FeralGoth’s BodyBlog

Soo… my friend got laid off from her job, and her boyfriend is taking the next week off for his birthday (has too much vacation time saved up)- and I got a "free week coupon" for their gym in the mail… so we’re doing a week long gym swap.  Normally I work out at home, in the complex’s weight room, or at my alma mater - so a change up is always a good thing.  Granted they’re members at LA fitness, which is not my favorite, but its big , not crowded and has a lot of stuff available.  But there’s a dresscode… DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUN!  Thankfully I actually have "athletic shoes" now, but they also require stuff that is not "street clothes" and that means I’ll be bringing out the "yoga pants".   Their gym is never fully prepared for my booty to show up, so I will be choosing the more conservative pants for this coming week - that and my friend is a bit on the insecure side so I don’t want to drive her nuts either - last time I was there, some guy walked by me about 20 times (not exaggerating).  I chalk it up to my weird hairdo and that seems to make her happy.   Hey, I don’t care, its all good.   I’m also always interested in checking out how people are at other gyms, what kind of goals they seem to be working on, etc. to add to my mental database I hope to use for personal training someday soon.  Also - to see what their trainers are like AND to have someone measure my bodyfat - see if I’m doing this thang right, you know??   Don’t worry, I plan on getting other opinions from the university etc. and not just from an hourly employee at a corporate gym.

So, yesterday was interesting, I had a couple of goals when I headed into the gym one was to manage to eek out *two more reps* on my first set of bicep curls so I could up my estimated 1RM for pure vanity’s sake.  The other was to up my weights slightly on wide grip lat pull downs (not in this order, obviously).   I get there and I’m all stoked about it, I had switched up the order of a few things to keep it fresh just in time to see that the couple of school teachers who occasionally confuse weight stack machines with cardio machines and/or gossip benches were holding court on the chest press machine… so I take my time putting things up, and generally getting organized…. and look up - they’re STILL there, not a muscle (literally has moved).   Okaaaaaaaay.  I would normally say something at this point, but its "that time" of the month and by this time I was starting to feel a little *too angry* to say something polite enough (I see them in there ALL the time, so we have to co-exist).  So I decide its POP QUIZ time, stretch out a little, warm up a little more and see how many un-assisted full chin ups I can do - that number used to be "2" I am proud to say yesterday I did a full set of 5!!!!   My eventual goal is 8+ but having not checked in a while, this was a nice surprise.

I was just poking around the internet and happened upon Gwineth Paltrow talking about her (and Madonna’s) personal trainer, Tracy Anderson and how she likes training for that "long lean look", adding that "that hard gym body look doesn’t look good on women" .  Why do so many women want noodle-like arms+legs?  To me that makes their waist, trunk, hips, etc. look so much bigger?  Has my perception been warped?  Is it because I think women with even a slightly developed muscular body should be the new ideal?  Or that I’m PROUD of my genetic propensity to put on a little bulk here and there?  Does Gwineth Paltrow think I should be ashamed of my new TOTALLY ROCKING SHOULDERS I’ve worked so hard on?  Or my superior ability to burn calories?  I think she can stuff it!  There needs to be some new "female ideals" out there, damn it.  I mean, I know who I look up to - and they lift heavy.
A note to noodle-appendage celebrities: shut up and look pretty.

On the flip side of this, I know, as someone who is studying to be a personal trainer that I am going to run into this many many times, and that I will be working with female clients who "don’t want to bulk up" etc.  And oddly enough, I’m ok with that.  One of my best friends is in that school of thought and we’ve put together a nice endurance workout that she can do at home with light weights.  I know I’m going to have several to many clients who "don’t want to look like me" and thats cool, I’m used to that, I mean damn I have facial piercings, over half my head shaved, and dreadlocks.  But I will tell you this - I think minds may be changing, when I show up at the club/around town in a totally hot dress, people are starting to think - hey, maybe muscles on a woman ARE attractive after all!

Recently (since I’ve been back from Germany) I’ve been getting a new question from random people who see me when I’m out and about: "so, what sports do you play?"  I guess I’m starting to look like I’m an athlete or something - COOL!!!!!!   Thats certainly a new one - the funny thing is I’m not really so much into sports at all, I think the last "team" I was on was track in private elementary school - and thats pretty much ANCIENT HISTORY.   I’m starting to get really curious about Olympic style lifting though - and there is a Velocity gym here in town that teaches it - who knows, maybe I’ll have a good answer for the "sports" question one of these days.