Strong for a Female
I have been thinking a lot about female strength lately. I’ve been thinking about the excuses females give for having physical strength. Sometimes the personal insults are based on what they think others can do and sometimes it is based on what they think or wish they could do. Most of my athletes are female and I when I look around the studio I am gifted with the sight of strength in all shapes and sizes, in all genders and ages.
Be strong for strengths sake. Be strong to be a good role model to your children, your students, your spouses. Be strong so you can carry groceries, so you can walk the beaches, so you can move mountains. Be strong, not for a female, not for a mother, not for a 50-year-old, but for you. Strength is not defined by anyone other than yourself. Strength can be doing a cartwheel for a class of 2nd graders, it can be moving a couch up a flight of stairs with the help of your daughter, it can be holding a handstand for more than a minute. Strength surrounds us everyday, we need to stop looking to others to define what it means and start defining it ourselves.
In the studio, we are all athletes. There is no barrier between females and males. There is no difference in exercises based on your gender. A push up is a push up, and if you need to go to your knees at any point, that is called a modification. A pull up is a pull up, if you struggle getting over the bar, so do a lot of athletes. When you walk into the door of the studio, you are an athlete and will be challenged and treated as one. The standard I put on my athletes is the same regardless of your gender. I train athletes to kick ass in everything they want to do in their life. I train athletes to excel in their abilities to perform, whether it’s in the classroom, on the courts, at home or at a stressful job. These athletes come in to workout, to push themselves and to become stronger mentally and physically. I don’t train athletes to make excuses…about anything.
Being a female, being a woman, is not an excuse, it is a privilege. There are times when we may still need to prove our strengths out in the world. Maybe we need show confidence in the human that we are. Maybe we need to stand a little taller and be a little broader. But no where does it mean that I will define my strengths as “good for a female.” Here’s the thing, I am strong. I am not strong for a female, I am just strong for a human. And not just a human, I train to carry myself like a super hero, a real life super hero with the ability to turn invisible, nunchucks as my weapon and I’d like to be wearing a cape. I train to be ready to give a helping hand or lend a shoulder. And maybe it will include my 5th grader telling a bunch of peers that I can beat up all their dads and all the kids nodding in agreement (I would never do such a thing, but kinda a nice complement).
I train to be a stronger version of the person I was. To do that, I need to find ownership in the person I am. And that is one of my biggest strength. I can do a chin up with an added 100lbs, I can read stories at the end of the day while snuggling with my two little men. I have deadlifted 390lbs, I have sacrificed time to myself in the gym to give an athlete time to deload some of the shit they have been carrying with them. I can bench press more than 200lbs (202.5lbs to be exact), I can laugh until I pee my pants and dance as if I were a professional back up dancer. As much as I honor my physical strengths, I find that I am most proud of the strengths that build relationships and friendships.
I am strong. I am a mother. I am a great friend. I am a business owner. These are qualities that I carry with me every day I am not strong for a woman. I am not strong for a female. I am strong PERIOD. The athletes I work with are strong PERIOD. What is your definition of strength? Start creating it with yourself as the center. Be Strong without exception and without excuses.