Beauty and a Beast

“It’s great that you’re working out, but be careful so that you don’t look like some of those girls”

“With all the lifting you do, your arms don’t look like Michele Obama’s.”

“You don’t look like someone who does CrossFit. Don’t those girls usually have 6 packs.”

All of these things have been said to me by friends, family, and strangers. If you are a female who has ever touched a barbell, you have heard these things too. You have probably seen hundreds of posts by other female athletes on this topic. Well strap in kids,  because now you’re going to hear my take on these comments.

So let’s start at the root of my issue with these comments. What gives someone else the right to dictate what my body is supposed to look like? What I really want to say to these individuals: How dare you? How dare you tell another person how they are “supposed to look.” How dare you disregard what their body is capable of? How dare you only focus on what their body looks like? How. Dare. You.

Telling another person what they are supposed to look like is a bold move to say the least, but we seem to really focus this towards women who lift. When it comes to lifting, we only ever picture the elite level athlete. If I told someone that I was going to run a marathon, they would never say “Be careful not to do too much or you’re going to get a pancake butt.”  Or if I were to say, I’m going to start swimming. No one would say “Oh no your shoulders are going to get big”  Because they don’t picture the elite level athlete when it comes to swimming or running. Why do we only picture the elite level athletes in sports like CrossFit, powerlifting, or weightlifting?  Any elite level athlete is going to have a certain look. Google search elite level marathon runners, swimmers, weightlifters,  rowers, cyclists, etc. and you will be able to place them in their respective sports by looking at them. This is simply because these individuals are so AMAZING and dedicated to their respective sports, that their body is responding to their level of training.

This brings me to my next point. I am not doing this to look a certain way. I am going to push myself past my physical limitations, and I am going to eat to fuel that performance. My body is going to respond however it’s going to respond. Being an elite level athlete (and looking like one) takes time and dedication. Time and dedication that I don’t have. Picking up a barbell one time is not going to turn me into Annie Thorisdottir or Katrin Davidsdottir. These athletes have dedicated the past 5-10 years to being CrossFit athletes. CrossFit is literally their job. I am in the gym for and hour or two hours 6 days a week, and I eat clean with measured out portions 80% of the time. At this point in my life, that is the amount of time I can dedicate to this, while keeping everything balanced in my life. Doing CrossFit and powerlifting at this level has definitely changed my body. My shoulders and traps are bigger, my biceps and triceps are bigger, my quads, glutes, and hamstrings are bigger (hence none of my pants fit me anymore), my waist is smaller, I have the tinniest little baby abs (that are still pretty insulated, if I am being honest.)  And you know what. I LOVE IT!!!!

Here is my final point on this. I love that my shoulders are big and the fact that my quads rip my pants. Do you want to know why? Because without getting bigger, I wouldn’t be able to lift the numbers I lift. I wouldn’t be able to do push-ups and pull-ups (and hopefully soon muscles ups.) I still have insulated abs (my cookie pouch) and cellulite. But I have no problem wearing booty shorts and ripping my shirt off in the middle of a workout, because I am doing this to improve physically. (And scientifically speaking, wearing a shirt makes it harder to breath during a workout.) My body confidence doesn’t come from what I look like, but it comes from how my body is performing. I will wear a 2 piece bikini proudly with my “cookie pouch” and cellulite because with that pouch and cellulite I have dead lifted 314 pounds, ran a 7 minute mile, and cleaned 170 pounds. I know that I have made improvements because I can do things now that I couldn’t 2 years ago. My body has changed, but I still pretty much look the same. If I only measured my success on what my body looked like, it wouldn’t seem like I made much progress. But measuring based on performance, I have improved by a million percent. (Please note, I am bad at math, but a million percent is a pretty accurate number of my improvements.) And all this being said, I don’t feel like this every single day. I am still a woman with body image issues. Of course I wish I looked like Annie or Katrin, but more than that I would love to have 1/8 of their physical capabilities.

Finally, I showed a family member a video of Brooke Ence at the CrossFit games and they immediately said, “Why would someone want to look like that, she looks like a man.” They completely disregard the incredible physical feat that she was performing. I saw a promotion for a group fitness class that said “Tone and shape your entire body without adding bulky muscles.” There was no mention of making physical improvements, just a focus on “looking good.” (But not too good, ie-  adding bulky muscles.) My point is simply this. Stop telling people, particularly female athletes, what they are supposed to look like. And keep doing your physical activity for YOU, running, swimming, crossfit, yoga, lifting, do it for you. Focus on your performance and measure your progress off of what your body is capable of doing, not what your body looks like.

I dare you to make a performance based goal: lift a certain amount of weight, get a pull up, run a half marathon in under 2 hours, and then go put the work in to reach that goal. It will be so much more satisfying when you reach a goal like that instead of “Michele Obama arms.” My arms may never look like Michele Obama’s, but I can deadlift more than she can, so who is the real winner here?

*****Please note, I am not dissing the women of other sports like running and swimming, I am just using this as an example for other sports, no offense to my runners or swimmers out there. You are all Beasts who do amazing things!********

Author: becauseshedared

Just the world's most average 26-year-old daring herself to be more. And to answer your question my last name rhymes with "push-us." Pronounced: GUSH-us. instagram: gussiaaspushus View all posts by becauseshedared