I ran track and cross country for four years, and every year I received the goddamn “Spirit Award” at the end of the season because I was the one loser who came to every single practice, and the coach clearly felt sorry for me because I sucked. I never placed in anything, except one track meet between my school and one other, I came in third for the mile. And that was my sophomore year. Everything else was downhill after that.
As a junior, I had to run in the j.v. meets, while stupid fucking Amy Mathis, after one year of running and skipping every Thursday practice, got to be the varsity race, and came in fourth fucking place in the upstate finals. I came in 37th.
I’ve been going to a gym and lifting weights for over a year now. Doing all the exercises correctly, I might add, and I still needed help to move the furniture in my dorm room. My roommate, who has the exact same weight as me and one two inches shorter, who never worked out in the year I lived with her, could hold up her end of the bed, but I couldn’t. I am forced to use the hot pink 7 pound bowling ball. I can only do three fucking Charles Atlas push-ups.
What the hell is wrong with me? Should I see some fucking improvement after a goddamned year and two months of weight lifting? Shouldn’t my time for the two mile have not plateaued after two years? Shouldn’t my fucking hardwork and dedication pay off?
Stupid body–I hate you. I can forgive the acne that I still have at 20 years old, the flat chest, the crooked spine that forced me into a brace in middle school, the moles on my back that will probaly become cancerous within my lifetime, even the proportional-to-the-rest-of-my-body huge ass that makes buying pants impossible, but come on! I’ve been trying for years now to get you in good shape, to give you a flat, hard stomach and amazing rippling muscles, and the ability to run three miles without thinking you are going to die, but you have to do your part. Why won’t you respond to me? Why do you just ignore my hard work and the hours I have spent on you?
Bad body image in a young woman. Never a good thing.
No big answers here. If your running times have plateued (sp?) it’s possible that you’ve reached the limits of your ability under your current set of circumstances. But if you haven’t gotten any stronger after that much lifting than you probably aren’t doing something right. I recommend a fitness coach.
Have you tried different events in track and field?
I did cross country in middle school, because I was running from the time I could walk, and I wanted to do cross country. I could more or less hold my own, but no matter how much I ran and practiced, I never got better. Track was another story. With more events, I could try different ones till I found what I was good at. Give me 110 meters and throw some hurdles in there, and I could fly. I also did the 300 meter hurdles, and unfortunately was good at them too (unfortunately because it was considered a sprint, and I don’t run that far that fast very well, never mind trying to do it while jumping over hurdles). High jump was my event though… what I lacked in speed and endurance didn’t matter in the high jump, and I was damn good at it.
Keep at it. Think of it this way–one thing you’re learning is a sense of perserverance. Weaker people would have quit long ago.
Look at your diet for starters. Muscles need protein and so does exercise. If you’re doing a high-carb, low-fat diet, you may be cheating your body out of the very things it needs to build the muscles you want. Also, how about vitamins? Getting enough B complex into your bod?
I’d also strongly recommend that you go for a session or two with a trainer at the local gym. Not a coach; their focus is totally different. A trainer. Did wonders for me.
I have run cross country for 4 years (2 more to go until HS is over). I suck at it, no matter how much I try. Our coach doesn’t recognise the efforts put through by all runners; just the varsity team. The varsity runners get special priviledges that aren’t ever set, but understood nonetheless. The coaches seem to think that all who get over a 6-minute mile aren’t trying hard enough, and we are therefore lacking in spirit. (Also, let me say that hanging around those varsity girls with perfect bodies isn’t much helping my attitude towards myself.)
I have also been working out for 4 years, and my stomach still hangs over my pants when I sit down. I wear an A cup (a lot of times I have to buy my bras in little girl stores), but my butt is huuuuuuge. I’m completely unproportional, no matter how hard I work at getting a better body.
I’ve resorted to not wearing swimsuits unless completely necessary and wearing pants and long sleeves all summer. I’m completely embarrassed by my body, and I don’t know what else I can do.
Thisyearsgirl, (and you too fireunderpantsboobs),
Don’t get too discouraged. I’ve been sharing a house with a good friend of mine for 5 years. He’s a real nice guy, 5 years younger than me, and he almost never works out at all. Every year, we run one race together, the Lincoln ‘corporate run’. There is a 2 mile and a 5 mile race. Every year, we did the two mile. Every year, he would beat me, usually by 2 or three minutes. About a year and a half ago, I started ‘training’ in earnest, running, well, jogging very slowly, every day. I started with ten minutes a day, 5 days a week. Every week, I added two mimutes to my time until I was jogging slowly for thirty minutes. I kept track of the distance, after about a year, I plataeu’d at 2.8 miles in thirty minutes. It didn’t seem to matter how long I kept it up, I couldn’t go any faster. I decided to sign up for the 5 mile race this year. Knowing that, I changed my workout to 4 miles every other day, no matter how long it took. After 2 months of that, I was finishing the 4 miles in 43 to 44 minutes. My friend also signed up for the 5 mile this year and I beat him. More importantly, I finished in 53 minutes. So maybe you need to vary your workout in some big way to ‘move in another direction.’ It seems to have made a big difference for me, anyway. And remember, you are what you are, but you can always get better. Sometimes it takes a long, long time to see even a small improvement. But it’s worth it.
Satch
I agree with phouka, you may need more protein. You’re a vegetarian, right? That might be part of the problem. Maybe you need to eat more beans (or whatever vegetarians eat for protein).
*This post not intended to insult vegetarians or thier diets. Nor is it intedned to start a debate or flame war on the subject.
I am a little confused here… You’re right, you should be seeing improvement if you’ve been lifting (for strength, not aerobics) for over a year. You can do the exercises correctly, but if you’re not doing the right type of exercises, not working your whole body out, eating right, and doing aerobic activity in addition to your weight training, you may not see the payoff you think you should. I strongly second what phouka said about consulting a personal trainer. Results from weight training aren’t immediate, but you should certainly be seeing them by now. I can only assume you’re seeing some sort of improvement in the weightroom… the amount you’re lifting or number of reps. Keep at it!
Different bodies have different proportions of muscle types and compositions of same that respond better or worse to different exercises. Your body being a “normal” woman’s body is not a machine into which you pump x amount of exercise and get a hardbody physique or ability to outpace the competition whose inherent physiques may be more suited for distance running or strength applications.
Sociological issues aside your body is built to do one main thing which is to keep you alive until you breed and then keep you offspring alive until they can breed. Despite what Cosmo or Seventeen magazine tells you or your desire to wear the latest hip huggers, the majority of normal, caucasian, reasonably fit American women conform to your body type (ie medium small chest, medium large rear end, reasonable layer of body fat and somewhat weak arms). For whatever reason this body type does an excellent job of reproducing itself and nature does’t really give a rat’s ass about your desire for rippling abs. Estrogen is going to battle you every step of the way.
If you are a vegetarian (as someone else stated) this makes adding muscle doubly difficult for someone not pre-disposed to slap on muscle to begin with. Try a different sport or exercise regime that works different muscle groups with different intensities. Swimming and body building might be a good place to start if the point of your exercise is not simple fitness (which you have) but a specific physique, which is the whole point of body building.
Good Luck!
BTW a substantial (within reason) female rear end is not necessarily an altogether bad thing in the non-Cosmo/Seventeen/Hollywood real world. In the real world some (cough) people (cough) like a woman with a bit of “substance”.
This is really two threads, isn’t it? I don’t know dick about training. I need to lose about 50 lbs.
As for the self image stuff? What I love, or what Astro loves, is almost irrelevant. I lost a lot of weight a few years ago, because I wanted to look better for someone ELSE. I’ve gained it all back, within 5 lbs as of this morning. :mad: Now, I need to find a way to lose what I want to for ME.
It’s up to you to find the inner love. If I happen to adore women with your body type, does it matter a lot to you? Somehow men are programmed to love and hate certain things in themselves, just as women are. I hate my belly. I’ve had women friends tell me to stop obsessing, that they think it’s cute. I was called Portly recently. Ouch.
I wish I knew how to lead you to some great solution to loving the way you look, but I don’t. If I find it, I’ll send it right along. You sure do have a sexy brain though
I ran all year when I was in gym and I arrived like 40 seconds after the cutoff date “that everyone should be able to pass” when I ran a mile. Needless to say I never even tried cross country. I could beat most people at 100 yard dash though:)
Thanks for the advice, everyone, but I really don’t want advice. I want to pout and complain and magically become beautiful.
It’s just depressing. I’ve been hardcore into working out for such a long time, and I’ve seen very little improvement in my body since then. I have a “fitness trainer”–as in, a woman who works at the gym and instructs me on what to do. I don’t have enough desire (or hope) to actually spend money on the despondent cause of my body.
And yes, I am a vegetarian, but my mother is paranoid and crazy and makes sure I get enough protein. I have at least 25-30 grams a day.
But didn’t Charles Atlas say, “In just seven days, I can make you a man”? (and really, Charles Atlas said that before Tim Curry). It took me months before I saw any improvement in my body.
And those stupid fucking Nike ads! According to those, girls who play sports and work out have much higher self-esteem than their counterparts who don’t. Fuck that!! I hate myself even more now!
On the bright side, my arms don’t hurt the day after those Charles Atlas push-ups, but my friend who did them with me can’t even raise his arms above his head.
If you’re trying to add muscle mass you need lots more protein.
I know you’re a vegetarian, but can you eat eggs, or fish?
Carbs give you energy, but in my experience it’s tough to build muscle with them. Any carbs you don’t use typically get stored in the form of body fat.
If you would like to see some improvement, try starting the day with a nice 2-3 egg omelette.
I’m not experienced with a veggie diet, but you might want to supplement with protein drinks and/or lots of beans, kidney beans areee good.
You might also want to try to find some information on Martina Navritilova, who bit an impressive muscles and physique on a specialized vegetarian diet (though I suspect steroids.)
I don’t want to rag on you, but it’s very tough to get good results on a vegetarian diet if you don’t have a body type that likes to put on muscle.
I do not have endurance when it comes to running. As I’ve said at many dopefests, I can sprint 150, maybe 300 yards max, and then I just have nothing left. I have worked on this and it hasn’t gotten any better. I used to be able to do two miles in about 15 minutes, which is good except for the fact that I wouldn’t be able to move for about 15 minutes after that.
Strength, OTOH . . . ThisYearsGirl, maybe I got some of yours? I don’t lift unless someone’s going to take a picture of me. That doesn’t happen too often. For whatever reason, I have a decent amt of muscle mass. Tell you what: next time you need help moving lemme know and I’ll try to help (unless you live forever and a day away from me - like CA or something).
[sub]Flat chests are not a bad thing . . . Flat chests are not a bad thing . . . Flat chests are not a bad thing . . . [/sub]
Your situation sounds a lot like mine did. I worked and worked and worked and just hit a very early plateau, and never improved any more than just “mediocre” level.
My suggestion - serious - is to start looking at sports and events that may not be impacted by your body fighting you. Sports where a 12-year old in a wheelchair can compete against a 6’4" muscleman.
Like competitive rifle target shooting, for example. Great fun, and a great skill for a young woman. And no endurance required - only responsibility, accuracy, repeatability, and safety.
I’m sorry. Bodies suck. And lots of times, people do too. And if I had a bunch of wishes, you would definitely get one. And one of the others would be that complaining would fix things. ::
Girl…one of the hardest journeys many of us face is coming to realize in a way we can accept that we aren’t at all as defective as we see ourselves. That we look like what we look like, our bodies are what they are, and that it really doesn’t matter to other people anywhere near as much as it does to ourselves. That’s hard indeed–there are lots of people on this board, including myself, who have a great deal of trouble with it. And to make things worse, nobody believes anyone else about it–hell, I was married for eight years, and I never got over wondering when my wife would decide I was too fat and ugly to put up with anymore.*
But the difficulty in believing it doesn’t make it less true, so I’m going to say it just on the off-chance it helps somehow: I doubt there’s a thing wrong with your body–it’s just how your body is, and there isn’t a damn thing wrong with that. It can be frustrating at times to not be able to do what you want, but it makes no more sense for you to hate yourself over your body than it would for me to hate myself for not being seven feet tall and having a wicked hook shot.
(Now that I’ve smarmy and supportive in the Pit, I will go away and pretend I never said it. Somebody find me someone I can stomp.)
*For the record, that’s not why we divorced–indeed, her current husband makes me look like a Playgirlcenterfold. In a perverse way I find this comforting.
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