LIFT HEAVY: GET HOT

PROBLEM: Women come up to me and they tell me that they don't lift weights...or, lift heavy weights, because after awhile they'll start to bulk up and look like a bodybuilder with the veins and too much muscle. They tell me that they want a lean, muscular and feminine physique. They want muscle definition, and lifting weights will build too much. Absolutely. 100%. False.

SOLUTION: Get over it, and lift heavy weights. Understand that lifting weights gives you defined arms, a sexy butt and developed thighs. It gives you that goal physique. So do it.

The only simple way for me to explain it is like this:

Lifting weights will not make you huge. Eating cupcakes and pizza will. If you lift weights and are burning fat with a good cardio plan, you will lean down, build curves and suffer from the absolute unexpected...you'll become a victim of having a toned body and a great physique! But who wants that....

One thing I encourage is for you to challenge yourself. If you go to the gym and you're lifting weights that weigh as much as your purse, not a lot is going to be happening on that road to progress. Girls do this and don't start building the muscle they want, and don't understand why. In order to build muscle, you have to lift...and it needs to be a challenge. Right now during my lifting routine, I make sure to lift a weight that allows me to get my sets and reps done with effort, yet is heavy enough that I have to work hard on my last 2 reps. Lifting is not supposed to be easy. I can wake up in the morning and go into my kitchen and lift an egg carton out of my refrigerator, which is the same as holding a 2 lb. free weight in a gym. Push yourself, challenge yourself, feel a burn, put in effort, and start creating the shapes that you want. Don't be scared. Don't be intimidated. There are people in the weight area of the gym who are ripped and have been lifting for awhile...there are people who just started. Everyone has their own goals, routine and agenda. But the key point to remember, is that everyone started in the same place. So now it's your turn to do it. It is your turn to get inspired, to turn up your music, to lift a weight that is not easy for you, to take action, to get over the idea that lifting will make you too big, and to 

understand that in order to have a good body, you need to put in the good work.

                                                       

                                                                          What women think will happen
                                                                        if they lift weights

The woman in this picture is a female bodybuilder. She has lots of muscle, with incredibly low body fat. The way that she eats, and the way that she works out and trains, is not the way that you eat and train. (Unless of course, you're reading this and you too are a female bodybuilder). So if you walk into your gym tomorrow and start doing squats and bicep curls with a moderate, heavy weight, you are not going to look like this. Not tomorrow, not in a month. Sometimes people resort to taking anabolic steroids, testosterone or growth hormones to build enormous amounts of muscle...one point made.

What can actually happen, when you ladies lift weights

The woman in this picture, is also a female bodybuilder (a figure competitor/bikini competitor). She lifts heavy weights as well. I'm currently prepping for a bikini competition and I am working out twice a day, and lifting 5 times a week...pretty heavy. I'm not looking quiet like the first picture...pretty far from it, actually. Nathalia Melo, as an example of a lady who lifts, is toned, muscular and has that goal physique that many women want. This is what lifting weights does to you, and will do to your body when on the appropriate plan.

So ladies, lifting heavy and lifting, in general, will not MAKE YOU BULKY. It is actually what you need to be doing, to get the physique you want. Keep in mind that the more muscle you have on your body, the more fat you can burn. A lot of things can contribute to the body you have and how you develop muscle...genetics, your body structure, etc. but all women are capable of building some muscle and shaping their bodies.

Be proud of yourself and what you have accomplished, or decided to accomplish. Do not be intimidated. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged to lift in the gym. Weights are simply weights...giant pieces of iron attached to bars. What is intimidating, is the potential you have to do something amazing with them. 

So do it. Let's go.

-Lil Miss Strong

The BEAST in BEAUTY....MY XTREME MOTIVATION....for YOU.

"This is a motivational and inspirational video for women and girls everywhere. It doesn't matter to me where you come from. It doesn't matter to me what you weigh or what number you see on the scale. It doesn't matter to me what your excuse is, or what's been stopping you for months, or years. It doesn't matter to me who tries to hold you back, or who doesn't believe in you. What matters to me, is what you do NOW. Today. Tomorrow. What matters to me, is the moment when you succeed, and you know that you have. The moment in the gym, when you look up into the mirror with a bar and 45 pound plates across your back, and realize that you just did something that you labeled as impossible. That, is what inspires me. Now what inspires you?"

-Leala Luna McGinnis

"I Just Had To Eat Everyone's Burgers"

beautyisinside.com--- facebook.com/beautyisinside

Hollywood is a tough place. Magazines encourage girls to go on crazy extreme diets to look like the models that cover their spreadsheets, and all of the female actresses on the big screen appear to be tiny and look absolutely perfect in every single magazine shoot. You think, what are these people eating and what is their workout routine like?! I want to do what they're doing to look like that too. For all you girls who need a role model in Hollywood, look up to Jennifer Lawrence. The star of the Hunger Games vows to live a healthy lifestyle, eat what she wants, and be a positive and healthy role model for girls everywhere. 

As Jennifer Lawrence simply states from an interview with SEVENTEEN Magazine, "Nobody's eating bread- I just had to finish everyone's burgers." I love that. And quiet frankly, I would be doing the same. We've talked about how eating a balanced diet and not depriving yourself or starving yourself in fact makes you lose weight and reach your fitness goals, and we've also talked about allowing yourself a cheat meal and some enjoyment as well. Jennifer Lawrence is doing it right. And what we value more than her burger quote, is her ability to stand strong and proud in a world of materialism and obsession with appearance. Now I'm certainly not encouraging you to eat hamburgers everyday, but I am encouraging you to be the woman who would say something like that...be the woman who does what she wants to do, and is proud. Be the woman, who shares it with the world.

-Lil Miss Strong

Seventeen Magazine interviews Jennifer Lawrence at
http://www.seventeen.com/entertainment/features/exclusive-interview-jennifer-lawrence#slide-1

Figure Athlete Ashley Horner Shares Inspiration

This is an article written by a lovely lady named Ashley Horner. Ashley is a bodybuilding.com athlete, a figure competitor, a well rounded athlete, and a woman of strength and action. Because of her devotion to fitness and her inspiration for challenge and change, I want to share the below excerpt, written by her, to inspire your own strength, change, and reflection. Maybe you are having a rough time getting yourself to the gym...maybe you give into chocolate easily, or you're constantly beating yourself up about your body. As I would say here at Lil Miss Strong, "Forget about what the others think. You do what you need to do, you go where you need to go, and you rise up to what you need to expect out of yourself." And as Ashley Horner would say,  "We are not afraid of swimming. We are afraid of drowning."

We Are Not Afraid of Swimming, We Are Afraid of Drowning
(Written by Ashley Horner, http://ashleyhorner.co/we-are-not-afraid-of-swimming-we-are-afraid-of-drowning/)

Photo taken from
contest.bodybuilding.com of Ashley
Horner

It’s real and it lives in many of us. The fear of not reaching a goal that we’ve set. Its the thought of failure & the mental mind set we allow to creep into our heads… ‘What if I make a fool out of myself and fall completely on my face.’ So many times this little four letter word plays such a huge impact on us reaching our goals or even setting them. Have you heard that saying do something every day that scares you? When you look at fear straight in the eyes and know that you will defeat it, you continue to take yourself to a completely different level. You will allow your brain to mentally push past that comfort zone and realize just how much you’re truly capable of.

You are always going to have people who do not support you, or have little interest is what you’re doing. Regardless of how close these people are to you in your life you can NOT let if effect the things that you enjoy doing. Who gives a damn about the nah sayers, the self- doubters & know it alls- they are the true idiots, the ones who belittle, poke, or make fun of us who are trying to pursue a dream, because they are afraid of a risk of taking a chance and they live in fear.

Just because you hit a hole, does not mean you fell off the cliff you must come back swinging. Like a lesson my mom taught me when I was a little girl. There were times I would be riding my horse and get knocked off, hitting the ground with a thud. She always made me get back on and keep riding right away because she knew the longer she allowed me to set on the ground the more time I was allowing fear set in.

Ashley Horner, taken from ashleyhorner.co

Your goals- journey- destination- whatever it is should really have NO end. There is no finish line to this lifestyle, we choose to take the path that is a little more difficult and at many times you will find yourself going against traffic, but your destination will be much greater. Everyday I wake up with a desire to make this day better than the last, at night I go to bed feeling a since of accomplishment and a desire to make tomorrow even better than it was today. You will without a doubt have to push outside of your comfort zone and past your fears, but begin today molding your mind proving to yourself that you’re capable beyond anything anyone ever thought you were.

Yes I am so blessed to be where I am right now, I feel like I have accomplished a lot, and I’ve just begun. In my career, I now represent the best fitness community in the industry (bodybuilding.com) To have the opportunity to write for some pretty awesome magazines, including MMA UNCAGED & and being featured internationally as a fitness model who   is standing for something YES YES YES!! Of course I get scared. I get scared shitless anytime a new opportunity evolves for me. You think the first time I submitted my article to MMA UNCAGED for my column I wasn’t nervous? Or the first time I met the entire family from bodybuilding.com? HA!! I didn’t sleep for days leading up to that event. Even as a well-seasoned figure competitor stepping on stage to compete STILL to this day I have shaking spirit fingers back stage. I have my fears, we all do but the more you do things that cause you to have fear or make you uncomfortable the easier it is for you to push it aside a learn its not a big deal. Find the things you want in life and go after them. In 10 years from now what will you regret that you didn’t do today?

No one is afraid of heights, we are just afraid of falling.
No one is scared to swim, we fear we might drown.

No one is afraid of success, we only allow doubt to make us believe that we might fail.