The REAL Reasons Women Shouldn't Lift Weights

Hey there - just Lindsay today! As a fitness professional and a woman, I felt it was my duty to share this with you guys. In no particular order, here's the REAL reasons women shouldn't lift weights:

#1 You'll gain confidence. Like makeup-free pics all over your Instagram confident. CAN YOU IMAGINE?!

#2 You'll get stronger. 5 flights of stairs is suddenly easy. Lugging your toddler plus the 10 bags it takes to just go to the grocery store is no problem for your strong arms. WHATEVER WILL YOU DO?!

#3 You'll lose body fat. You know, the stuff actually related to chronic health conditions, your body's proportions, etc. But that doesn't matter because the scale won't go down as much.

#4 You'll look better in your clothes. Less frump, more tight. What will you do with all your Spanx?!

#5 You'll have a faster metabolism, which means you can eat more food. THE HORROR!

There you have it - you definitely shouldn't lift weights as a woman unless you want to be more confident, stronger, have less body fat, and a higher metabolism. Just the thought of those things makes me shiver.

In Health,

Lindsay

P.S. - kinda hope y'all get the sarcasm, but because one never knows, here's the disclaimer: THIS IS HEAVILY LACED WITH SARCASM. I *LOVE* lifting for all those reasons and more. GO LIFT WEIGHTS!

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Working Out So You Can Pig Out (?)

We certainly do it....try to make sure we get a good workout in beforehand if we know we'll be having a meal that is out of the ordinary/not exactly healthy.

Our mindset for doing so is this: One, we try to get a good workout in every day, pending cheat meal or no cheat meal. And two, it couldn't hurt to burn some serious calories and deplete your glycogen levels beforehand! Overall, that's a pretty well-supported thought process (here and here, just as examples). But, it can lead to dangerous territory....

Nice try.

That dangerous territory is where every workout becomes solely for the purpose of following it up with a bad diet....you know, working out so you can pig out.

The gist is this: working out before a cheat meal is probably a GOOD idea; HOWEVER, most of your week's meals should be food that is going to fuel your workouts (lean proteins, complex carbs, veggies).

Trust we are guilty of the too many cheat meals too....but when you lead an overall fit lifestyle and have done so for a couple years, your body is a little more forgiving (shouldn't be an excuse to pig out, though...note to selves). So also keep that in mind: if you're in the beginning of your journey, you're going to need to be really strategic about your cheat meals.

Eating is a science and it's easy to get overwhelmed with it. The best thing to do is keep is simple and keep it moving!

In Health,

Tim and Lindsay
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Pick Up Heavy Stuff, Put It Back Down, Repeat

It's hard to believe, but even in the age of Crossfit obsession and with ALL the research and knowledge out there on the benefits and overall necessity of weightlifting, women STILL avoid lifting, especially lifting heavy.

Based on what we hear, see, and read, it seems like there are a couple of factors at play here. One is that women, more so than men, are obsessed with burning calories. It's all about how high I can get the "Calories Burned" number on the treadmill or elliptical. What they don't realize is that while cardio can give you a high calorie burn, when you build muscle, you burn 24/7 instead of just during your workout. Also, people who do chronic cardio (what we fondly call cardio whores) end up not just burning calories, but burning already limited muscle mass as well. Bad News Bears.

More "reasoning" we get from women is that they don't want to lift too often or too heavy because they don't want to bulk up, they just want the lean, toned look. We debunk your reasoning here with simple genetics. Men have lots of testosterone, thus when they lift heavy things, they get big, beautiful muscles. Women, however, have very little testosterone, thus when they lift heavy things, their figures get leaner, and tighter. Trust that the only way you'll "bulk up" or get huge from weightlifting is from eating too much simultaneously....or taking hormones. Plus, your purse probably weighs at least 10 pounds, and that toddler you're toting around is a good 25 - so please, stop with the 2 to 5 pound weights.

Look - you like to run? No problem. Love Zumba or TurboFire? Fantastic. We aren't saying don't do these things. What we are saying is that cardio should not be your only means of working out, ladies. You have got to weight-train. It keeps your body fat percentage in check, supports a healthy metabolism, helps you fight injury and illness, helps support good bone density, and damn it, you just look better with muscle!!

Still not convinced?? Here's how being intentional with weightlifting and building muscle changed Lindsay's physique:

Too much cardio

After 1 year of regular, heavy lifting

After 2 years of weightlifting!

As always, we'd love to hear from you! Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments below, on our Facebook page, tweet us, or message us on YouTube!

In Health,

Timothy and Lindsay

The Epic Battle that is BodyBugg vs. HRM

BodyBugg versus Heart Rate Monitor

We have owned and utilized both of these nifty contraptions and felt it would be helpful to share a “compare & contrast” of the two.

First up, the BodyBugg. 

Lindsay got one a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. Couple things about it:

•  Made to be worn for up to 23 hours a day, not just during workouts.
•   In reference to #1, this is helpful in determining how many calories you burn all day (and night) long.
• It does not measure heart rate…rather it measures movement!

Some “negatives” about the BodyBugg –

• You have to pay a monthly fee to be able to “download” and see your calorie burn (albeit a pretty small fee).
• We found out the hard way that accuracy is not its strongest suit – for example, during weightlifting (which, if done right, should increase your heart rate, thus burning calories) and during cardio involving a lot of arm movement (e.g., kickboxing like Turbo) it doesn’t give an accurate burn…for weightlifting it isn’t high enough and we think all the punches in kickboxing throw the band (which is around your arm) off and it reads as too high of a burn.
•  The Bodybugg also can’t measure anything you do that doesn’t involve your feet touching the ground….like biking, swimming, or flying (that last one is a joke, people!)

All in all, we think the BodyBugg is a good tool for determining total daily burn, but other than that…it kinda functions like a pedometer. 

Okay….next up is the good ol’ fashioned heart rate monitor. There are a bagillion types, but Lindsay uses the Polar FT7 and Timothy uses a Timex. Couple things about these:

   
 
 
 
 
 

 

• Typically made to wear only during physical activity (either during a workout, or while you’re doing some yard work, cleaning house, etc.). You *could* wear it all day if you wanted, but it isn’t really made for that.
• This piece of equipment determines calories burned based solely on your heart rate.
• There is only a one-time cost (no monthly fees).

A *potential* negative about a heart rate monitor:

• You wear the watch (which gives you your output, including current heart rate, calories burned, time, etc.) on your wrist and then the actual heart-rate monitor is a band that you wrap around your chest…..for the ladies, just under your wobbly bits….for the fellas, about a inch or so below your nipple line. The band can be a bit cumbersome, mostly during activity that involves a lot of twisting and turning (Lindsay finds it can wiggle down some during her TurboFire workouts).

Currently, we are both using a heart rate monitor instead of a BodyBugg….and it will probably stay this way. We both appreciate the accuracy of the heart rate monitor….it goes on the individual’s heart rate, not on the steps taken. We also appreciate the immediacy of knowing how much effort we’re putting in: all we do is look at the watches on our wrists and see current heart rate, calories burned so far, etc. 

If you are going back and forth between the two, we hope this gives you some insight as to which would better suit your needs!

In Health,

Lindsay & Timothy

No Such Thing as One-Size-Fits-All

Hi y'all!! 


One thing that we like to do for accountability, and to ensure constant change, and mostly due to sheer interest is stay up-to-date on the latest fitness info, "follow" health and fitness professionals (blogs, magazines, etc.), and the like. We love learning about these things and enjoying applying various pieces into our healthy, fit lifestyle.


BUT.....one thing that irks us is when these professionals act like their way to train and/or eat is the ONLY way to train and/or eat to get any results. That's just outright B.S.  


There are SO many ways to eat to be healthier (paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan)....and we don't think that one is necessarily superior to the other! Our bodies are all so different, you have to play around to find what works for yours!! Of course, general guidelines like eating more vegetables and fruits and less processed foods is a pretty good standard across the board....but as for specific diets, that's individual. For example, Timothy responds fairly well to a lower-carb, paleo-esque kind of diet. Lindsay, on the other hand, gets low energy and doesn't respond to a diet without a decent amount of (healthy) carbs. 


This same principle goes for exercising. Neither of us believe that one workout, one program is going to be "it" for you, forever, period, end of discussion. Our bodies change over time....our bodies' needs change too! Lindsay is a huge fan of Beachbody and has utilized nearly all their workout programs and currently does at least one kind of them pretty much every day - BUT she doesn't think that they are the only way to go for home workouts! On that same note, home workouts aren't for everybody. Some people need the act of "going to the gym" for motivation/accountability...and even others, like Timothy for example, prefer functional fitness (outdoor running, drills, crossfit stuff). 


Take home point, kiddos - take some time to 1. lay out your goals and 2. play around with different workouts and diet tendencies to find what works best for your body. Invest your time, invest your energy, invest your money.....it will ALWAYS be worth it. You only get one body in this lifetime....how long do you want it to last you?


As always, we are here to help in any way we can! 


In Health, 


Lindsay & Timothy