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Where’s the love? – Practice What You Preach
So I was on the phone with my Mom the other day talking about workout videos. She actually mentioned that she wasn’t very fond of the Jillian Michaels DVDS, which sidetracked us onto the topic of Jillian Michaels.
And my Mom informed me that Jillian Michaels went 7 weeks without working out and actually ADMITTED TO THIS FACT on TV.
WHAT?!!
For one…how could someone whose life supposedly revolves around fitness be ok with not working out for 7 weeks!?!
For two…how could you admit that you didn’t have TIME to workout when we trainers work so hard to tell people, that no matter how busy they are, they have time to live a healthy lifestyle?
And three….HOW CAN YOU NOT PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH!?!
How can you expect to convince people to fit in working out to their crazy busy schedules if you don’t find the time to workout yourself? (And how can she admit that on TV!?!!?!?!)
It also goes back to one of my posts a few weeks ago about the girls who ate all the Paleo baked goods…The girls who claimed they were doing Paleo when in fact THEY WEREN’T!
I honestly believe that there are a lot of different things out there that work for a lot of different people. So maybe that fake Paleo worked for them (but still call it what it is…and it isn’t Paleo…)
I’ve even seen my own diet and exercise habits change over the years…heck even over the last 6 months…Not huge changes all the time, but definitely slight modifications….(I ate more dairy. I ate super super low carb. I tried out some corn tortillas. And now? Carb cycling with some rice and potatoes. Not much dairy. Not much fruit. Barely any nuts…Mostly meat and veggies. YUM!)
But whatever exact program I’m writing about and preaching, I’M ACTUALLY FOLLOWING IT!
This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine when people talk about diets or exercise programs BUT DON’T ACTUALLY DO THEM.
Be it TV trainers like Jillian Michaels or even friends on a new diet and exercise program, I hate when people CLAIM they stand for something or claim that a diet does work, or for that matter doesn’t work, when they haven’t actually even DONE IT.
And I’m not saying that your current beliefs won’t change over time. They actually SHOULD change. You should constantly be learning and self-experimenting and adjusting to make things better as you learn more.
You should never be standing still. And just because you adjust your beliefs over time that doesn’t mean that you are admitting your were wrong.
It just means you are smart enough to always continue learning and GROWING!
You should take pride in the program that you do. You, in fact, should LOVE IT. And that means working always to make it the best it can be.
So whether you’re a trainer or weekend warrior, if you ever tell someone “get enough sleep,” “eat whole natural foods,” “cut out grains,” “lift heavy weights,” MAKE SURE YOU ARE PRACTICING WHAT YOU PREACH!
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!
Jillian Michaels – I don’t want you representing women’s fitness
Jillian Michaels trying crossfit (Sorry I for some reason couldn’t get the video to embed!)
I was very disappointed with Jillian Michaels after watching this video. She honestly looks AWFUL performing every one of these exercises. Shouldn’t a famous trainer make sure she looks good doing exercises before she tries them on TV?
Also, I was disappointed to find out that Jillian really can’t even do more than one unassisted pull up. WHAT!?!
I find it kind of sad that Jillian, who doesn’t seem that strong and looked pathetic performing those exercises on TV, represents female fitness in mainstream media.
Sorry Jillian, but I think you sold out and now are a disappointment to the world of women’s fitness. Did you ever really have a passion for fitness? If so…where did it go because I don’t see it.
What do you think about this video? Does it upset you to find out that she really doesn’t look athletic when exercising?
Can we please elect someone like Annie Thorsdottir or Lindsey Smith the female fitness rep. for mainstream media?
Top 10 – Famous women who lift?
So this post today WAS going to be about the top 10 hot famous women that lift. But so far…Candy and I haven’t been very successful.
First we tried searching for hot muscled actresses. Most actresses don’t look very muscled (except when the train for a movie like Million Dollar Baby). The only actress I really found who looked halfway decent was Cameron Diaz. Of course she is getting all sorts of criticism for being too muscled. I personally think she looks pretty awesome and gnarly here!
We then decided to try searching for hot muscled singers. We found Madonna…no one else…but Madonna.
Of course, there is much debate about whether or not she is also too muscled. Of course the “too muscled” pictures of both Cameron Diaz and Madonna look more like “too skinny” than “too muscled” to me. But hey…whatever…
Yea I mean she looks pretty freaking anorexic to me...Not muscled.
I finally got so fed up trying to find actresses or singers or famous women in general that I just typed in “women with muscle.” I got bodybuilders and some links to inappropriate sites. No famous women with nice toned, muscled physiques.
I then asked Brian if he knew of any famous women with muscle. The only one he could come up with was Jillian Michaels. Candy and I decided that she didn’t really count since she is a famous fitness TRAINER! But then again at least she has muscle unlike half of the celebrity and famous trainers out there!
Anyway, if you can think of any famous, popular women with muscle (who aren’t involved in the fitness industry like trainers or fitness models), please let me know. We seem to be at a loss here.
Jillian Michaels – I hate running too
So I found out last week that Jillian Michaels hates running and I 100% agree with that sentiment. I run as little as possible and if I have to run, I prefer to do sprints. I just get too freaking bored running long distances.
BUT running is good for you. So I force myself to do it. I usually force myself to run by including it in a workout – like in crossfit workouts like the Murph (1 mile, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, 1 mile) or the Small (3 rounds of 1,000m rowing, 50 burpees, 50 box jumps and 800m running). But sometimes I do manage to just do a cardio day like yesterday.
Yesterday I actually did what are probably my two least favorite things – running and rowing. I’ve already mentioned I hate running, but rowing is also up there among the things I hate most. BUT unlike running, I force myself to row at least a few times a week. Boredom isn’t a factor when I row – surviving is. Rowing is probably one of the hardest activities for me, which is why I force myself to do it. I’m determined to get better at it.
Anyway, yesterday I did a workout that included both running and rowing and was purely cardio aside from the tough ab circuit before. I’ve included both the abs and the cardio workout below. Even Man Bicepers need to do cardio even if we do like lifting weights more! 🙂
Abs: (Repeat circuit 3 times)
15 Knees to Elbows (Hanging from a pull up bar bring your knees up to your elbows.)
10 each side Cable Cross Rotation with Press (Put the cable as low as it can go. Using the rope attachment pull from low on your right , pull across your body and up toward your shoulder rotating your body so that you can press the cable up and out on the left side.)
15 TRX Knees to Chest (Holding a push up position with your feet in the TRX band, bring your knees in toward you chest without raising your butt up.)
10 each side Russian Twists (Use weight!)
Cardio:
Walk 2 minutes
Run 7 minutes
Row 250m
Repeat twice
On the third round:
Walk 2 minutes
Run 7 minutes
Row 500m
Man Bicep 