Here was my first post to the article:
[quote]I understand that this article is not meant for me - my goals are different, as are most of the women on this site, I’m guessing. I did take away some interesting points, like targeting the right areas and avoiding too much ab work. I do have several questions and points to make.
The pictures of Jamie and Jessica show relatively lean girls with hardly any upper body muscle mass. They look “hawt” thanks to their parents and the luck of the draw. I don’t believe any training program is going to turn an ordinary girl into one of them. Do you have any client success stories with this program?
I also don’t believe they are 14% bodyfat - shouldn’t they have some sort of muscular definition at that level of leanness? Granted there isn’t much muscle to begin with, but I don’t see any definition in their pics. Not to nitpick, but I constantly see women underestimating bf% and would love to see some good examples of different percentages.
How can any woman on a calorie restricted diet build any appreciable muscle mass? Maybe some newbie gains, but enough to actually look like “too much”?? The few women I’ve seen with legs that are truly large with muscle have busted their butts with heavy lifting for years to get that way (and are damn proud of it - rightfully so). Most women whose legs are too big have too much fat on them.
I thought that when trying to lose fat it was best to lift with low reps and heavy weight to help keep the muscle you have. Again, operating at a calorie deficit, this would encourage the body to keep the muscle and lose the fat. Why these very high rep schemes?
As a woman who has transformed her physique over the last 2 years using all of the great information found here like lifting heavy and eating clean, I simply do not share the same experiences discussed in the article. All the great compound lifts have done amazing things for my shape. The enjoyment I get from lifting heavy and making progress in the gym is equal to or greater than the satisfaction I get from being able to wear a pair of daisy duke shorts.
As a trainer with a direct influence on the clients you train and an indirect influence on the larger community with the articles you write, perhaps you should reconsider the message you are sending out about women and female body image. It seems to me that you are buying into and perpetuating the false, unattainable Hollywood image and encouraging your clients to do the same. Why not encourage women to build their entire body and get stronger? They certainly don’t need to take it beyond whatever level they personally prefer - but the health benefits and confidence that comes from making gains in the gym should not be glossed over. I suspect many women don’t even realize this, what a wonderful thing to be able to teach.
It actually makes me a little sad to read this article here. This is one place where women can come together to talk training and not have to feel weird for wanting to build our bodies and get strong. Not all the guys get it, but a lot of them do.
Finally, just maybe this could have been one article where there wasn’t a scantily clad, suggestively posed bimbo in the first few paragraphs. There actually are great pictures of athletic, attractive women that don’t fall in the cheese-porn category and an article meant for women would have been a nice place to put one. [/quote]
I stand by what I wrote. I acknowledged the article wasn’t for me, made some observations and asked some questions (that weren’t answered).
I am done.