Watch 4 girls take on 5 boys and win....easily

We all know girls are better at teamwork, even when outnumbered - they still win.

How Top Strongwoman Competitors Are Already Outlifting Some Male Athletes

Interesting article on how women are closing the strength gap. More studies like this need to be carried out....

I had the pleasure of being the live stream broadcaster for a first-ever event this weekend (August 27th-28th); Strongman Corporation’s Strongest Woman in the World. After watching some of the most amazing female strength athletes on the planet, I began to ask myself, “Have we seen the limits to how strong these athletes can get? How close can they get to the strength of top male athletes, for instance?”

With 25 years of coaching experience and hundreds of books consumed on the subject of human athletics, I haven’t seen anyone attempt to answer that question when it comes to the relatively new sport of strongman.

From what I have seen, the average 180 lb Professional Strongwoman (who likely has a regular job and trains five days per week) will almost always out lift the average gym “bro” with a similar life schedule. I am certain of this because I have been training people in the gym for years, and most guys rarely break 405 in the deadlift — and I’ve seen these women pull it for sets of five. I believe we finally have an answer to the outdated question pondered by some male athletes with inflated egos: “You think a woman can beat me?”  

Well, yes, yes I do. Especially the average Joe VS. a well conditioned machine.

You must examine the best athletes in their professional sports at their peak. And with more competitions and athletes than ever, we’re finally starting to see what female strongman competitors are capable of, though it’s likely just the tip of the iceberg.

When you look at a sport like running, women’s times fall short of men’s by just 10 percent in almost any event, whether it is sprint or endurance racing. Over the last decade of Strongman coaching I have noticed this same observational similarity. I regularly see male and female athletes of similar weight approaching similar reps and distances on the athletic events. In a purely strongman trademark event, Donna Moore (around 220 lbs) has the World Record stone of 327 lbs. This is 148% percent of her weight. Brian Shaw (around 430 lbs) only hits 125% of his weight with the 550 stone record.

Looking purely at the stone in an absolute manner, most 220 pound men are thrilled with a 327 pound load. This is interesting because I understand while many well trained men will argue that they can rep this stone, the pool of women training at this weight class is minuscule compared to the men (for now). If we increase the sample, what would happen? The best way is to look at men and women in the 180 pound category where there are many more competitors already. Head to head, many 180 pound women would keep pace of men at a similar ability level.

As more and more women gravitate to the sport, the opportunities for them to have better coaching, equipment, and access to prize money will expand their abilities to improve. Less than a decade ago, only 16 women competed in Strongman Nationals. The 2015 season had over 70 women at Nationals, with many more qualified.

In pondering this, something stood out to me as even more incredible than all the other performances at this amazing contest.

Strongman Corporation Professional Danielle Schwalbe cleaned and pressed a 175 pound strongman log 12 times in just sixty seconds. In a live interview I conducted with her immediately after the event, she was nonplussed and proclaimed that she could have done 24 if she had two minutes. This is (basically) bodyweight from ground to overhead unbroken, one rep every five seconds. She is an outlier — dare I say extreme to outside of the curve — and I’ve called her the best strongman presser for repetitions in the world. There are plenty of good pressers in the sport, so it’s a bold statement on my part. I don’t like to make unsubstantiated claims.

Naturally, this got me thinking about “Grace” (30 repetitions of clean & jerk for time with prescribed weight, 135 pounds for men and 95 pounds for women). How would she do? Would it be easy? Could she beat most competitive athletes (who practice) this workout?

So, I called her up and laid down the challenge. She immediately accepted, but only if she could use Men’s RX’d weight of 135 pounds. Her coach Matt Wattles and I had a brief discussion as to how this would affect her training, and his main concern was that she was rested enough from her victory in Jacksonville.

So this article is my statement of faith. In the next week, Dani will run “Grace” at 135 pounds for the first time ever, and BarBend will highlight the video on their website and social outlets.

I believe that the results will floor you.

I believe that she will be close to any Elite man that posts his time — and that she will beat quite a few.

I believe she will show what incredible strength strongwomen are capable of and how incredibly close they already are to the strength, speed, and endurance of male athletes.

And I believe athletes like Dani signal the beginning of a new era of women’s strength.

On the subject of attire...

I can't remember which post it was on but there was a discussion some time ago about what modern day Amazons should wear. It may have been on the so called LFL (Lingerie Football League) and it covered the advantages of being scantily clad. Well it seems our ancient sisters had the idea well before us....

Australian Academics Attack Campaign for More Female Exercise Because of...

Fit Shaming Part II

This just about sums it up! "You shouldn't be fearful of making your body strong! It's a beautiful thing." Please comment below...

Hawk vs Dove

Thanks to yboy for finding this clip and bringing to our attention...

Be Bold For Change | Karina Elle

Fit shaming....

You have probably heard of "Fat shaming" the process of shaming of individuals who are overweight in order to persuade them to lose weight ....for their own good btw. Well that's the theory anyway, of course it could just be good old-fashioned bullying....But I want to discuss a variation on this social phenomenon - Fit shaming...that's right, sounds similar and works the same way, but instead of the problem being fat, apparently the problem this time is with being fit...(I know).

Amazons will more than likely experience this phenomena on a regular basis and not always just from men

Yes, there are still a good many people stuck in their conventional patriarchal mindset who think that a female being physically fit, somehow carries the same social stigma as being overweight. On the surface this appears to be puzzling, I mean, everyone wants to be fit right?? Well yes, but socially there still seems to be some strange resistance to females being fit, active and physically capable. Amazons reading this will be familiar by now with some of its manifestations. Sometimes they are overt and obvious, but more often they are subtle - little comments and asides that you overhear and sometimes don't even realise until later....that was a dig..

I think there are two main reasons for this phenomenon. Firstly it is seen as a threat to the traditional, conventional family construct where the subservience of the female is crucial. Fit and physically capable females are less likely to want or need to bend to the male will and that notion upsets certain  people (a lot of them women) on a subconscious level. Secondly I believe that there is an inherent fear of female supremacy in men and any sign that a female is achieving any kind of physical capability is to be discouraged and is often met with disdain and criticism.

I remember an example many years ago where a female friend of mine was describing another girl who was making a name for herself in the local town - basically because she was getting a lot of attention from the local boys. Any way she said she was "Tall, blonde" and then she leant forward covered her mouth and said in a kind of whisper "Big thighs". When I eventually saw the girl in question, she had what I would now describe as an Amazonian physique not unlike my own -  but my friend had said "Big thighs" as a way to disparage her. I didn't say anything at the time, but on reflection I felt offended because I had big muscley legs too. Mine were the result of a lot of hard work and exercise and it really bugged me that anyone should think that was a bad thing.

Women's biggest muscles are in the lower body and we should be proud of them just as men are proud of their upper body muscles. You wouldn't hear anyone criticise a man for having big biceps now would you?? If anyone criticises you for having a strong or fit body, then it can only be because they feel threatened and envious. Don't listen to them, jut re-double your efforts to become the thing that they are so scared of and make sure you have the last laugh....