Training 286/P90X 55.

Rest/Free day.

Inspiration/Motivation - Bodybuilding.com - Female Transformation Of The Week - Female Transformation Of The Week - Francina Segbefia!:

"Name: Francina Segbefia
Before:
Age: 31
Height: 5'6
Weight: 155 lbs
Body Fat: 29%


After:
Age: 31
Height: 5'6
Weight: 125 lbs
Body Fat: 15%"

Bodybuilding.com - Over 40 Transformation Of The Week - Over 40 Transformation Of The Week - Matthew Eubanks!:

"Name: Matthew Eubanks
Before:
Age: 40
Height: 5'10'
Weight: 218 lbs
Body Fat: 26%


After:
Age: 40
Height: 5'10'
Weight: 192 lbs
Body Fat: 5%"

T-Nation.com | Look at These Breasts:

"...[she said] 'I don't look like the girls pictured on sites like that. I'm not going to get a facelift. I'm not going to get my breasts done. I'm into the martial arts, and they teach that aging is a natural and beautiful thing.'

I started to hoist myself onto my high horse, but thought better of it and sat back down on my medium-sized horse and attempted a diplomatic approach. I started to ramble on about how most people aspire to the physical ideals in many of the photos. That's what motivates them. What's the alternative — that people shoot for mediocrity? Sure we depict physical ideals, but if they bother her she should ignore the images and just benefit from the information we provide.

Furthermore, what's 'natural'? Do you shave your legs or arms or use deodorant? That's not natural, either. Do you wash your karate gi in one them-there new-fangled washing machine gizmos, or do you go to the riverbank and scrub it with rocks and natural sponges?

Anyhow, our conversation got me to thinking how this kind of thinking is pervasive in the training world. There isn't any faction, it seems, that it isn't plain pissy about all the other factions. The bodybuilders don't like the power lifters because they're fat bastards. The powerlifters don't like the bodybuilders because they're weak, narcissistic, and maybe even borderline gay.

Olympic lifters don't like powerlifters because their lifts don't require as much athleticism and they dislike the bodybuilders because they're weak, narcissistic, and maybe even borderline gay.

Female bodybuilders don't like Figure competitors because they're smallish in comparison and for some weird reason refuse to grow angry 3-inch clitorises. Figure competitors don't like Fitness competitors because all that bouncing around on stage is just a little too close to what the girls at Bada Bing are doing and they'd prefer the schism — and not so much their legs, thank you — to be a little wider.

Strongwoman competitors are disdainful of Figure and Fitness competitors because the poor little things just don't hoist enough weight, sniff, and they wear high-heels during competition instead of smelly Chucks.

The HIT guys don't like anybody except the occasional other HIT guy because HIT is the only true way to train and all non-believers are going to die and be sent straight to the fiery gym in H-E-double hockey sticks.

The CrossFit guys don't like anybody who uses any equipment that can be found outside a park or, I don't know, a petting zoo or cemetery, where tombstones can be used as impromptu pulling sleds.

And the assorted bodybuilders and powerlifters and strength athletes dislike the CrossFit people because, well, all that endurance and grace the CrossFit guys exhibit in their assorted Sally, Alice, and Shakira exercise routines makes them all jealous because those graceful guys might just qualify for a role in the next off-Broadway production of Guys and Dolls and by God, the bodybuilders and powerlifters and strength athletes know they can't do that!

...And female martial artists, I guess, don't like Figure competitors that have large breasts because large breasts make it hard for karate boy or girl to plunge their fist through the big-breasted opponent's chest cavity and remove their still beating heart. Why, you'd likely remove your fist to find that you just pulled out an implant instead of the still-beating heart and boy would that be embarrassing....

It's all arrogance of a type. Close-mindedness so complete, mental prisons so tight, we don't even know we're locked up...

But that ain't right. You've got to fight the default setting...

...Back in the day, the only difference between powerlifters and bodybuilders was what they ate. The bodybuilders obsessed about protein while powerlifters didn't. Bodybuilders chose egg-white omelets while powerlifters chose flapjacks. Other than that, they lifted the same weights. They worked out at the same place. There was some element of camaraderie.

Not so much anymore. Anyone with a different philosophy or goal is an asshole, is misguided, or just hasn't seen the heavenly light yet. The truth is, we're all freaks and there's plenty of room in our circus... all this bickering between sects is counterproductive. So's the arrogance.

You know who gets to be arrogant in this life? The guy who won a gold medal in the Olympic Decathlon and who was also awarded the Nobel Prize for both Literature and Medicine. To my knowledge, that guy doesn't exist, or at least he's not hanging around with someone as ordinary as me. If he does exist, he's got my permission to be as arrogant and pompous and self-righteous as he likes.

The rest of us should probably cut each other some slack..."