Category Archives: Uhm?
Child’s Play – When does fitness become a chore!?!
So I’ve been asked to design a “fitness” obstacle course for this family event in June. Most of the kids doing the course will be between the ages of like 5 and 10 years old.
I was told it needs to be something FUN but at the same time active and fitness-related.
When she said, “FUN and FITNESS-RELATED” she almost said it as if the two together weren’t completely possible…Most adults don’t consider something fitness-related fun…they call it working out.
But what we call working out, kids call PLAY.
Seriously, when did it change?
When did accomplishing something physical NOT become something super exciting but instead something we avoid?
I mean I see all the children come into the gym and get so excited to swing and lift up heavy things. The kids get SO EXCITED when they can pick up something heavy or climb the rope.
They get so excited because they see it as expanding their boundaries and accomplishing something they either couldn’t do or hadn’t done before.
Their parents on the other hand, sometimes roll their eyes and groan when they have to climb the rope…Or they grab a lighter weight then they really should be doing.
Kids see the exercises as proving that they CAN DO something. Parents see exercises as something they have to do.
Which honestly makes me kind of sad.
Working out is something I GET TO DO. Something I look forward to. Something I love.
And I want to instill that same love in everyone I meet.
So I’ve now been considering, what obstacles/exercises should I include in the course at the event in June? What will make kids fall in love with exercising so that it always remains PLAY!?!
When I started doing some research, I stumbled across a ton of activities I LOVED when I was little. Like double-dutch, four square, kickball, hopscotch, climbing trees, Red Rover…and Skip It…Dude I want to do it right now…
And to think most adults think of “jumping rope” or “hopping” as exercise. Skip It was basically jumping rope, except you NEVER wanted to stop!
AHHH! I WANT ONE! A couple of years ago, I stumbled across one but the loop wouldn’t fit over my foot…So bummed!
What were your favorite outdoor games and activities?
Scenic Cali?
So on Thursday Ryan and I started our road trip up the Cali coast for Carmel where a friend of Ryan’s was getting married on Clint Eastwood’s ranch.
While I’ve been to a few spots in Northern Cali, I’ve never taken a road trip up the coast and let me tell you…it was an eye-opener!
Along the way I kept rambling on to Ryan about two certain thoughts…one was about “cheat days” and the whole debate over them and whether they should even be called “cheat days” and the other was about our farming systems and the environment.
And while I’ll talk about cheat days tomorrow after my food hangover wears off, today I do want to talk about the nature of farming while the images from our drive are still fresh in my mind.
So I am a Midwest girl. And I grew up driving through farmland. Just about every tennis trip we took, my mom and I would drive through hours and hours of farmland.
Mostly I just thought it was boring. Super flat land with rows and rows of the same crop. Basically just corn as far as the eye could see.
There would be a few horses…Maybe some cattle…But mostly just CORN.
But anyway, my point is, I’ve seen lots of farmland before and never really given it a second thought…until now.
And I don’t know if it was all the cool and new scenery or the fact that I’m more conscious about where my food comes from now, but a lot of what I saw really made me question…
Ryan told me the scenery would be cool even though we would be driving through a lot of desert. He said we would also drive by the ocean, through some interesting scenery in the hills, through more forested areas and then finally on our way home…lots of farmland.
What I didn’t realize is that I was going to see everything right next to each other and at times, all at once. I saw ocean next to farm next to desert next to forest next to great huge hills.
I also didn’t expect to see wildfires right next to the road.
The hills were covered in smoke and there were fires all over…even right by the highway.
When I was younger, I remember learning that wildfires could be good and necessary for some ecosystems. But that wasn’t the case with all of the fires popping up around Southern Cali. These fires were damaging not only potentially to people’s property but also to the land and natural vegetation.
The fires made me shake my head in disbelief. I never thought I would see one.
As we drove on through a slightly flatter area a bit away from the ocean, we passed strawberry fields and blueberry farms.
And then as we entered back into a few more hills, we saw a whole bunch of cattle roaming the hillside….
I was like “AH!” Grass-fed, free range BEEF!
So right now if you are a vegetarian, you may want to tune out as I’m going to start my whole YAY for meat thing. Just giving you a heads up…
Anyway, I was excited to see the cattle roaming the hillside so close to our home especially since a local meat shop owner here had recently told me that the reason it was hard to get grass-fed beef is because we are so surrounded by desert terrain.
Here was proof that there actually was local grass-fed beef!!!
All those happy cows roaming and eating and enjoying the sun.
Look at those cows grazing!
I was excited!
But then I turned to Ryan and said, “I wonder why there are so few. There could be whole herds roaming these hills!”
And I’m sure now if you are a vegetarian still reading you want to now tell me about all the bad things the animals we raise on farms do to our environment.
But don’t. Because pasture-raised animals don’t have the same impact on our environment that industrial farms’ conventionally raised animals do. Pasture-raised animals are actually GOOD for our environment. They actually help regulate the ecosystem and can help keep it way healthier than our freaking monocrop farming does…but I’m getting to that…
Anyway, I was excited to see the pasture-raised cows and just sad that I didn’t see more of them. There was a ton of hillside that could be grazed and as Ryan pointed out, “The areas where the cows seemed to have grazed look healthier!” (Which in fact they did…way more green on the hillside with cows!)
Maybe if we had more animals eating the grass and renewing the soil like they used to, we wouldn’t have as many devastating wildfires as we do now….Just a thought….
So sometime after seeing the cows and the wildfires, we stopped in San Luis Obispo. We met with a friend for a hike, which ended up turning into more a mile straight up climb…AH!…before heading out to dinner in town.
We were also super lucky in that there was a farmer’s market going on that night. And on top of produce and meat from a ton of local farms, there was a stand with RAW MILK!
A bad picture of the raw milk stand!
It was the first time I’d seen a stand with raw milk since there is so much pressure by the government NOT to sell it…And it isn’t usually worth the headache for the farmers.
As cheesy (bad pun?) as it sounds, seeing that raw milk and pasture-raised cows really made my day.
I was like “YESSSSS! There is some hope for good, naturally raised and grown food here!”
After leaving San Luis Obispo, we began to move a bit more out of farmland as we wound through the hills by the ocean although I do swear we saw farmland with cattle roaming free and ZEBRAS…although I didn’t manage to snap a picture, but instead failed epically getting only a picture of my finger…
The view on our drive we beautiful and definitely different from anything I’d seen in the Midwest or even on the East Coast. And as I raved about the view, Ryan told me to just wait till we drove back home the less scenic way.
On our way back home, we were going to drive through Salinas, which is a huge farming community. It most definitely reminded me more of the farmland in the Midwest even though it wasn’t endless corn.
As we drove through Salinas, the winds were terrible. Ryan then remarked that the winds were a problem when it came to organic farming and pesticides.
Driving through Salinas.
He said that most of the time organic farms and pesticide-using farms were right next to each other and that when the wind blew, the pesticides would be blown right on to the organic produce.
So much for thinking your organic produce was so much better huh?
Of course, if we didn’t promote monocrop farming, maybe we wouldn’t have the same insect and soil problems that we have now and wouldn’t need to use the pesticides…But then I forgot….It isn’t plant farming that is causing the environmental problems is it?
Anyway, even worse than the fact that our organic produce isn’t really organic, is the serious health problems created by pesticides for people within the community.
Ryan then started telling me about how the community has a whole bunch of health issues because of the pesticides.
I couldn’t believe it.
Like honestly, couldn’t believe it.
What the heck is wrong with us? For all we talk about “eating well” and “living a healthy lifestyle” we don’t seem to really care that we are using all this crap and following farming practices that will kill us.
Quality matters people.
Anyway, what was a very scenic drive really opened my eyes and made me look around and think.
I’ve driven through farmland before, but this is the first time I think I’ve ever really looked at it.
Making Noise at the Gym
So this is a random post, but I’m still baffled by the industry’s new trend toward “silent” weight rooms – toward Planet Fitness like gyms.
Why are we afraid of the sounds of work being done!?!
I mean don’t get me wrong, I think it is stupid when guys literally deadlift a ton and then just drop the weight from the top of their lift, but a little banging as they hit the weights at the bottom…?
WHO CARES!
Apparently some gyms care enough to do this…Which I couldn’t even believe since the weights didn’t sound that loud!
Ok so I do think you need to respect the rules of the gym. And I do think there is proper gym etiquette that needs to be followed out of respect for other people (like wiping off your sweat…not hogging machines….not grunting super super loud….not slamming weights around when not necessary).
BUT watching this video (and a couple other on this guy’s channel), I really don’t see anyone just DROPPING weight disrespectfully.
And no offense to the people who confronted them, but their excuses as to why he shouldn’t drop weights were utterly stupid.
The weights could break!?!
Really!?!
And their floor could break?
Well if that is the case they shouldn’t allow any deadlifting whatsoever regardless of whether or not they “drop” weights. They probably also need a different floor then since they are a gym where lifting weights is MEANT to be done! Or they could just get platforms or bumper plates!
I mean I do understand that people can be rude with extra loud grunting and slamming of plates. And I do think there is a need to be respectful when working out in the gym.
But at the same time, a gym is a place where work is meant to be done! Where people are trying to get stronger and lift more than they lifted last time.
If getting work done means making a little noise, that is fine by me!
What is your take on “dropping weights” at the gym?
Is eating well really difficult? Or are you just lazy?
So yesterday I got a text from a friend asking me if a certain pre-made smoothie was healthy.
And my response was…”Well…not really.”
She then replied with, “Ugh. Nothing that tastes good is healthy.”
Is that really truly? Or is it the excuse we use to stop our diet?
And when I told her to make her own delicious smoothie, she said, “Okay fine. I’m lazy.”
I hear all the time that “nothing healthy tastes that good,” but is that really true? (And actually few ever really admit that they are just being lazy!)
Yes, there are bad foods that I love because of the way they taste and I do indulge in them on cheat days but they don’t really taste BETTER than all the delicious whole foods I eat on a daily basis. And they also make me feel WAY WORSE than all of the whole foods do!
I actually believe that most people would agree with me that meals cooked with whole natural foods can be extremely delicious and that TASTE isn’t really the reason why they don’t eat healthily.
It is laziness.
And yes…maybe that laziness is brought on by the fact that we are emotionally drained or stressed or dealing with lots of other things in life, but it is still laziness.
And our LAZINESS is what makes eating healthily seem super difficult.
Laziness makes us pick fad diets and stray away from cooking.
Everyday we make choices about how we are going to spend our time. And many people decide that cooking whole natural foods isn’t worth the effort.
So they start some diet where they don’t have to cook. They try a short cut. Pre-made foods. Juice diets. Special K cereal (Sorry Special K but you bother me).
And then they wonder why they aren’t losing weight or feeling healthier.
Why aren’t they getting results?!?
So they end up giving up on the diet…”It is just too hard eating well and I’m not getting results,” they say.
HA!
If you are TRULY eating well, you WILL get results.
Yes, you WILL have to be patient. Yes, you will have to spend time cooking. But YES, you will get results.
Sorry…there are no IFs, ANDs or BUTs about it…If you eat well, you WILL get results.
If you are lazy and take short cuts, yea you won’t get results and “eating well” WILL seem impossible because who can stick to a juice diet!?!
I mean when you really break it all down, is cooking whole natural foods really that much more difficult or truly time-consuming?
Is it really more difficult or time-consuming than bouncing around from fad diet to fad diet never getting results?
In the end, you waste way more time doing all the failed fad diets than you do spending a little time each week prepping and cooking meals.
Shoot with the Crock-pot you can basically throw everything in at once and just go about your day and come home and have a week of meals cooked for you!
I mean on a Sunday morning while you are eating breakfast, you can easily throw a whole chicken into the oven and cook it for the next few hours while you go about your chores or spend all that time you supposedly don’t have watching TV.
Is that really more difficult than going out and buying prepackaged foods that you throw in the microwave and that leave you always feeling hungry and never get you results?
Is eating crap really less difficult and truly more tasty if you aren’t happy with how you feel?
What matters more?
When it comes right down to it and you dig through all the crap excuses, is eating well really that difficult or are you really just being lazy?
Why do people love cleanse diets?
So recently I’ve had a few of my female clients ask me about cleanse diets.
I personally would NEVER ever do one…or for that matter recommend that any of my clients do one.
This is what I think of when I think of cleanse diets (although many of them aren’t low carb).
I know they are the popular thing, but honestly, they are stupid.
Really? Drink juice for a week and your body will be cleansed?!?
Sounds like a week of feeling crappy and overloaded with sugar!
And when I tell most people that I think cleanses are stupid, they say to me, “Well then how do you rid your body of all the toxins that accumulate?”
UHM…I DON’T EAT CRAP FOOD MOST OF THE TIME!
You shouldn’t need to do a cleanse if you are eating a healthy diet 80% of the time. That healthy eating will, itself, make your body healthier and remove all of the “toxins.”
And really you think that one week on a “cleanse” is going to remove all the toxins from your body that you’ve been consuming for months and months and months eating a poor diet!?!
HA!
If you want to make your body healthy, you need to eat healthily most of the time…not for one week!
And the funniest thing is, when I say they should eat healthy 80% of the time if they really want a clean, healthy body, they tell me that only cleanses TRULY remove all of the gunk. That eating healthy doesn’t get it all out.
REALLY!?!
Some cleanse diet is going to remove some hidden gunk that eating only whole natural foods won’t remove!?!
UHM…NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
Sometimes I want to ask people obsessed with cleanse diets what this supposed hidden gunk is? I mean really what is so supposedly stuck in us that only a cleanse diet can rid of us?
Also, I would just like to point out that most of these cleanse diets really AREN’T THAT HEALTHY OR GOOD FOR YOU!
You really thinking drinking juice for a week is that great for you? All you are consuming is a ton of carbs in the form of SUGAR!
That isn’t healthy!
But when I tell people that cleanse diets AREN’T healthy, I usually get a response like, “Well I saw a cleanse diet by Dr. Oz!”
Dr. Oz….Usually I would have a rant against him, but in this case…Well I actually kind of like him.
When they say that to me, I usually say, “Have you looked at the difference between your FAD cleanse and Dr. Oz’s?”
The Dr. Oz cleanse is basically like eating just a super clean all natural diet!
It isn’t juice with cayenne pepper! It is chicken and veggies. It is just SUPER CLEAN NATURAL FOODS!
If you want a TRUE cleanse, you don’t need to do some crazy diet that cuts out all but one food group! Just eat whole natural foods that aren’t processed at all!
Or you know what…maybe even add in some intermittent fasting…Now fasting a bit…that IS truly good for your body!
Oh but wait….you aren’t doing a cleanse to be healthy? No…you are doing the cleanse because your friend supposedly lost 10lbs in one week?!?
Oh well then of course do the cleanse! It must be the magic pill for weight loss!
NOT!
Cleanse diets might help you lose a bit of weight, but the second you stop the cleanse, do you really think you are going to maintain the weight loss?
You haven’t changed your normal daily eating habits so how do you think you are going to keep that lost weight off?
YOU AREN’T GOING TO!
So why waste a week of your life on a completely miserable diet only to lose weight that you will probably gain back in less than two days when you return to your old eating habits?
DON’T!
There is no quick weight loss solution. If you want to lose weight, eat clean whole, natural foods. Eat a well-balanced diet of fruits, vegetables and meat. (Shoot I would even say a well-balanced diet of vegetables and meat, which is completely the opposite of some of those fruit and sugar-laden cleanses!)
If you want to truly lose weight, you need to start a diet you can maintain for more than a week.
And if you are completely and utterly set on doing some sort of “cleanse” go super strict the first couple of weeks on your diet. Eat only vegetables and meat.
Then maybe after those two weeks of super clean eating, add back in a few healthy treats…like fruits or maybe a glass of wine or some dark chocolate or a little full-fat dairy here and there.
The point is that these fad cleanses aren’t healthy AND they don’t truly help you lose weight. If you want to be “clean” and lose weight, your only solution is to eat whole natural foods.
Even Dr. Oz says so!
B-I-N-G-O
So I heard this great quote in an ESPN 30 for 30 last night…
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
YES! This is why I’ve said you need to plan out your workouts and diet program and PROGRESS yourself toward your goal!
But apparently not everyone has heard this quote before.
Yesterday I was also told about a trainer that plays “Bingo” to provide people with their workouts.
BINGO.
Basically, people pull exercises out of a hat and the exercises that they pull out make up their workout for that day.
That means they could pull out all leg exercises and just completely annihilate their legs that day even if they did a leg workout already that week. It could also mean that they pulled out four or five sheets with the same exercise on it so that they had to do burpees the entire workout.
AH!
When I heard this, I honestly had to shake myself because I couldn’t believe it. It was potentially the dumbest thing I’d ever heard.
Talk about a lazy trainer. Sorry…but it’s true. And potentially a dumb trainer…Because who the heck could put such little thought into their workouts for their clients and think it was ok!?!
And the worst part about all of this for me was that it wasn’t even being done with people who were just casually working out (not that it would be good even then!)…BUT it was being done with a college athletic team!
A COLLEGE ATHLETIC TEAM!
A team competing at a high level with specific needs – a specific GOAL!
How the could that trainer think it was ok to have them do random exercises? Did that trainer really think it would help the players reach a SPECIFIC goal!?! Random exercises!?!
And all of the players weren’t even doing the same intensity workout or working the same parts so when they went to do a “planned” workout later that week, some of them may have already completely destroyed that muscle earlier when they played BINGO while others may not have worked that muscle for over a week!
Plus it the stupid game didn’t address imbalances or injuries or ANYTHING!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Seriously hearing that made me so angry.
It also made me sure that I had to post the following statement:
Just because someone has a title or certification DOESN’T mean they actually KNOW anything.
Sorry…but it doesn’t.
So that is why I constantly post that you’ve got to experiment and do your own research.
You should be able to judge if what you are given by a trainer or dietitian or anyone else for that matter has merit. You should be able to judge if something is totally bogus and worthless or something that does have potential to get you to your goal.
And please…NEVER….EVER…play BINGO as your workout!!!!
Would you rather….
So yesterday at work one of the other trainers asked me a few “would you rather…” questions.
One was about which piece of equipment I would choose from the gym as a weapon if a zombie apocalypse happened…
And the other was about which I would rather give up, nuts or dairy.
Which got me to thinking, isn’t a healthy lifestyle really all about “would you rather?”
I mean think about it…If you could eat whatever your favorite food is every day and look and feel great and be healthy, wouldn’t you? Would you really eat vegetables or cut out gluten and processed foods if you didn’t have to?
Probably not.
BUT that isn’t reality.
The reality of it is you are always playing a sort of “would you rather” game. Would you rather eat that pint of ice cream and feel crappy later or eat a natural, whole foods meal and feel energized and good later?
Would you rather eat pizza and chips and not perform well or eat a burger without a bun and a salad and get in a great workout?
I personally would rather eat well and feel great, be healthy and perform well. That is why I eat well most of the time. Plus I do find that I enjoy all of the whole natural foods that I eat. I love grass-fed beef and fish and fruits and veggies (especially cauliflower for some reason haha).
BUT there are those cheat days when I WOULD RATHER indulge and even risk feeling super crappy the next day than eat healthy.
Eating well is a choice and sometimes it isn’t always an easy choice. When you are stressed or pressed for time or put into situations where the EASIEST thing to do is cheat, you are more tempted to just give in without really thinking about the consequences of your choices (and how you will feel tomorrow about them).
Eating well and working out isn’t easy (yes it is easier for some people than for others), but it is a choice.
So think about it…What would you rather do?
Burn off what you eat
So in college I had a couple of teammates who definitely lived by the philosophy of eat what you want and burn it off…aka exercise so you can eat badly.
I even know a ton of people now that have that do the same thing…
“I workout so I can eat what I want. And when I eat badly, I just go workout to burn it off!”
But that is probably the worst mentality you could have.
Working out doesn’t excuse the CRAP calories you are putting into your body. Exercise doesn’t truly cancel out the bad food.
You may not necessarily gain weight on the scale because you burned off the calories you consumed, BUT you definitely aren’t being healthy and I guarantee you would see your workouts paying off way more if they weren’t simply a way to allow you to eat badly!
For one, you aren’t fueling correctly to really get the most out of your workouts. And your body composition is probably not improving.
Actually it is probably getting worse.
And two, you are probably going to at some point really start overtraining. I know a ton of girls that would lift and then even run just to make sure they “burned off” the food.
Let’s just say this is DEFINITELY not a healthy attitude.
Actually I HATE the attitude….So when I saw a restaurant in London that now allows people to eat and WORK OFF the food, I of course had to write a rant about it.
The restaurant is called Steam. And while I like the idea of a restaurant serving whole, natural foods or even healthy meals, I HATE the idea of a restaurant promoting workouts to work off the meal.
AH!
I like the fact that you can play games and have a place to eat and be active, but the whole philosophy of working off what you eat is what kills me. And honestly, maybe it is just the way the restaurant is promote that really bothers me.
I don’t mind offering people a place to be active and healthy while enjoying a healthy meal, but I don’t like when you offer exercise and activities just to burn calories so that you can eat without guilt.
And vibrating chairs to burn calories!?!
AH!
I mean…yea promoting eating well and working out is great…but not if you are promoting working out to BURN OFF what you eat! This restaurant is just seems to promote the disordered eating mentality that so many people already have!
AH!
You DON’T workout to burn off what you eat people! You workout to be healthy and strong and happy!
Really Jillian Michaels? Really!?!
So I wrote a post a while back about Jillian Michaels…It was actually a rant against her.
She demonstrated a crossfit workout and looked HORRIBLE doing just about everything. I had some people rush to her defense…
“She’s done so much for fitness.”
“She looks amazing.”
“So what…crossfit isn’t her thing. It is hard.”
UHM! She is a trainer. A huge, celebrity trainer. She SHOULD be able to do the moves. AND she has enough power that I’m sure she could even dictate which moves they did on the show. She could choose moves that she even looked good doing. AND on top of that the moves they had her do weren’t even difficult!
I’m sorry…Jillian Michaels is an AWFUL trainer!
I mean there is some really really bad form out there…just cruise the Awkward Gym Moments page and you will get your fill. There are some videos on that page that make me cringe.
However, bad form from a person that supposedly has made fitness and a healthy lifestyle their living….now that just makes me want to throw up.
There really is no excuse for her bad form. She does this for a living and has more than enough time to do the research (or have others do the research for her) so that she can master proper form.
Just to set things straight…A kettlebell swing isn’t a squat exercise. It is a hip hinge.
In a squat, your butt goes down toward the ground and you bend your knees. You aren’t bending your knees or dropping your butt toward the ground with a hip hinge. Your butt is going back toward the wall (or the ground if you are doing a glute bridge) and then you squeeze your glutes and drive your hips forward (or up).
So a TRUE swing is a hip hinge NOT the squat that Jillian is doing.
Next…a TRUE kettlebell swing is NOT an arm exercise. Sorry crossfitters but your American swing ISN’T a true swing and honestly destroys the whole point of a swing.
A true swing is a glute exercise. NOT an arm exercise.
Seriously why turn an awesome butt exercise into an arm exercise?
Why?!?
There are plenty of great arm exercises out there. Use one of those and leave this great butt exercise be!
So in a TRUE kettlebell swing, you DON’T bring your arms overhead. That throws off the whole rhythm of the swing.
If you watch and really good swing, there is a great connection between the forearm and hips. The glutes move the kettebell forward and then the hips catch the kettlebell to slow it down.
If you bring the arms overhead, you lose this whole connection! So…DON’T DO IT!
Here is a GREAT TRUE kettlebell swing. Her form is great. I don’t want to hear your excuses for not doing a swing like this.
This is right…If you don’t do it like this…You are wrong….Period.
And honestly, I don’t even know where to start with her long cycle (aka clean and jerk). It is so terrible I almost want to throw something at my computer screen every time I watch the video.
If you do it like that, you may as well just go bash your shoulder into a wall because sooner or later you are going to get injured.
Although….if you use a freaking baby weight like that….maybe you won’t. Seriously…lady at least LOOK like you are lifting something heavy to encourage women to lift heavy!
Way to go Jillian! You have awful form AND you don’t even promote women lifting heavy!
I <3 Brutal Workouts
For those of you unsure of what <3 means – it is a “heart.”
I “heart” brutal workouts.
Do you think this is cool?
That was the sign hanging from one of the crossfits around here.
And every time I see it, I get annoyed.
There recently has become an obsession with gnarly, brutal workouts. People want to seem “bad-ass” even if it means risking injury.
Like even the other day at the gym, a new woman in her 40s said to me, “I was doing insanity before I came here.”
I said, “Oh yea?”
This woman has movement patterns that NEED improvement. She can’t do half the moves yet and she has no aerobic endurance so the idea of her doing insanity made me cringe.
She said, “Yea it’s super intense. You like want to pass out.”
AHHHHHHHHH!
She was doing these workouts because they were known to be “brutal.” She decided that because they were “brutal” they must be good.(And note when I say “doing” these workouts, she wasn’t actually doing the workout as it was laid out….just like half the people now aren’t truly “doing” crossfit.)
She was doing “brutal” workouts because that is what is cool even though her body wasn’t NEAR ready to handle them!
And what happened?
SHE GOT INJURED!
Yep she came into us with an injury. AND on top of that, her movement patterns were bad enough that it was only a matter of time before she developed other injuries that could affect her for the rest of her life.
BUT it didn’t really matter that she got injured. She still liked the workouts…She still RAVED about the workouts.
Why?
BECAUSE THEY ARE BRUTAL. And apparently brutal is the new cool.
WHY!?!
SERIOUSLY WHY!?!
Why is doing some so intense that half the people who do it get injured cool?
And don’t get me wrong, I love an intense workout as much as the next person. I LOVE pushing myself hard.
But I want a purpose. I want a goal. I want to be pushing myself hard in a way that is actually going to get me results – make me move better, feel better and be healthier!
Can we please stop promoting barfing, passing out and injury as the measure of if a workout is good?
Can we get back to a focus on progression and workouts that actually drive you toward some goal?
Are you brutal workout obsessed? Do you get it?
Please…someone explain to me this obsession with brutal workouts!
