stumptuous.com

Building true strength and self-compassion broadens our horizons, instead of constricting them. This was strength athlete Gillian Mounsey’s journey, which she courageously shared on her blog, and the Starting Strength site. By turns painful, honest, and brave, it’s a must-read for any female athlete who wonders whether she is alone in the madness of performance-pushing and body angst.

I posted this as a comment response elsewhere but I think it bears mentioning here too. Folks are always asking me, “I want to do X but also Y and Z and it’s not working and I’m getting discouraged.”

Here’s my answer: Throw all that shit out.

“Gain muscle” and “lose X lbs” and “run a marathon” and “do a million pullups” are all great goals but if you’re an average person who just wants to feel, look, and perform a bit better, it doesn’t fucking matter because you need to get into better overall shape and eat better, period. I guarantee it.

Throw all that detail shit out. Stop reading the goddamned interwebs and magazines. (Except me.) Stop distracting yourself with crap.

Then focus on this ONE goal…

Are we all doomed by our genes? Are doctors secretly plotting against us? Find out!

Some people start fitness programs hoping to look like “perfection”. Some people quit fitness programs because they don’t achieve “perfection”. What is this so-called ideal, and how relevant should it be to our goals?

Fitness is a quality that is context-dependent. Our notion of fitness (thanks to the work of Kenneth Cooper, father of the modern aerobic movement) is the marathon runner, the endurance athlete who is ultra lean, purged of any mass which is not directly responsible for propelling the body forward. “Fitness models” proliferate in the popular [...]

Can you be fat and fit? Let’s start by understanding why “fat” might be used as a proxy for “unfit” in the first place.

“Oh my god, Becky, look at her butt. It is soooo big. She looks like one of those rap guys’ girlfriends… They only talk to her because she looks like a total prostitute, OK? I mean her butt — It’s just so big. I can’t believe it’s so round. It’s just out there. I mean, it’s gross.” –Sir Mix-A-Lot, Baby Got Back

When a woman attacks another woman, all she really proves is that she hates herself. –Erica Jong

I often get emails or see trainees who are frustrated and pissed off. They aren’t achieving their goals and they tell me they have “tried everything”. They’re about ready to throw in the towel on exercise and nutrition. They feel that nothing is working. They start to buy into the idea that “diets don’t work so there’s no point in trying”. I was that person… once. Like everyone else I had a gift for massive self delusion.

In over a decade of experience as a trainer and someone on the journey of physical culture what I have discovered is that human perception has only a loose connection to reality. We do not see ourselves — or others — as we really are.

Butch up. (verb) To develop a backbone or stiff upper lip; to quit whining and get on with life.

Allright possums, it’s tough love time. If you don’t like being nagged by a complete stranger, quit reading now. If you are comfortable still complaining about your body and making excuses for your life, then step away from the computer, and go sit in your own filth somewhere. I’m waiting.