- Come on out to our 6th Anniversary Party this Saturday, July 26! You can train during our normal hours (8 AM to 1 PM), cheer on our powerlifters 1-4 PM, and then eat, drink, and party 4-7 PM! Last year’s party was a blast, and this year we have more than twice the number of powerlifters for our meet! I am so excited I am using lots and lots of exclamation points!
- A bunch of clients have been complaining about their lifting calluses. It brings tears of joy to my eyes, because when you are lifting often enough (and heavy enough) to get lifting calluses, it means you’re doing something right. Still, torn calluses are no fun. Here’s a quick tip: go get some 100-grade sandpaper and file your calluses down until they are nice and smooth. Some people like to do it after a shower, when the calluses are softened. Personally, I like to do it on dry hands, because I feel like the calluses rip too much when they are wet. Either way, I recommend doing this outside, unless you like cleaning up particles of dead skin around your house. Remember, you want your calluses to be nice and smooth and flat, not ridged and ready to rip. Ripped hands will set back your training! (Ladies, just so you know, men think that calluses on women are sexy.)
- It is great to see some new clients in the gym who want to GAIN weight. For so-called “hardgainers,” it can be incredibly hard to put on good weight. By good weight, I mean gaining 20 lbs. of muscle AND fat in a way that makes you look and feel athletic. It’s not that hard to gain pure fat: just eat at McDonalds six times a day and don’t ever move. But to gain good weight, it can mean some very tough workouts, followed by the even more daunting task of eating 3,500-4,000 or more calories in a single day. Every day. For weeks and weeks and weeks. Eating ceases to be pleasurable, and becomes a chore. So if you run into one of these guys that wants to gain weight, please resist the urge to make a crack about “I wish I could give you some of MY weight.” Instead, encourage them and compliment them for taking on a goal that is not easy for them, just as losing weight is not easy for other people.
- If I were world dictator, I would make it illegal for people to own a bathroom scale. I have too many clients who are upset because they saw the number on the scale go from, say, 139 to 143. “Do your clothes fit any different?” I ask. No, comes the reply. And yet that stupid number continues to drive them crazy. Here’s a suggestion. Switch your scale from pounds to kilos. That way you can now look at a number that will say 65 instead of 143, and maybe you won’t freak out and give yourself a hard time and think you are unlovable because you are ohmygod FOUR POUNDS heavier than you were yesterday. Did I mention that I can fluctuate five or six pounds in a single day due to water weight? I hate the scale with a passion sometimes, and I wish my clients would stop attaching their sense of self-worth to a stupid number that doesn’t even mean anything. Here, check out this photo of a woman who GAINED 9 lbs and arguably looks a lot leaner.
Which would you rather be, 127 lbs. and “skinny fat” or 136 lbs. and lean, athletic, and strong?
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