TurquoiseEyes
Cathlete
Hi Cathe and Cathletes! This is my first post on the forum so kudos for promoting strength training for women. We're on the same team I promise. I was notified about this thread by Google alerts so I decided to join the forum and chime in.
@TurquoiseEyes - did you read the article you linked? The entire article is about how squats and deadlifts WILL NOT make people blockier. It's even the title of the article??? There's another article I wrote on the topic that's very similar here:
https://www.t-nation.com/training/is-your-ab-workout-making-you-look-fat (T-Nation changes the article titles and edits our articles, so please know that this was not my choice of wording).
So I DON'T think that squats/deads will make women appear blocky, but I DO think that ab/oblique training in some circumstances can.
In the article I linked above, you'll notice a picture of a woman by the name of Andrea Galea toward the bottom of the article - she emailed me to inform me that she'd gained 4 inches around her waist via high frequency, heavy abdominal/oblique training. She was under the impression that this training would reduce the size of her midsection, but instead it increased it. She was frustrated and disappointed. I have heard similar stories from several women over the years. I may write another blogpost about this as I don't feel that T-Nation did that portion justice.
As a personal trainer, I tailor each of my client's training toward their goals and their physiology/biomechanics. Every once in a while, I have to omit certain exercises when a woman complains to me about a certain muscle becoming too big for their liking. If I had my clients do weighted ab work four times per week for an entire year with an emphasis on setting PRs/progressive overload, my guess is that half of the ladies would love the way they looked and the other half would feel that their abdominals/obliques were becoming too muscular for their liking. For this reason, I'm not highly concerned with progressive abdominal/oblique training for female physique clients. For female strength clients or athletes, then I'd prioritize core strength to a greater degree, but I mostly train physique clients. Basically, it always depends on the client.
I believe that women focused mostly on strength and not physique should not bash women who are focused mostly on physique and not strength, and vice versa. Male powerlifters and bodybuilders have been going after each other for decades but they seem to be more comfortable around each other in the past several years.
My sincere apologies to anyone I've offended over the years in my writing; sometimes I don't come across well online.
Yes, Bret, I knew your opinion is that squats and deadlifts do not make women blocky. I am very familiar with your writing. My question or thoughts were/are directed at Cathletes, but my point was that I agreed with you. I don't see where I ever initimated you were of the opinion these two exercises made women blocky. If anything, I posted this originally to bring attention to the (what I believe to be well-informed) opinion of a trainer and research buff like yourself to readers of the Cathe forum.
I don't believe I've ever engaged in any bashing of fitness competitors or anyone purely focused on physique. There are certainly far more benefits to exercise than figure improvements, but to each their own.
I do disagree with objectification, any commentary that makes women feel bad about themselves based on some purely physical attribute, or anything that encourages what is an unhealthy (and unhappy) obsession with changing one's body to the point of insanity. For that, I cannot apologize. I hope my reasons are self-evident based on my own previous Cathe forum posts. I don't believe you've ever intentionally done any of those things I just mentioned. I applaud your scientific bend, your obvious dedication to improving training, and commitment to passing on information with real meat to it- not just opinion or fluff pieces. I have disagreed with your approach at times. I've made no bones about that.
My hope is that women (humans, period) realize their value as a person is not in their looks. I see no problem with believing in that as much as I believe in a commitment to fitness. I think a dedication to working out should make a person feel better about themselves over the long run- I firmly believe you would agree with that. Sometimes a message can be misconstrued. Not everyone has the self-esteem or confidence to work out and do so out of self-love, but will work out due to self-hatred. I sincerely hope that you can appreciate why I think that way.
Regardless, I respect your work and research, and have personally benefited from the knowledge you've passed on.
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