A woman of strength

My wife is a very active and healthy person. She does yoga and walks miles a day. I have been trying to convince her to add strength workouts to her routine for a while, but with little success. Not that I can blame her. If I had her body, I would look in the mirror and say "what I'm doing seems to be working pretty damn well." Like most women I've known, my wife hears the words "strength workout" and immediately thinks "I don't want to get big." I keep telling her that gaining strength is not going to turn her into one of those crazy female bodybuilders. Never think bodybuilders equal strength!

On a side note, I hate bodybuilders. I think bodybuilding is the worst thing to happen to the fitness community in the history of the world. Bodybuilders do not workout for strength, but for size. Pound for pound, bodybuilders are some of the weakest athletes in the world. On the other hand, power lifters and gymnasts are by far the strongest athletes. I'm not talking those fat power lifters who look more like meatballs than men, but real power lifters. The kind that weigh 180 and deadlift 400. Do female gymnasts and power lifters look like testosterone induced monsters? hell no! They are tight, lean, and super strong. If you want a lean and sexy body, train for strength. And remember, a vast majority of the crazy bodybuilders in the world owe their success to steroids. So avoid the juice and those worthless "pump" workouts.

OK, back to the real topic. I finally convinced my better half that she wouldn't become a super monster if she added some strength work into her life. Last night she took the plunge and I put her through her first strength workout. It was all body weight stuff. We did push ups, pull-ups, and body weight squats (box squats to help her knees). We did a tough circuit routine of 5 reps each for the push ups and pull ups and 20 reps for the squats. After 4 rotations around the circuit she had a whole new perspective on what strength means. She's gonna be sore today, but that's good. She has today to recover before the next strength workout.

For the next 5 weeks she's going to do body weight strength work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. She'll do yoga and a long walk on Tuesday and Thursday, and have the weekends off. I guarantee that 5 weeks from now she'll feel great. Knowing her, she'll probably be ripped after just 5 weeks....damn Mediterranean genetics!!! Hey, what am I complaining about? She's my wife! hellllll yeaaaaah.