We Train The Same…But Why Don’t I Look Like Her…

If you’re always surrounded by these fit looking friends and people at your gym, or at your Pole class and they look completely different to your own physique, you might have wondered …

“..but I’m doing what they are doing..aren’t we doing the same training? She probably doesn’t eat.  Why don’t I have abs like that?”

…then this is something you need to try and understand.

“Your body has a desire to stay the same, to stay balanced via many internal physiological processes.  People are scared of manipulating nutrition, eating more, eating less, thinking that a change today is going to result in an irreversible change tomorrow.  It doesn’t work like that.” – Alix James (Head Coach of Reebok Crossfit Asphodel)

His full blog post is HERE

Every girl has been there (I think), when desire, progress and effort are not aligned like a beautifully paved rainbow bridge to total-body-happiness.  It’s either the desire and effort that feel like they’re on turbo mode but progress is creeping in like my beat-up Ford Escort station wagon fresh out of a car wreck….or….well that’s really just it. No “or”.

Expectations to see progress and results gets more and more unrealistic today and with the incredibly efficient way social media is delivering visuals of transformation photos, I reckon most of us will expect fat to melt off our bodies in 5 inhale/exhale cycles, when it took us 5 years to accumulate that same amount of body fat.

Bodybuilding ain’t easy as a lot of time, money, effort, mood swings, sacrifices and brain juice goes into the end result.  No doubt anyone who post their success stories online have given their best and deserves the recognition where due.

It is just something we should consider before assuming results at that level is achievable safely for anybody regardless of background, genotype and health.

Even the women who model for Victoria Secret, who are on the other spectrum of bodybuilding, can’t escape body shaming.  I recently read some pretty nasty comments on how the girls should eat a sandwich and how it is unhealthy to send the message to young girls they should starve themselves…did they assume those girls didn’t work hard to stay a size 2?

BUT…..we have to be nice to fat people who ate their way to obesity and should be accepted to love their unhealthy system?

(little rant done. thank you)

Going back to thinking “we train the same..but why don’t I look like her?”

Honestly, unless you have compared down to the last detail in RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion), recovery methods, quality of sleep, capability of handling stress, digestive system, age, genotype, activity level, choices of food, methods of cooking…and so on…you DON’T train the same and you DON’T eat the same.

What I like about Alix’s post is the science, shit just makes sense when it’s rational and logical, even though they ain’t skittles and rainbow advice I wanna hear.  Ever since I started practicing using a track record, I find myself being less stressed about eating, training and weight.  I can actually go out on decent social events and eat without having that nag of beating myself up with guilt.  Having a lot more control on my progress might mean a little more work now but I would much rather take the challenge now than face regret later on losing my years.

Still trollin’ on ‘skinny chicks’?

Still rolling your eyes at ‘fit-obsessed chicks’?

Still offering sympathy for the unhealthy obese and leading young children to think fat is OK?

Just THINK ABOUT IT.

DO SOMETHING THAT YOU ARE GOING TO BE PROUD OF. (I doubt typing a smart-ass comment on someone’s Instagram photo is the highlight of your week…I hope not)

WHEN SHIT GETS HARD, REMEMBER THAT NO ONE GETS RESULTS THAT EASY, IT JUST MEANS THAT YOU’RE WEAKER IN WILL

…AND YOU NEED TO CHANGE THAT.