Category Archives: Man Biceps
The Cave Kids – Children’s Music UPDATE
So Ryan has officially released a Primal children’s music CD! I, of course, am a huge fan!
The CD teaches children about healthy eating habits while helping them learn other things such as their ABCs and days of the week. The songs also encourage kids to get up and exercise!
(And as an adult the songs are very easy to listen to unlike some of the children’s music out there!)
Go check it out at The Cave Kids and let me know what you think!!
The BEST lifting shoes EVER!
Show me yours!
For one, Converse All-Stars are some of the best lifting shoes around…other than my Saucony Hattori for deadlifts. They are great because of their flat soles and lack of padding. The Saucony shoes are only better for deadlifts because they allow you to feel the ground and don’t add any inches whatsoever to your lift!
For two, Candy decked these out for me with cupcakes (because I like to bake…especially when it is a cheat day and I can eat it) and “Show me yours,” one of the Man Bicep slogans!
Plus they have like my three favorite colors on them – blue/green, purple and pink!
I know you all are so jealous! 😉
Show Me Yours!
I was so thrilled to receive this picture from Erin of her “man bicep!”
LOVE IT!!!! 🙂
Thank you Erin!
Erin started lifting 6 months ago and sent me an email today asking for workout and nutrition suggestions. I sent her an email back that is probably a bazillion times longer than she wanted, but what the hey! If you ask me for information, trust me you will get it.
Keep up the great work Erin! I love the man bicep!
Now everyone else…SHOW ME YOURS!
P.S. Feel free to email me with your workout and nutrition questions! I seriously live to discuss health, fitness and nutrition!
The Cave Kids
So Ryan has been working on a Primal kids CD called “The Cave Kids” and last weekend I helped him write a song called “Just like Mom and Dad.”
You can totally see the Man Bicep influence in the song. Also, it is my singing debut! Hey, I’m definitely no singing star but it works well enough for this song. Let me know what you think!
“I thought it was a man writing this…”
I submitted my Primal powerlifting success story to Mark’s Daily Apple because of Ryan’s encouragement. And yesterday the story was posted on Mark’s site.
I honestly wasn’t sure how people would respond and was a bit nervous to have my story somewhere other than Man Bicep. I thought people would think it was cool or a bit different from the usual success story, but I never thought people would assume I was a man.
Actually I am very amused by how many people first assumed it was a man’s story until they saw the pictures.
It made me think about how conditioned we are to believe that men lift heavy weights, but women don’t.
I mean people even just assumed I spelled “fiance” wrong instead of thinking that I was a woman…and honestly I can’t blame them.
We all view life through a lens – a lens which is developed based on our own experiences and the influence of mainstream media.
And let’s face it, most women don’t lift heavy. And most mainstream media tells us that women shouldn’t even want to lift heavy unless they want to bulk up.
Most media sources tell women to avoid super low reps so that they aren’t training for hypertrophy (to make their muscles bigger). Instead they are supposed to stick with higher reps and use “challenging” weights.
While yes, there are some outlets out there that are trying to change this female phobia of heavy weights, things are changing slowly…very slowly.
I still train women who don’t want to lift too heavy because they don’t want to get bulky. Of course I slowly trick them into lifting heavy, but at first they really refuse.
I even had one client tell me she was getting bulky from doing too many push ups…from her knees!!! WHAT!?!
I try telling them that there is no way that they will bulk up. I even tell them that I’ve tried and it just isn’t possible, but they don’t believe me. Too many mainstream media sources telling them something different.
I’m just hoping more women who lift heavy come forward and share their stories and pictures so that people stop assuming that any story about a heavy lifter is about a man!
Join the Man Bicep movement ladies! Flex those biceps. Invade the weight room floor. And look sexy while doing it!
It’s hard not to preach…
Sometimes I find it very hard to keep my mouth shut when my clients talk about nutrition. I obviously share my opinions and views with them, but I have to remind myself not to continually preach to them about why their low-fat, crap food diet isn’t working.
And it’s hard. Because sometimes you just want to say, “Why are you claiming your diet is so healthy when it OBVIOUSLY isn’t working for you and you’ve been trying to lose weight FOREVER!”
But you can’t say that.
But sometimes it is just so hard to refrain…even though I do. I mean shoot if they were even claiming to eat Primal and not losing weight, I would want to preach to them to find something different.
I just don’t get how people just keep sticking with something that isn’t getting them results.
I mean I’ll try a diet for 90 days and if I’m not seeing any results, I’m done with it. Some of my clients have been doing their “diets” for years and haven’t seen results…
So why are they so set on sticking with their diet!?!
Is it a fear of trying something new and failing? Possibly…
Is it the difficulty of trying something new and potentially having to give up foods you like? Possibly…
Is it because they’ve heard the diet works for numerous other people? Possibly…
Is it because someone in the mainstream media cited some scientific study about the health of their diet? Possibly…
But are any of these really good enough reasons to stick with something you’ve PROVED to not work?
NOPE!
Stop paying attention to what mainstream media and your friends say worked for them! That isn’t one of the keys to finding your “dieting secret” remember!?!
Stop being afraid of trying something new! And risk giving up foods that you like! You may find other foods that you love even more on the new diet! Experiment!
I mean honestly, what is the worst case scenario? Nothing works?
If the worst case scenario is that nothing works, then nothing bad really happened, did it? I mean you weren’t seeing results before.
But there is a benefit to experimenting EVEN if you don’t see results. The benefit is YOU LEARNED! You learned more about dieting and probably discovered some new things that you both like and dislike.
I don’t want to have to preach about my how wonderful my diet is people! But please don’t preach to me about yours if it obviously isn’t working! Start experimenting…If you do, I’m more than willing to listen to any complaints or rave reviews that you have!
Strongest College Female Cheerleader
I got shown this article by numerous people today and yesterday so I felt the need to write about it.
While the article bothered me, I do love Anna's biceps!
But what I feel the need to write about isn’t the fact that she turned down money because she was asked to do steroids. I feel the need to write about how her strength was talked about in every single article.
If you read any article about how strong some guy is, the article will tell you his weight and height along with his lifting maxes. They do this to prove just how relatively strong he is for his height and weight.
But in most of the articles there is absolutely no mention of her weight and only a handful mention her height.
Why is this? How can we tell if those numbers are actually good if we don’t know her height and weight?
In all honesty, we don’t really know how strong she is…but I don’t think that matters to mainstream media or a majority of the population. And I’m not saying that she isn’t super strong. I think her numbers are great!
BUT still…why wouldn’t you prove that she is super strong by giving her height and weight like you would a man’s?
I think they didn’t even think to list her height and weight because to most of the population, any woman who lifts over 100lbs is ridiculously strong. I mean women aren’t supposed to lift super heavy weights so anything over 100 is huge right?
I don’t…for some reason this really bothered me. Am I reading into this lack of weight and height too much?
Or am I right? Â Does society still believe that women don’t lift heavy? I mean a 5 foot 10 woman with the numbers that Anna Watson has aren’t bad BUT they aren’t THAT awesome.
I mean I’ve seen enough women lift heavy to know that her numbers don’t stand out…which I guess is why they wanted her to do steroids…
Don’t get me wrong. She is strong and looks great. BUT RELATIVELY SPEAKING…she isn’t crazy strong like the article tries to hint at by only listing her numbers without her height and weight.
It just makes me think that society hasn’t fully realized just how many out there look super sexy and lift heavy weights!!
What do you think?
Some Snowy Day Fun!
So today Ryan and I spent the whole day having some fun making Man Bicep shirts….ok toward the end I got worn out and grumpy about the tedium of working with Photoshop, but all in all it was fun.
PLUS, I think the shirts are pretty amusing. Check them out and let me know what you think! Also, more to come shortly!!! 🙂
A Taboo Subject – You’re Overweight Cont.
I found this comment on the blog of one of the participants in our discussion on my last post (Fatty Lane). I thought it was very relevant to the discussion:
DF
Although I understand that this is meant to be humorous there is a very serious side to this. The fact is many obese people go undiagnosed for many illnesses because of this exact reason. This can lead to their unnecessary deaths, family hardships and life altering despair. The fact that many hospitals cannot diagnose a significant portion of the population because of a lack of accommodation is really unacceptable at this point in time. The embarrassment that many obese people feel when going to the doctor or submitting to any form of medical testing is understandable and it also unnecessary as it is entirely due to a lack of understanding and compassion within the medical community in general.
Not a day goes by where we aren’t bombarded with a new study that shows how being fat promotes this disease or another. But the bare ass truth is that the obese are treated like second class citizens by the medical community and thus causing the obese to shy away from medical help when it is needed most. Most obese people will ignore a medical problem until they absolutely have no choice but to seek help. This adds to the idea that the obese are more likely to get sick as compared to their thinner counterparts. This issue with imaging equipment is a prime example of how the obese are ignored and yet demonized by a world that still doesn’t understand the issue.
A Taboo Subject – You’re Overweight
Why is it easier to prescribe a procedure than it is to tell a patient to lose weight naturally?
Why are we so afraid to discuss someone being unhealthily overweight? Why are we more afraid of offending the person than looking out for their health? Why are people more afraid of admitting they are overweight and doing something about it than they are of dying from it?
Are we really benefiting anyone by not discussing obesity?
NOPE!
Some people blame doctors for not discussing the subject with their patients, but will their patients really listen to them? An NPR article called “Why Doctors and Patients Talk Around Our Growing Waistlines” blames both the patient and the doctors.
And I agree. Both parties are to blame.
Doctors NEED…I repeat…NEED to discuss diet and exercise with their overweight patients…heck I even think they should discuss it with their normal weight patients! Doctors are respected figures who can influence our decisions concerning our health. They can’t worry about whether or not they offend their patients when they tell them they are overweight. I’m sorry, but sometimes the truth hurts.
Maybe if there were some incentive for doctors to discuss diet and exercise with their patients, they would. I mean we give them incentives to prescribe drugs…
Anyway, I do realize how touchy a subject it is to bring up with a patient.
It can be a very upsetting discussion. No one wants to hear that what they are doing is bad for them. And let’s face it, mainstream media has made us associate pretty negative images and words with being overweight.
And you don’t always know how the discussion will be received. You want it to encourage people to take charge of their health, but instead it can sometimes make people want to give up.
As the NPR article states one woman started cancelling her doctor’s appointments because she hadn’t lost enough weight. She felt ashamed.
Why would a doctor then want to discuss obesity with his/her patients if it is just going to scare them off?
So what then is the answer?
Maybe we all just need to grow a pair and stop being babies. Sometimes the truth hurts. Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable to talk about.
BUT YOU NEED TO DO IT! I mean 74.1% of the US population is overweight and 30% of those overweight people are obese.
Obesity and it’s health risks aren’t just going to disappear! Start talking people!
Man Bicep 