a Positive Body Image for Your Female Clients.”

Let Go of the (Wrong) Numbers

For many women, focusing on the numbers behind physical accomplishments, rather the numbers on the scale, helps them to develop a more productive perspective. I personally found this to be true when it came to weighing myself.

I like to lift heavy and I’m a body type built more for muscle building than fast running, if you know what I mean. So for a long time I struggled with the number on the scale. I looked fit and I felt good, but the scale said crazy things like “144.”

Over time I decided to ditch the scale and focus instead on my performance and my energy levels. Not waking up in the morning and letting a little digital number judge how my day would go made a huge difference for me. Instead, I was empowered by what I could accomplish in the gym, and I trained, ate, and slept to feed that progress – not the scale.

To learn more about my revelations regarding the scale and how pretty much nobody knows what 125lbs versus 145lbs looks like anyway, read my article “144lbs: Why Female Athletes Should Toss the Scale and Get a New Perspective.”

You’ll Never Be Perfect

In the end, the truth is no matter how much you tell yourself what “should” or “shouldn’t” matter, there will still be days when you hate your body. There will be days when you turn around in the mirror and catch a glimpse of something you don’t like that will never go away – like cellulite, for example.

And while the cellulite may never disappear, what is always changeable is your relationship to it. I know, you probably don’t even want to have a relationship with your cellulite, but hear me through. Or actually, hear nurse practitioner Vanessa Bennington through, as she’s already done a fantastic job of explaining that yes, female athletes can have cellulite, too.

In fact, Vanessa was super brave and posted a photo of her very own cellulite in her call-to-action article The Dirty Little Secret of the Female Athlete: Cellulite:

Facts, research, and studies have shown us that cellulite isn’t a disease or problem of the obese. It’s normal. In fact, it is quite possible to be very lean, very fit, very athletic, and still have cellulite.

To that end, I present to you exhibit A. This is what I have deemed my body mullet: abs in the front, cellulite in the back. If you’re not laughing right now you must have missed out on the 80’s. Have someone explain “hockey hair” to you. No, I am not saying I am ripped. I’m not. I’ve certainly been leaner (still had the dimples though). But, I am fit. I eat a healthy diet. I am the strongest I’ve ever been in my entire life. I can see my abs. And I have cellulite.

Your Assignment This Weekend (and Beyond)

So there you have it. Women all over are having the same dilemma. Women in the gym, women wanting to get to the gym, and women you’ve never even met are thinking similar thoughts about themselves as you are. But what if we all thought positive thoughts? What if we all celebrated what makes us unique, what makes us strong, and what is simply part of our experience as women (and humans)?

With that in mind, here is your assignment for this weekend – and hopefully you’ll practice this assignment far beyond that. Whether its cellulite or something else you are ashamed of, consider these choice words from Vanessa:

I encourage you to keep working out and keep eating well. Keep doing what makes you feel good and what you enjoy. But do it in shorts. Do it in bikini bottoms. Screw trying to hide the dimples. That’s like someone with freckles trying desperately to cover them all up with makeup or someone with a big nose trying to hide behind their hair.

Stop worrying that everyone will think you’re not fit. It’s time to show everyone what real, fit, athletic women look like. We are not the airbrushed “perfection” of fitness magazine myth. We are all different, unique, and we come in different shapes, colors, and sizes. And most of us are probably rocking a few dimples.

What would your weekend look like if you took this attitude with you everywhere? What would future generations of women experience? What would the world look like if we all did this?

Photos courtesy of CrossFit LA.

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