If you only work on improving one skill at a time, it’s hard to expect that you will be able to maintain other skills.

For instance, I stopped pressing heavy because my shoulders started to bother me, in fact for about 4 months I did no presses, no snatches, no pull ups, no push ups, basically very little of anything that could cause stress. I focused on other movements. One day out of the blue I decided to start adding these movements back in, occassionally I have some discomfort but overall, I feel good. I can’t press what I used to. But I’m working on it.

Same goes for everything else, if you take the WTH effect out of the picture, chances are, if you stop training a movement you won’t see improvements in that movement at a later date. Let the frustration go because it’s your fault you took the movement out of your training.

Everyone has their strong point, but unless competition is in the crystal ball, it’s far better, in my opinion, to be well-rounded with good effort on several to many movements, than to be the best at one specific movement with not much else to offer.

Tags: Uncategorized by Pamela
No Comments »

It’s been a long standing misconception to the world of health and fitness that women who strength train will instaneously become equally as large and bulky as our male counter parts. Additionally, women have been poorly influenced to gravitate toward free weights that are hot pink, purple, yellow, orange, and other fun colors that weigh somewhere in the vicinity of 1 to 10 pounds. Often times, the 10 lb dumbbell is too heavy, yet the last time I checked most women carry around purses, laptop bags, or backpacks, all weighing an excess of 10 pounds. Some even carry two bags and balance a cup of coffee in their free hand during their commute to work (talk about functional training!) Yet when asked to press that 10 lb dumbbell overhead, you’d think you just asked them to kill someone with the look that was recieved.

Now I’m not bashing the 10 lb dumbbell if it’s used as a starting point, but that’s all it can be used for, is a starting point. After a few weeks of strength training, there is no reason why that 10 lb dumbbell should still be in her hand. I usually don’t bring science and medicine into my posts, but today I’m going to, briefly. Women want to start strength training to avoid the risk of osteoporosis as they age. Weight bearing exercise and resistance exercise, what a great idea and if that is someone’s only reason to start strength training, then I’m glad you have a goal and I’ll help you achieve it, but eventually you’re going to be using weights that weigh more than 10 lbs. That 1 lb dummbell isn’t going to prevent you from getting osteoporosis.

A book weighs more than 1 pound!

A gallon of milk weighs more than 1 pound!

Your child weighs more than 1 pound!

I bet, on Sunday morning, the newspaper weighs more than 1 pound!

One more time, your purse weighs more than 1 pound!

Now, before I get it handed to me because I haven’t taken into consideration the women that have a medical issue, or someone with a disability, I’m not talking about that part of the population, although I think they have every right to be strong too, I’m talking about your everyday average woman who wants to ‘tone up’ and get fit, but who whines, cries, and complains when they actually have to lift a weight.

Let’s skip ahead to progress. Assuming 10 pounds is finally overhead safely and even confidently, why stop there? Why not make any gains? Why not challenge yourself again and over time try 15, 20, 25, 30 pounds or even more? If not for your own personal satisfaction of just knowing that you can do it, then why not for your kids? Last time I watched my friend’s son he thought the coolest thing that afternoon was that I’d pick him up over my head, twirled him around and now he could fly like an airplane(iguratively of course) My friend’s son weighs 40lbs.

Three things that cease to amaze me…

It ceases to amaze me how few women are willing to push themselves hard enough to want to be able to pick up a heavier kettlebell, dumbbell, barbell on their own. Increasing your strength directly affects your quality of life, it builds confidence, creates a sense of pride, but most importantly it allows you to go through everyday life activities without a second thought.

It also amazes me that women (and men) settle for having to struggle through everyday life activities because they aren’t strong enough to open a jar, carry in the dog food from the car, or empty the water out of the dehumidifier, among hundreds of other things if not more. These are tasks you don’t have to settle for, but I guess it’s easier to have someone else do something for you than be able to just do it yourself.

The last thing that amazes me, is when people dumb down an application to sell it to the masses rather than promote it’s truth. It all goes back to the hot pink, purple, yellow, orange, and other fun colored dumbbells and kettlebells.

I don’t expect everyone who walks through my door to walk over to the heaviest kettlebell, dumbbell, medicine ball, whatever, and pick it up. I don’t expect everyone to have the same strengths, the same goals, my strengths, or my goals. What I do expect from everyone that walks through my door is dedication and a starting goal. Once that goal is hit, a new one gets set, and advances are made, progress occurs. No one is happy with a plateau or settles for lifting the same weight they did 5, 10, or 15 months ago.

Tags: Uncategorized by Pamela
1 Comment »

As if swinging and snatching kettlebells all day long in NYC wasn’t enough for me, stopped off to see Zach on the way home. Finally!

As we walked in the door, it screamed Zach! And I had to start playing with stuff immeadiately. It’s like being a kid at a new playground, even if the equipment is similar, it’s still different.

I was hoping his stone was a weight I could attempt, but with my last attempt at a 120lb stone only getting to my lap, I knew I shouldn’t even touch the 250lb beast, that was staring at me. I was intrigued by the old school dumbbells. That 150lb one-arm deadlift was crazy, it wanted to roll right into my fingers tips as soon as it left the floor!

Next time I’ll give the tire flipping a shot!

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” -Howard Thurman

Tags: Uncategorized by Pamela
2 Comments »

If you’ve been reading the blog, you know that, as of late, I’ve been not just talking about training. I’ve written about successes & failures, persistance, goals, aspirations, among other topics.

They all go hand-in-hand, and it’s really hard to successfully achieve the whole picture without working with all pieces of the puzzle together. Creating that balance between pushing yourself, resting, and even allowing your mind to do some of the work for you, can be a daunting task. We get caught up in the aspects of every day life, and it’s sometimes hard to remember to use your last failure to achieve your next success.

Keeping the balance between training, work, sleep, and the rest of your life, becomes one of the biggest tasks in achieving your goals. Time needs to be allotted to all of them, without skimping on one to add to another. The second something changes, you have to re-evaluate the whole picture, especially if pieces are added or taken away. It’s not a set-in-stone scenario, it never can be. More importantly it shouldn’t be.

If you follow the same path every day with no adjustments you’re allowing yourself to start accomodating. A plateau occurs, no advances are made, and you begin to wonder what has happened to the perfect plan you created. Tweaking things here and there allows for adaptation, a key component to survival, to surviving the changes, staying away from pateaus, and to work through the various things life throws at you; such as injury, extra work, new friends, well just about anything.

It’s about finding the balance to make things work for you after you’ve exhausted your options and not limiting yourself or your expectations because you think it’ll be too hard.

Tags: Uncategorized by Pamela
No Comments »

I’m always trying to keep up with guys. I might blame some of that on growing up with a brother, his best friend, and six male cousins (notice there were no girls). I never really had any other choice but to fend for myself. I doubt that climbing trees, hiking through the woods, stomping through streams, and being the only bad guy against all the good, developed the physical strength I have today. I’m sure that it helped to establish my mental strength. In fact I know that it did.

Everything we experience in life adds to our character, it adds to our will, and those experiences effect the choices we make and reasons we choose them. So growing up with 8 boys often made me choose between running around outside and playing house.

Although I don’t really compete with them now, I always remember the little things I learned from them.

It hasn’t changed, on occassion I workout with the guys, I try to keep up with the weights they lift, with the distance they travel, and the amount of time it takes them to complete a task. I usually get beat, but I appreciate their encouragement, and I often think of the one day I might beat them, match them, just as I did when I was a kid. It’ll come, all things being equal, it kind of has to.

Tags: Uncategorized by Pamela
4 Comments »