Blog Archives
Top 10 Must Reads
1. Mark’s Daily Apple/Primal Blueprint/21 Day Total Body Transformation – I love just about anything and everything Mark writes. While I definitely don’t follow his workout plan, I think his diet is perfect. His website and books not only tell you what to do but they also explain why you should do it. If you follow the Primal Blueprint, you aren’t just blindly accepting something, you are being fully informed as to WHY it is the right thing to do! Bye Bye conventional wisdom, hello Mark’s Daily Apple!…My only question is…why Daily Apple? Mark doesn’t believe in eating fruit every day!;-)
2. Good Calories, Bad Calories – So people always cite their doctors as their source of information, but my question is…does your doctor really keep up with the latest studies or does your doctor just prescribe the medication that makes him or her the most money? I think I’d rather have Gary Taubes, a research journalist with no ulterior motives, telling me what is good and bad for me. Taubes looks at the facts, which makes for a very informative, if not sometimes dry, read. If you’ve read this book and Primal Blueprint and still think carbs are key and fat is bad…I think you have issues (no offense).
3. Be Heavy – I just found this blog through My Athletic Life (which is another great blog). Dana is AWESOME! Recently her posts have been spot on to what I’ve been thinking and feeling. I really loved her post yesterday about giving yourself permission to fail. I think this happens more often than we even realize!
4. Men’s Health – Yep…that’s right…a men’s magazine. No women’s magazine made the list, but Men’s Health did. Men’s Health has some great workouts as well as good nutritional advice (they promote Primal/Paleo/low carb!!). They really try to relay the most current information to their readers!
5. 4 Hour Body – Tim Ferriss is the definition of a human guinea pig. Talk about self-experimentation. I love this book because it SHOWS you what works. You know he isn’t just trying to sell you a fad diet, but something that he has tried and that has WORKED for him!
6. Strong Lifts – One of the best lifting sites out there (AND he really promotes women lifting!!!). His 5×5 program is something that I really want to try at some point! Great information if you are interested in gaining strength or even size!
7. The Great Fitness Experiment – I love the name of Charlotte’s blog! Personal fitness really is just one big experiment. AND Charlotte really has tried it all so she is a great source of information!
8. Fit and Feminist – I’ve recently added this blog to my daily reading list. While Caitlin definitely likes running more than I do, she is definitely a Man Biceper! She is a strong woman who doesn’t seem afraid to tell it like it is! I loved her post the other day about weight training as feminist resistance.
9. Leangains – A program to get super sexy that goes against conventional wisdom – of course I love this blog!!! Again another person that does more than just regurgitate information – Martin has actually experimented to find out what works! Check out Intermittent Fasting the Martin Berkhan way!
10. MAN BICEP – DUH! I mean come on… 🙂
By the way, I wrote an earlier post about how there weren’t any good women’s lifting blogs. While I’m still disappointed by most of what is out there, I have found a few great ones which are on this list (and I check every day!).
Women’s fitness blogs – where are the weights?
Hmm....
So yesterday I set out to find some fitness blogs by, for and about women. What I found was not what I expected when I typed in “top fitness blogs for women.”
While I did find a few blogs I liked, I found a lot of blogs that really had nothing to do with what I consider “fitness.” There were posts about loving your body; posts about eating well for healthy hair; post about body dysmorphia (which was actually one of my favorites!). BUT there weren’t really any posts about women lifting and working out to develop beautiful lean, toned muscle. There weren’t very many posts about what women did to workout and improve their health.
I found a website called the 100 Must Read Blogs…By Women! and found that of the fitness blogs with descriptions only one had anything about resistance training in the blurb about it (and that blog was almost specifically for athletes). That is sort of sad don’t you think?
What do women have against resistance training? I mean I’ve heard the “I don’t want to get bulky excuse”, which is total BS. I’ve also heard women complain that they feel uncomfortable when they are in the weight room because all of the men are looking at them and judging them. This is BS too. I’ve stood and watched people in the weight room. The people who get looked at are the ones either doing something that looks absolutely silly OR people who lift an incredible amount of weight (which means…MOST OF THE TIME MEN ARE ONLY WATCHING OTHER MEN LIFT!).
Most female trainers who blog should know that women won’t get big from lifting weights. Most female trainers also know correct form so they shouldn’t be intimidated or worried about lifting in front of men or encouraging their clients to do so. So why are so few writing about weight training!?! I mean you female trainers who don’t promote weight training are part of the problem. I mean we can recommend that women experiment with their diet to find out what works for them, but no one seems to recommend that women experiment with all forms of exercise!
We want women to love their bodies and not be discouraged by the women in the magazines. I whole-heartedly believe that if we can get women to see weight training as something beneficial and not something that will make them manly that we will start to chip away at women’s body dysmorphia!
YES! I want this shirt!
Man Bicep 