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| Before, I could only walk half way down the pitch with these weights. Now I can walk down and back. Train to failure for success! |
What is strongman you ask? It's an hour of intense, strength training in groups. Think of a personal training session only there's two or three of you training at the same time! We were in groups of three with three rounds of workouts (3 exercises in each set of workouts) with thirty seconds in between each exercise to get to the next one, set up and GO. There was basically no rest. To finish off the session, I pulled trainer and friend Darrel on a backward sled exercise. It was both painful as the lactic acid was burning my legs and FUN! Needless to say I felt a minor boost in my confidence as I had kept up with the trainers that day.
Great personal trainers in this city train themselves so hard and if your trainer is helping you achieve your goals and is working on their own, stick with them! Your trainer should be able to answer your questions on all things related to your fitness, your diet and your progress.
I have been asking a lot of people that I've met recently what their experiences have been like with their personal trainers and I was surprised to hear that it was nearly a 50/50 split between trainers who just train their clients and trainers who give the full package (nutrition, lifestyle coaching included). If I was paying someone between $800-$1200 for a personal training session, I'd expect to have at the very least a basic nutrition plan at the start of my program.
I've been reading "How we eat: appetite, culture and psychology of food" by Leon Rappoport. It's an interesting read on cultural differences, class systems and the way it impacts how we eat as we grow up. I just finished a chapter on why young girls developing into womanhood through puberty develop anorexia or bulimia among the most common eating disorders. Ironically enough two things came up- those who were from upper middle class, well educated backgrounds were more likely to develop eating disorders as a result of and not limited to, mothers forcing their own ideals onto the teenage girl refuses to eat as a way of showing power and control over those around her. In my opinion, if better eating habits are taught to our children, as early as when they're in the womb (because what you eat is what your baby eats!) and creating a positive relationship with food, we'd have less of an obese population (even with all the thousands of studies). It starts at home and it can shift with just one person making the choice to change.
If you're a teenager reading this post-
I was once a 60kg 13 year old (a bigger girl), who was teased for being bigger and too muscular as a traditional chinese dancer. I know I put on the weight because one year I had a baby sitter who used to make us sit at the table and eat this giant bowl of rice with meat, veg and soup before we could go play. I mean it was HUGE and even when I complained I was full already, she'd make me sit there and finish it - all of it. Surely enough, I put on weight and didn't know how to take it off. Neither did my parents because it's not something they were taught a lot about growing up in HK.
I ate mostly at home because my mother or grandpa cooked a variety of greens and meat every day. I had my brother and someone I looked up to for support and he and my mom would listen to me as I cried through the teasing but kept on auditioning and performing, eventually travelling and representing Canada in dance festivals and celebrities before I was even legal to drive.
Summer before high school, I grew in height and into my body, I was still bigger, muscular and I was okay with that! I decided that year I would train hard in P.E. sign up for weight training, play flag football, keep dancing and make a change to be healthy. I was one of two girls in weight training class all through high school, my teacher was a female and she taught me so much about how to strengthen my body, use weights at the YMCA during the summer and how to make good food choices. Weight training at the YMCA is also how I discovered yoga. It was truly the only time I didn't ever feel like I was competing with anyone. No other dancers to compete with at an audition and no boys to compete with in the weight room. It was perfect and today it's still perfect.
I am now between 63-65KG and I am happy in my body. The perfect body for you is the one you have and you can work hard to physically get strong, lean and toned but you also have to love yourself, your mind, your soul.
I am grateful for the amazing people who impacted my life as a teenager and athlete from a sensitive age. If you are struggling with your weight, the way you feel about yourself or want to do yoga and have an iced tea- I would be more than happy to spend time with you and you can email me at OneYogaNut@gmail.com
Girl Crush- Amada Lam, 16 years old and can squat me!
Tell me about your strength training and being an athlete:
I began training for rugby back in eighth grade and it was pretty bad because I wasn't strong or fast enough. I could see the coaches giving up on me and most of the time I sat out for the games. Then I began researching for gyms that specialized in strength training and RAW came up. After beginning to train with Asha (now at Ultimate Performance), it was obvious that I was getting strong and faster every week. On the field I would outrun some of my other team mates, when I used to be one of the slowest ones on the team. Tackling became a lot easier and my confidence slowly began to build up. For my school's mile run time, it improved by two minutes. From 10 minutes to 8 minutes. I'm a lot more confident now and PE has become my favourite class to attend when it used to be one of my least favourite. I played rugby for two years and golf on the side.
What is something you'd like to share with other young girls?
What I'd like for other teenage girls to know about weight training is that it's absolutely not true that girls get bulky and muscular if they train with weights. It gets you toned and being strong is one of the best things I think a girl can have.
What is your max squat and bench?
I squat 62.5KG and bench 25KG (In case you missed it, Amanda can just about squat my body weight- INSPIRING GIRL CRUSH RIGHT NOW!)
I have been asking a lot of people that I've met recently what their experiences have been like with their personal trainers and I was surprised to hear that it was nearly a 50/50 split between trainers who just train their clients and trainers who give the full package (nutrition, lifestyle coaching included). If I was paying someone between $800-$1200 for a personal training session, I'd expect to have at the very least a basic nutrition plan at the start of my program.
I've been reading "How we eat: appetite, culture and psychology of food" by Leon Rappoport. It's an interesting read on cultural differences, class systems and the way it impacts how we eat as we grow up. I just finished a chapter on why young girls developing into womanhood through puberty develop anorexia or bulimia among the most common eating disorders. Ironically enough two things came up- those who were from upper middle class, well educated backgrounds were more likely to develop eating disorders as a result of and not limited to, mothers forcing their own ideals onto the teenage girl refuses to eat as a way of showing power and control over those around her. In my opinion, if better eating habits are taught to our children, as early as when they're in the womb (because what you eat is what your baby eats!) and creating a positive relationship with food, we'd have less of an obese population (even with all the thousands of studies). It starts at home and it can shift with just one person making the choice to change.
If you're a teenager reading this post-
I was once a 60kg 13 year old (a bigger girl), who was teased for being bigger and too muscular as a traditional chinese dancer. I know I put on the weight because one year I had a baby sitter who used to make us sit at the table and eat this giant bowl of rice with meat, veg and soup before we could go play. I mean it was HUGE and even when I complained I was full already, she'd make me sit there and finish it - all of it. Surely enough, I put on weight and didn't know how to take it off. Neither did my parents because it's not something they were taught a lot about growing up in HK.I ate mostly at home because my mother or grandpa cooked a variety of greens and meat every day. I had my brother and someone I looked up to for support and he and my mom would listen to me as I cried through the teasing but kept on auditioning and performing, eventually travelling and representing Canada in dance festivals and celebrities before I was even legal to drive.
Summer before high school, I grew in height and into my body, I was still bigger, muscular and I was okay with that! I decided that year I would train hard in P.E. sign up for weight training, play flag football, keep dancing and make a change to be healthy. I was one of two girls in weight training class all through high school, my teacher was a female and she taught me so much about how to strengthen my body, use weights at the YMCA during the summer and how to make good food choices. Weight training at the YMCA is also how I discovered yoga. It was truly the only time I didn't ever feel like I was competing with anyone. No other dancers to compete with at an audition and no boys to compete with in the weight room. It was perfect and today it's still perfect.
I am now between 63-65KG and I am happy in my body. The perfect body for you is the one you have and you can work hard to physically get strong, lean and toned but you also have to love yourself, your mind, your soul.
I am grateful for the amazing people who impacted my life as a teenager and athlete from a sensitive age. If you are struggling with your weight, the way you feel about yourself or want to do yoga and have an iced tea- I would be more than happy to spend time with you and you can email me at OneYogaNut@gmail.com
Girl Crush- Amada Lam, 16 years old and can squat me!
I began training for rugby back in eighth grade and it was pretty bad because I wasn't strong or fast enough. I could see the coaches giving up on me and most of the time I sat out for the games. Then I began researching for gyms that specialized in strength training and RAW came up. After beginning to train with Asha (now at Ultimate Performance), it was obvious that I was getting strong and faster every week. On the field I would outrun some of my other team mates, when I used to be one of the slowest ones on the team. Tackling became a lot easier and my confidence slowly began to build up. For my school's mile run time, it improved by two minutes. From 10 minutes to 8 minutes. I'm a lot more confident now and PE has become my favourite class to attend when it used to be one of my least favourite. I played rugby for two years and golf on the side.
What is something you'd like to share with other young girls?
What I'd like for other teenage girls to know about weight training is that it's absolutely not true that girls get bulky and muscular if they train with weights. It gets you toned and being strong is one of the best things I think a girl can have.
What is your max squat and bench?
I squat 62.5KG and bench 25KG (In case you missed it, Amanda can just about squat my body weight- INSPIRING GIRL CRUSH RIGHT NOW!)
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