The other day, just before I went away for the weekend I bumped into the potentially caber-tossing Mediterranean (I need a nickname for him... I was thinking Hamishopoulos, but am open to suggestions) at the gym and he showed me upright barbell rows. I was doing the lift and he was explaining to me how it was good for developing my shoulders and he poked at me to illustrate some point. The he recoiled and said, "Your shoulders are hard! I wasn't expecting that." I told him to poke some more to make sure he wasn't just jabbing some bone, but he confirmed it was muscle.
Of course, I take this as a compliment and I'm all delighted, but today I was thinking about it and had to laugh at myself. I'm all excited over the most minute of compliments, but really, these are infinitesimally small baby steps. You take a look at some of the other weightlifting women on the internet posting photos of their gorgeous bods, and you come to realise my weenie little boasts are the product of a pathetic mind grappling for some affirmation.
That said, I'm not discouraged. I admire the women I'm looking at, in a large part because in most cases it's not their job to lift and look awesome. It gives me hope that in a year or two I won't be sporting a jello belly and I can wear a bathing suit without embarrassment.
This might be vain hope, given that I eat too much, drink too much, and sleep too little; but there's still some hope. It's pretty awesome, really.
oh wow, thanks for the mention! I'm honored. I'm not sure how many pictures of my physique I'll be posting on my blog. Some, but not a lot--as a powerlifter, physique is far from my main concern. That said, as a powerlifter in a very low (114 lb) weight class, not much of my body mass can be fat if I want to be successful/maximize strength levels for my lifts, so I've gotten even stricter than I had been with my diet and have really seen changes in my body even in the last two months.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you're thinking about progression with your own physique in terms of years is GREAT. This is how you need to think as someone who strength trains--in years. It just takes so long, especially as a woman (hormones are less than optimum for the generation of large masses of muscle for us, oh well). Give yourself time and really just love the process as you're doing it. As an aside, upright rows flipping ROCK.
Having major setbacks in my climbing and struggling for months to fix them to no avail have given me a little perspective about how fast (or slow) it'll be to gain strength. For me the physique will also be the consequence of the fitness rather than the purpose, but I still can't help being awed at the beauty of strong women.
DeleteDarling, you *earned* that honour!
I'm not ready to limit my diet yet, although climbing is also a sport that is easier for those with less weight. I'll get there someday, I'm sure, but right now just thinking about it makes me anxious. Overall trends I could probably work towards, but weighing, timing, and avoiding.... eek.