Happy International Women’s Day!

Happy Women’s Day Ladies 🙂

 

Tell me what “women’s day” means to you? 

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The Arnold Classic 2018 Moments

So those of you who didn’t already know, I attended the Arnold Classic Fitness Expo March 2nd – March 4th. I thought I would let everyone in on some pictures and news 😀 

 

This was my second year going, the whole weekend was fun and something to remember, I met many, many, fitness industry celebrities, went to parties, got some supplements and samples and bought me a pair of versa gripps — the most meaningful moments were spending that time with a circle of friends. I stayed in Columbus, Ohio all weekend during the event. Parking was critical Saturday because it was 2X busier on Saturday than it was Friday. Friday I paid 10 dollars for parking and Saturday I paid 20 dollars— ugh! also, the weather was cold but decent sunshine so if walking in the cold wasn’t your thing, then you either needed to arrive extremely early or live in the area to get a close parking spot near the convention. 

 

I could definitely tell in the last few years, the Arnold Classic has grown in size as far as attendees, which makes it really difficult to get through lines, avoid being pushed or knocked over & I definitely would say that bringing small children would not be in your best interest because of how busy the convention is all weekend. It doesn’t allow strollers, which is a GOOD thing because could you imagine being ran over by a stroller, it hurts! Also, it did seem people with wheelchairs attended but it was difficult for them because they not only had to avoid running people over, but people were constantly pushed up against their wheelchairs. These are things one should expect if you are a newbie and things most people are prepared for if they have attended previous years. I think the easiest way to go about this weekend is to have a list of pros and cons of my experience 🙂

 

Pros

 

• You get free samples of pre-workout
• you meet fitness industry athletes and celebrities you might not normally meet in everyday life
• They have performances in powerlifting, bodybuilding and CrossFit (women’s and mens)
• They had fencing, cheerleading events, body painting events, american ninja warrior
• you could participate in events (events that companies allowed general population to compete in)
• They had a food court within the convention if you didn’t want to leave the site
• you could carry in bags and backpacks but they were always checked at the door
• You are able to use cash or credit for event or order tickets in advanced
• There was NO line having to get into the building
• There were elevators, esculators and stairs accessible 
• variety of booths that offered apparel, supplements or games
• everything is usually cheaper (weightbelts, chalk, etc) at the arnold classic 
• taking a picture with the Arnold statue 😛
• could watch pre-judging for bodybuilding events
• the convention is downtown Columbus, so it is surrounded by many restaurants and hotels, stores
• There were police present outside to give help to those crossing the street and officers inside the convention 
• there was an information booth and directory if one gets lost
• You don’t have to be fit to attend, it is an event for any walk of life
• tons of entertainment within the convention
• parking near the convention and off the main street
• You were able to reserve parking 
• tons of walking, so great for exercise
• handicapped accessible
• You get to see Arnold S, if you are lucky.. he speaks to you and you can get a picture of him walking the convention/expo

/There were other pro’s to be listed about the event, but this was small taste of what it was like

 

Cons

• Bathrooms were difficult to find at times within the convention center. 
• some of the bathrooms were small, so having to wait to use the bathroom
• the amount of people could make someone claustrophobic 
• no strollers allowed (which sucks if you have a child who needs one, but it is a good thing because they wouldn’t be safe to bring in the expo)
• LONG LINES FOR EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING! 
• easy to spend tons of money at this event, so have a budget set for yourself if you are trying to save money
• parking further away from the event can be hard on those who have issues walking or don’t enjoy walking in cold air
• the food court didn’t offer healthier options .. except for maybe one place
• the food court restaurants were pricey
• people drive horrible in Columbus, be prepared to go fast and to be cut off multiple times
• people cut people in lines at the event (sometimes) so pay attention to who is in front of you so you don’t have people try to cut 
• some of the fitness industry athletes were walking around in the expo — which meant it was harder to get to them because normally a crowd would form and make it harder to get a picture or video
• The Wi-fi service was 80 dollars if you wanted to use it (each day)
• the service within the convention was HORRIBLE! 
• some of the athletes can be assholes or rude — thankfully the ones I met were down to earth and willing to talk to you
• some people were rude because they would knowingly take up 20 minutes of the athlete’s time while holding up a long ass line. 
• If you have low self esteem, this convention can be overwhelming because tons of people are in shape and have very little clothing on (revealing their quads, abs, backs, etc) and so if this bothers you… it might not be your cup of tea. However if you enjoy seeing other people’s progress and physiques, then you will enjoy it. 
• If you smoke, you cannot smoke inside the convention or expo (which in my opinion is a good thing) but for smokers would be a bad thing

That was some of the cons of the event, obviously there might have been more but this gives ya an inside look. 

 

I personally enjoyed myself and had tons of fun, I won some things, got amazing products and have learned so much about others within our industry. I have pictures and videos I will posting from the event all week.. so stay in touch with my Instagram — FitnessWonderwoman

& make sure to follow me on Twitter as well for updates — https://twitter.com/ShayM_Fitness

 

Let me know if you attended this event this year in the comments! 

 

Fitness WonderWoman,

Shay-lon 

Review Wednesday|A Women’s Bar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT7jZ9iRR6o

If your local store does not carry this brand and you were interested in trying it:

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Happy National Coming Out Day!

I love you no matter who you are or who you love! #gaypride 

Today is National Coming Out Day! 🙂 I want everyone who follows me that is part of the LGBT & LGBTQ community to know I always welcome you to my blogs and that I fully support it! I appreciate all of you for supporting me as well, considering I came out in 2010 🙂 I love you guys! HAVE A WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY! xo

Groin Pull/Groin Strain (Injury/injury prevention)

This post is not meant to be inappropriate, because groin injuries have happened to some people and are common with most contact sports. 

 

Groin pull? 

Also known as ‘groin strain” , is a tear/rupture to the to any of the adductor muscles resulting pain in the inner thigh. Range from mild to very severe. 

 

Causes: 

 

• Known to occur when sprinting or changing direction quickly
• during rapid movements of the leg against resistance 
• over stretching the muscle
• having weak adductor muscles
• not warming up properly
• tight adductor muscles
• previous injury to that particular area
• sometimes lower back injuries can contribute to this injury as well

Symptoms:

• Sharp pain in the groin area
• swelling
• discomfort
• bruising 

symptoms depend on the severity of the injury.

 

Treatment:

• Protect the area, ice it, rest it, compress it, and elevate it if possible
• wearing a groin support can be helpful 
• sports massage could be useful after 72 hours
• electrotherapy by medical doctors is said to help the healing process

Every case is on an individualized basis, so make sure to contact your medical professional for further information/help

 

Have you experienced a groin pull, how long did it take to heal? what procedure did you use to help the healing process – leave answers in the comment section. 

If you enjoyed the post, like, comment, share and follow!

 

Fitness WonderWoman,

Shay-lon xo

The “Female Triad” – Have you heard of it?

Female athletes beware… 

 

It is possible you have experienced this as a female athlete or maybe your child is experiencing this OR it could be that you know someone who is experiencing this. Most females have experienced this depending on the sports they played and how serious they took their athletics – many coaches and parents might not see anything wrong with it because it comes with being an athlete having the mindset of being the best, but what happens when being the best is causing health issues and making it harder on you in the long term and short term. 

 

What is the female Triad?

 

• A syndrome in which eating disorders, amenorrhoea, and decreased bone mineral density are present. Primarily caused by an energy deficiency. 

Now you would assume, how is this considered normal? well it isn’t. Sadly, many people don’t stop to question these things until it is too late or don’t see the signs right away because they don’t pay close enough attention, or possibly because their teenager is avoiding the topic and allowing the guardian to believe all is well when it is NOT. As athletes, you know we have to make sacrifices and some can be harmful and some can be good, but we make these sacrifices because we want to be the best at whatever we do and we don’t want to make the coach or our teammates upset – we have this mindset of win, win, win and any loss is a bad loss. This was my same mindset as well, any loss was a loss I was mad about and the tantrums I would throw and the cussing and the anger and the blaming the players and the constant striving for perfection is all that mattered to me growing up playing sports. It can be tough being an athlete. 

 

We all have our downfalls but this is serious and I want to bring it to your attention in case any of you might be going through it now or know someone who is, so that maybe you can identify it and be more aware and helpful.. if anything, I hope this post teaches you something new.

 

Who is effected?

• Typically anyone can be effected, but it primarily effects female athletes who participate in sports that emphasize leanness, such as:gymnastics, ballet, diving, figure skating, aerobics, running. Some other classes that include males experiencing this might be: wrestling, rowing, and martial arts. 

Symptoms:

1. weight loss
2. absent or irregular periods
3. fatigue
4. stress fractures
5. binge eating 
6. restrictive dieting
7. induced vomiting
8. excessive exercise

Prevention practices:

1. AVOID emphasis on achieving unrealistically low body weight
2. avoid out of competition weigh ins
3. athletes, coaches and parents need to be aware of any warning signs 
4. rules encouraging excessive weight loss should be discouraged and eliminated. 

Treatment:

1. The athlete will deny, but medical help is mandatory because it can become serious and eventually cause long term issues if not death.
2. they should have proper support from coaches, family, friends, teammates
3. speak with a nutritionist
4. many times treatment requires some kind of intervention from different specialist and family, friends, etc

Now with this being said, nothing will change if we don’t become the change. We might not be able to save every athlete or change every coach or parent’s mind but we can be aware with both eyes open and speak on this topic when necessary to avoid it happening to yourself, your child or a friend possibly. I am HUGE on body positiveness and preventing females from going down some of the paths I went down knowingly and unknowingly and hopefully helping those who may have questions or concerns dealing with this topic or any of this nature. I am not a medical doctor but I can offer an ear, advice, tips, conversation, etc that might be helpful to an individual. I don’t want men thinking this can’t happen to them, because I know both sexes deal with issues but this specific issue is more prone to female athletes. All I ask is that all of you share this and talk about it with friends and family and social media, make it an issue so that others make it their problem to change how we coach, change our rules that govern these ways of thinking and to hopefully make some type of difference. 

 

Thank you for reading, please feel free to contact me personally, to leave comments, share experiences, follow my blog and social media, and to reblog if you wish as well. 

 

Fitness WonderWoman,

Shay-lon xo

Is “Strong the New Skinny”

So the newest saying from around the block is “strong is the new skinny” and I realize this has been going on since CrossFit became a hit and everyone figured “fuck being thin”, let’s get huge and muscular – both men and women. I just have some two cents I would like to share about this particular saying.. and maybe some of you will agree and maybe some of you will disagree and look at it differently, doesn’t matter, this is my opinion and you can either take it or walk away with your own opinion. 

 

For one, I will admit, that people have called me both, “skinny”, “lean”, “strong”, “muscular”, so I have been on both sides of this spectrum and to be honest, I don’t consider myself “skinny” by any means (sure growing up, I was), but muscular, sure.. I mean, for a female one may agree I have a muscular body frame – and I am okay with that, judge me if it makes you happy. I particularly don’t find anything wrong with being skinny or being more muscular or perhaps being both, and if that bothers you, well you are on the WRONG blog page. 

 

I have lived by: being skinny doesn’t make you weak, and being strong doesn’t mean you can’t be skinny (I know we have this thought that muscular men and women are all bulking looking and have a giant amount of mass) but I know plenty of leaner people who are just as muscular & have strength gains. So, this whole chitter chatter about being skinny is no longer attractive , is bullshit (and yes, this is what that saying means to me) it means we are saying, skinny girls are out and the strong ones are now in (same goes for men). Well I am sorry to be a total douche bag, but before this whole let’s get big and tough happened, we were all saying “fat is not cute” and being skinny makes you attractive — anyone else remember those days? so now, I have taken notice that people on social media seem to making these depressing statements that are basically nailing skinny females (and possibly men) to a wall, saying they are no longer the cool thing and now if you want in the cool crowd, become a stronger person and have abs and have quads that seem more defining… oh gosh much, much more. Well I hate to break it to you, it really isn’t any of your damn business how someone chooses to have their body frame/body image, it never was your business, so if you make it your business, then you are the PROBLEM. We can make our bodies our business and if you choose to be thin and run marathons, cool or if you choose to be muscular and more defining and do bodybuilding, that is cool too! BUT neither one of those physiques is BETTER than the other. Everyone has preferences, doesn’t mean the other side is wrong or ugly, or should be looked down upon. I hate when people talk shit about someone’s else choice of physique, we can’t possibly think that everyone in the world should be the same. 

 

This is me saying being strong is not the new skinny, being skinny doesn’t make you weak and you don’t have to choose between the two, just be you! Thanks for reading! feel free to share, comment, like and follow.

 

Your Fitness Blogger,

Shay-lon xxoo