Thursday, April 26, 2012

Curls are for girls

Here’s another blog about the opposition I’ve faced.
I just can’t help talking about my weight lifting. It’s something that I’m very passionate about. But talking about weight lifting with the wrong people can bring the strangest reactions.
Recently while discussing weight loss and fitness with a group of young guys, my weight lifting routine came up. Like dogs who had spotted a cat from the front room window, they started to snarl and pepper me with questions.
“What kind of weights to do you have?”
“How often and how long to you work out?”
“How much can you bench?”

So I began to detail my equipment and my workout to these guys. Bench presses, dumbbell flys, lat pull downs, etc. When I got to the part about my military bar, one of them shouted at me: “Curls are for girls!”
What the???
Curls are for girls?
These two guys shared a hearty laugh and a high five. Apparently I had been disproved and humiliated. But I was flabbergasted.
One of these guys was a former college level athlete, and the other had been in the marines.
So I asked them how they went about working their bicep muscles.
No good answers.
Then it hit me: Some guys have lots of opinions about fitness and weight lifting, but don’t know much about it.
Don't get me wrong, if you're a girl, by all means grab some dumbbells and do some curls. I'm just saying that men performing curls with any kind of apparatus is good exercise.
It’s true that it's foolish to lift weights targeting only one part of your body, like your just your biceps or just your abs. But proper weight lifting should exercise all muscles in your body. I just don’t buy the idea that someone would want a strong body, but not want strong biceps, because “Curls are for girls.”
Educate yourself about fitness and weightlifting. More education brings better results, and makes you less vulnerable to dummies with zingers like
“Curls are for girls.”