{"id":79,"date":"2008-04-04T02:55:36","date_gmt":"2008-04-04T00:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/wordpress\/the-joy-of-lifting\/"},"modified":"2015-02-12T20:17:15","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T01:17:15","slug":"the-joy-of-lifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/the-joy-of-lifting\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of Lifting"},"content":{"rendered":"

One\u00a0problem with working in the bodybuilding industry, is that the focus is relentlessly on…well, bodies.\u00a0 A lot of people\u00a0lift because they want\u00a0a leaner, more muscular, better-looking body.\u00a0 Nuthin’ wrong with that: I certainly enjoy my body (and so does my husband).<\/p>\n

But there’s so much more to it than\u00a0that\u00a0– especially for me, as a woman.\u00a0 Quite honestly, it’s seriously cool to be strong.\u00a0 I love being able to increase the weight and\/or number of reps that I do for a particular exercise.\u00a0 I was decidedly unathletic as a kid, and pretty much started at “-10.”\u00a0Thus, it’s awesome to be able to do things that I never thought I’d be able to do: it’s been a tremendous confidence booster.\u00a0
\n\"Dec.<\/a>
\nAnd I have to admit: I love seeing the looks on the faces of the teenaged jocks when I ask to work in at the dip station…after slipping into a dip belt and attaching a good-sized plate.<\/p>\n

Believe it or not,\u00a0the\u00a0free weight area\u00a0is a very welcoming place for women.\u00a0 When I first started training seriously, I was the only\u00a0female in\u00a0my gym\u00a0working there.\u00a0 I\u00a0felt very\u00a0small and at the same time, very conspicuous…and I didn’t like it one bit.\u00a0 I realized,\u00a0however,\u00a0that the only\u00a0person making me feel that way was me – which made me all the more determined to work through it.\u00a0 It didn’t take long, either.\u00a0 I discovered there’s a lot of camaraderie on the training floor, that I never experienced when I was restricting myself to the machines.\u00a0 Eventually, going to the gym was like being on “Cheers” – everybody knew my name.\u00a0 I made a lot of friends there – which had a practical side too, as I was never at a loss for a spotter.<\/p>\n

As the years have passed, I’ve seen continuous improvement.\u00a0 The progress hasn’t been linear: there\u00a0have been minor setbacks and plateaus, too.\u00a0 The trend, however, is undeniable. I can see it in the\u00a0numbers and the pictures – and in the way I think and feel. \u00a0Measuring my progress in years, rather than weeks, gives me\u00a0tremendous satisfaction – I feel like I’ve truly earned the right to be the person I’ve become.\u00a0 Overall, lifting has been an incredibly rewarding\u00a0experience – personally, and now professionally.<\/p>\n

Frankly, to me the “body” part is just a fringe benefit.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I think it’s a little odd that I’ve been able to derive so much from simply picking heavy things up and putting them back down again.\u00a0 But when you think about it: muscles are really no different than brains.\u00a0 I would not want to be weak, anymore than I would want to be stupid.\u00a0 Sure, not\u00a0everyone can be equally smart – or strong. But we can all “study” and develop what we have – and be that much better for the experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One\u00a0problem with working in the bodybuilding industry, is that the focus is relentlessly on…well, bodies.\u00a0 A lot of people\u00a0lift because they want\u00a0a leaner, more muscular, better-looking body.\u00a0 Nuthin’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,26],"tags":[1847,413,1544,1758,1800],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7828,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions\/7828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}