Yeah, I’m gonna start this blog with a rant. A rant aimed directly at Tumblr. Quality content, right here...

So hey, Tumblr! Y’know how you force people to pick a bunch of interests before they can reach their dashboard and start posting? 

That’s bullshit.

I created this account for a very specific purpose: To record and track my weight loss and fitness goals. I have literally ZERO interest in the topics you forced me to pick from. And it wasn’t just one topic, or three, but FIVE subjects that had nothing to do with my account and my blog. I spent several minutes trying to debate what topics to pick from, just because they were ALL BAD. 

Now I get where you’re coming from, I do. You want to assist people in finding blogs that interest them. You’re trying to help connect people to the blogs that will mean something to them, I get it. 

For a little bit, I was following this Facebook page, Awkward Gym Moments because they had 1 or 2 photos that I thought were funny. But then I realized it's a community full of d-bags and a lot of the photos that they repost are from a fellow tumblr-er, Just Lifting Things.

I have mixed feelings about this blog (but mostly, I don't like it) because on the one hand, it's trying to encourage women to lift and to dispel the myth that lifting, or that exercising in general, will bulk females up.

On the other hand, it plays into the typical sexualization of women in fitness as well as body bashing. There are so many images of women's butts with the tagline "when girls have squat butt" etc etc. Like this gem here:

Images like this make me so angry. I've recently started adding more squatting and dead-lifts in addition to my calisthenic training and the last thing on my mind is what it will do to my butt or what others will think of my butt and in fact, I don't want anybody but my partner looking at my butt and thinking about what it looks like. 

Training for somebody else's approval is the downfall of those who fail to be able to continue to find their own motivation to train. It is a never ending cycle wherein you will try to train to win the approval of others and then something else will always come up about your body that isn't 'right'. Training for yourself means that you don't owe any responsibility to anybody else other than yourself and whatever other people say will not affect you. It is a difficult lesson to learn, and made even more difficult by asinine blogs such as this one.

How many girls will see images like that, and then feel like their butt is inadequate? Because clearly there is a community of dudes out there that would prefer a woman's butt to look like that. Is getting into lifting to gain a "squat butt" the right reason? Do I even need to ask that question?

I also don't agree with the perpetuation of the idea that a woman who doesn't lift is not worth it, is a sad cow (they used a much more vulgar word in one image) or is jealous of others. Training comes in many different forms and somebody who prefers one form over another does not make them weak, or sad, or what have you. In the end, we all the the same goal of being our healthiest so why are be bringing others down when they aren't doing the same thing as us?

I clearly have nothing against lifting, as I've incorporated it into my own training regiment. But I am huge proponent of functional strength which includes body awareness, agility, flexibility as well as muscles.

It is sad, but sites like that perpetuate the stereotype of asshole bodybuilders. There are certainly are many, but I've met some really awesome ones as well who couldn't give 2 shits whether or not their girlfriend has a squat butt or lifts at all, as long as she's healthy.