Last October I approached my friend, colleague and Co-Owner of Achieve Fitness, Lauren Perreault about collaborating with me to present a women’s strength workshop here in Boston, because there is not enough information available to women about strength training.  I wanted to continue to educate and inspire women about strength training and the benefits of strength training and to help them to learn that there are other methods out there that WILL give you better results, make you stronger, be a better use of your time, and do not include 100 plies on demi point or donkey kicks while holding a ball behind your knee.  At the risk of our minds spontaneously combusting from this awesome idea, I thought,what better way to communicate to the masses than to not only hold a workshop specific to educating women about these training methods (otherwise known in my book as “Unsexy Training Methods”), but to also collaborate with a friend and colleague.

This past weekend Lauren and I held the Female Fitness Formula Workshop at Lauren’s facility in Somerville, MA.  We chose the name The Female Fitness Formula because we wanted the name to represent that it is an all-encompassing formula of strength training, the right type of cardio for your goal or goals, nutrition, and overall lifestyle.  It’s not just one single thing, (like SlimFast, Isagenix, P90X, Pole Dancing Classes, or Pure Barre lead you to believe for example), that helps you to achieve the best version of yourself, but a formula of the right combination of strength training, cardiovascular training and diet.  A healthy diet and proper eating was a HUGE theme of our workshop.

You cannot out exercise a bad diet.

(Lauren wrote more about this HERE.)

When I presented on our solution, I highlighted seven key points that were essential to success, three of which were:

OWN IT

CHALLENGE YOURSELF IN THE WEIGHT ROOM

GET STRONG

To support these points, I talked about how in the book Intervention, Dan John writes about the woman who challenges herself in the weight room versus Edna.  He didn’t give the woman who challenges herself in the weight room a name, so I decided to call her Xena.

In the book Intervention Dan John writes about how the woman who can do 10 bodyweight pull-ups and military press half her bodyweight overhead, (this is who I referred to as Xena), has a very big “strength glass” and therefore can treat herself once in a while with dessert and cocktails without worrying about it reversing her hard work in her training…  “her entire system has to gather up resources, and then adapt and recover from the effort.”   While Edna who thinks a 5lb dumbbell is heavy isn’t going to tax her body very hard.  Edna can’t eat cake.

“Absolute strength is the glass.  Everything else is the liquid inside the glass.  The bigger the glass, the more of everything else you can do.” ~Dan John, Intervention

So be Xena, not Edna.

Why Xena?  Because Xena is a Warrior Princess.  Xena is both physically and mentally strong and independent but she is also a lady.  She is a princess.  Not a Disney princess, a Warrior Princess.  There is something very attractive and empowering about a woman who not only takes charge in her day-to-day, but also OWNS IT in the weight room.

What do I mean by OWN IT, CHALLENGE YOURSELF IN THE WEIGHT ROOM, and, GET STRONG?

OWN IT!

Own that pull-up, dead-lift, squat, or press in the weight room; and just as you own that pull-up, dead-lift, squat or press in the weight room, OWN your health and fitness.  Own your eating and exercise routine.  The more you act like you own it, the more you will actually indeed own it and have control and the more success you will have.

CHALLENGE YOURSELF IN THE WEIGHT ROOM! 

Get out of your comfort zone in the weight room.  Do things, or train to do things that you never thought you might do, like a pull-up or dead-lift more than your bodyweight.  Have confidence that you ARE strong enough.  Refer back to OWN IT and then move to GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE.  Do something that challenges you, be successful at it and in turn you will be empowered and motivated to do the next thing that is out of your comfort zone.

GET STRONG!

Along with challenging yourself in the weight room, do not be afraid to get strong to achieve these challenging goals.  Being strong makes everything better.  As one of my class clients said to me the other day,

 “Strength Training = Freedom. It means that I do not have to ask anyone for help to lift anything. It helps me to always be strong and independent and to have the ability to move freely.” Iron Body Studios Client Virginia I.

Love your muscles, being strong and be confident with your strength.

Be XENA not Edna

So, to all of you women out there, be Xena, not Edna and if you’re interested in hearing more about our solution and The Female Fitness Formula, then I hope that you will join us for our next workshop event.  Lauren and I will also be taking the Female Fitness Formula on the road, so look out for a workshop event in a city near you!