UGA Student Creates Women's Lifting Encouragment Group

As you probably have figured out throughout this site and social media, Embrace the Weights is trying to do its part to make women feel more comfortable about going to the weight room. It seems like University of Georgia student and NPC Bikini competitor Lacey Dunn aims to take it one step further. Recently on her Instagram, she announced that she has created a student organization called Uplift Women. This organization plans on discouraging gym intimidation and teaching proper nutrition and training. To see someone as young as Lacey wanting to do her part in educating women to embrace the weights the right way is pretty awesome in our book!

Here's the original post from Lacey:

I wanted to share about the new UGA organization that I recently created to form a fun and supportive environment for women in the weight room! Uplift Women 😊❤️ I know the gym (esp Ramsey's big main weight room) can be intimidating- and many girls are scared to go in or even start lifting!! So I wanted to create a group to not only aid in decreasing gym intimidation, but to help women in learning all about proper nutrition and training! 🙏🏼💪🏼 ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖A bit about what I hope we can do: We will be hosting workouts, "fitness workshops", nutrition talks, fun get together outings, and doing fundraising for local charities 😊 I hope Uplift Women can create friendships, help ladies to learn more about form, training, eating for their goals, and also possibly spark new passions for people😊❤️ ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖We are defined as: "A group of women with the goal of promoting healthy living, friendship, and sharing knowledge of fitness and nutrition to fellow women at UGA. We aim to encourage and support women in the weight room, create an environment where women feel comfortable and confident to enter the weight room and decrease “Gym intimidation”. This group is open to ONLY UGA current students!! If you want to join- please shoot me an email or comment below with your email and I'll add you! ❤️ First meeting will be Jan 22 at 6pm in Ramsey! As founder and President- I want to make sure everyone knows that ANYONE can join regardless of experience! Go Dawgs! #UpliftWomen #Fitness #Uga #godawgs #ugaorganizations #spreadlove Link to organization: https://uga.collegiatelink.net/organization/Upliftwomen

A photo posted by Lacey (@faithandfit) on Jan 11, 2017 at 12:39pm PST

While this group is only for current UGA students, don't be the least bit surprised if you see more groups like this show up on campuses throughout the nation and around the world. If you are a student at UGA that would be interested in being part of Uplift Women, check out the official link at https://uga.collegiatelink.net/organization/Upliftwomen. If you would like to make your OWN Uplift Women group on campus, I encourage you all to talk to your student activities director or whoever is in charge of student organizations and get your own women's fitness group together! The more, the merrier!

For more on Lacey herself, check out her social links here:
Instagram: @faithandfit
Twitter: @laceyadunn
Facebook: www.facebook.com/faithandfitlacey
Bodyspace: faithandfit
Youtube: www.youtube.com/fitandfaith

And don't forget to follow her business Uplift Fitness at http://www.upliftfit.org/home.html!

#TryAgainChad: The Fitness Community Unites Against Chad Johnson's "Powerlifter Bodies" Tweet About Women

A couple of days ago, Chad Johnson (of The Bachelor, not the NFL) made this tweet which has been deleted (but didn't apologize for):

Dumb move, Chad...DUMB MOVE. Oh, the power of social media...and screenshots. ;)

This tweet lead to this response from many withing the Crossfit and fitness community as a whole, including the Crossfit Games Twitter themselves. You can check out the link here (courtesy of Buzzfeed):

https://www.buzzfeed.com/lalucie/this-is-what-happens-when-you-tell-women-what-to-d-2jnbc?utm_term=.qwa6YxKEL8#.faRDW8lE7L

Now, we are fully aware that there are quite a few men and women who agree with Chad and feel that women shouldn't have "powerlifter bodies", and it's their right to do so. But once again, this is another example of a man telling women what he feels women should look like to be sexy, and that's where we call foul on. It's not his place to tell anyone what a woman should look like. If a women wants to squat 1000 pounds, let her do that! If she wants to bench press three times her weight, let her do that! It's her freaking decision!

We COULD talk about Chad's own physique, but we won't stoop to his level. Instead, we will show photo of women who DO perform CrossFit. Warning, they have "powerlifter bodies", so this might upset people with Chad's mindset...

I think you all get my point now.  So yeah...nice try, but #TryAgainChad. Keep embracing the weights, ladies. There are several men that love your "powerlifter bodies", including yours truly. Never stop being you.

A Friend's Journey of Lifting (Taylor Ashley)

I do what everyone else does on a Monday (other than it was still the weekend. LOL): I skimmed through my social media stuff to catch me up for the day. One post on my personal Facebook caught my attention, and I had to share it with everyone. This is from one of my good friends from college, Taylor Ashley, who definitely knows a thing or two about embracing the weights. I asked her if I could share with this everyone, and she say I could. THIS is why I created the Embrace the Weights movement in the first place. I also happened to like the photo that came with the message (Pardon the language, BTW. LOL...)

This is from her Instagram account (it's private so I can't share the actual link)

This picture made by my older brother couldn't be more accurate. Today two people said things that were ignorant. The first thing that was said to me was that I'm "too into fitness" and the second was "you're a guy" due to lifting heavy. Allow me to clarify for you people what the gym and lifting does for me and has taught me. You know when you go and get hammered after a bad day or when someone makes you mad? I go to the gym not because I'm trying to be a fitness model but because it's my therapy just like yours is alcohol. Yes, you may eat wings and drink beer but I prefer drinking my gallon and eating peanut butter with celery or cucumbers with blueberries. Why? Because I enjoy it and my body feels great. That's not all I eat. I'll tear up a triple cheeseburger, a pizza,cake, and a whole box of cereal. It's called balance and I'm happy. I can assure you that I'll never be the girl to only run on the treadmill and eat salad. Now as far as "you're a guy" goes that's lack of knowledge because females don't produce enough testosterone. If you feel that way then don't slide through my DM, text or snapchat me... The gym has taught me a lot about life. It has taught me to be comfortable with failure because that just shows that I've pushed myself to my limits. I have built self confidence by building strength. I went from being a stick to having curves due to weights which has taught me patience because you can't build muscle overnight. Lifting has taught me to not focus on the body that society has put into every woman's head and focus on what my body can actually do. I feel sorry for those people who will never know the potential and strength that their body can have. I also feel sorry for those saying those things to me because it's not a reflection of me it's a reflection of an issue within them. 
On that note, I'll pray for those people and I want to thank you for inspiring me to lift that much harder today 😊❤️ Thank you mommy for raising me to be strong woman.

Rant Over.

‪#‎HappyMonday‬ ‪#‎SorryImNotSorry‬ ‪#‎GirlsThatLift‬

I can't add any more to this, to be honest with you all. I want to thank Taylor for allowing me to share this with all of you. I won't post her social media links as I think she has set them to private. If you have any testimonials or stories regarding your relationship with lifting that you wouldn't mind sharing, please email them to Embrace the Weights at embracetheweights@gmail.com.

 

Our Facebook Support Group

Embrace the Weights is proud to announce that we have created a support group on Facebook. The Embrace the Weights Women's Support Group was created for women to come together and share their stories of transformation and accomplishments due to weight training. Are you a woman that wants to understand what weight training really does for women? This group will help you lead into the right path? What about those that DO know about what weight training does for women? Then you can share your knowledge to those in the group. Everyone can learn something within this group. Members are free to post photos and videos of their transformations, competitions, personal journeys to health, etc. Any and all women can join: physique competitors, Crossfitters, athletes, personal trainers, weekend warriors...it doesn't matter. This group isn't being judged or being told that "women with muscles are manly" or "no woman should lift over 3 pounds". This is about being a woman proud of lifting and encouraging others to feel proud of their accomplishments in the weight room. 

You can check out the group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/etwsupportgroup/, and as always, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns about the support group or anything related to Embrace the Weights, email us at embracetheweights@gmail.com. 

Benefits of Lifting Weights (As Told By Kiana Tom)

I subscribe to Kiana Tom's newsletter and she gives out a great deal of information. For those unfamiliar with Kiana, she is one of the most influential fitness personalities on Earth, being a part of the Bodyshaping TV show in the last 80s-90s and then starred in her own fitness show Kiana's Flex Appeal from the 90s to early 2000s. This particular newsletter called "Why You Should Lift Weights" caught my attention instantly and I felt like I should share this with you all. This is obviously aimed to everyone, not just to women.

Source: Kiana Tom's Newletter "Why You Should Lift Weights"

After the age of 40-50, we can lose 1 to 2% of muscle mass per year unless we do something about it!? Yikes!

Lifting weights is a MUST! Cardiovascular exercise alone such as: running or swimming will NOT increase muscle mass! 

Benefits of lifting weights:

Prevent muscle loss
Increase muscle and bone strength
Reduce body fat
Tighten and tone all over
Stay youthful
Stay active
Slow or reverse the aging process
Prevent osteoporosis
Burn more calories - even while you're sleeping (love that!)
Feel firmer and tighter
Have more energy
Look thinner
Improved posture
Look more confidant
Stronger core
Everyday activities are easier
Less prone to injury
Look better
Feel better
Avoid being skinny fat
To take control of your health and fitness

I completely agree with Kiana 100% on everything she said. The main things women want in life when it comes to health can be attained by weights! With people into their New Years Resolution stage right now, now is the perfect time to properly introduce them to the weights and show them the benefits of weight training. They will be glad you did.

For more on Kiana, check her out on her social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Google +, YouTube) and don't forget to check out her website at http://www.kiana.com. You can also check out her Fit Mom TV business on Twitter and YouTube, as well as the business website http://www.fitmomtv.com.

Welcome to our blog!

Welcome to our official home! Here you can view interviews, photos, and videos of women who aren't afraid to go hard in the gym. This will not be limited to physique competitors and CrossFit competitors. We want to highlight any woman who puts in the time and effort in the gym and is passing on their knowledge to the next generation of women. Our goal is to break the stereotype of women being muscular being viewed by society as a "manly" thing, which we all know it's not. As a matter of fact, this quote by Ronda Rousey states our mission quite well (Pardon the language, but I think you will understand the message);

“That’s why I think it’s hilarious if someone says my body looks masculine or something, I’m like; Listen, just because my body was developed for something other than f*cking millionaires, doesn’t mean it’s masculine. I think it’s femininely badass as f*ck because there’s not a single muscle on body that isn’t for a purpose because I’m not a do nothin’ bitch."

Again, our apologies for the language, but I think you know where we are coming from and what we aim to accomplish with Embrace the Weights. If you want to be part of the movement (photos, videos, interviews, etc.) please email us at embracetheweights@gmail.com. And also, don't forget to like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Spread the word to everyone you know, and ladies...Embrace the Weights! Let's Break the Stereotype together!