{"id":10862,"date":"2012-08-05T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T10:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=10862"},"modified":"2012-08-05T09:12:20","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T13:12:20","slug":"muscling-up-to-the-new-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=10862","title":{"rendered":"Muscling up to the new standard"},"content":{"rendered":"

For some, thin is no longer enough, strength matters<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kelly Hockenberry<\/strong>, Columnist, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Strong is the new skinny.<\/p>\n

Have you heard this expression? It makes me tired. How about you?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no longer impressive\/desirable to just be thin\u2026the question now becomes \u201cbut, can you flip a tire or do 20 pull-ups?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer (for ME) is a resounding \u201cNO\u201d.\u00a0 Truth be told, if someone held a gun to my head and said \u201c20 pull-ups or else\u201d, I would lie down and throw dirt on myself.<\/p>\n

I really do love to exercise. And, I do not do it solely to stay at my target weight (although, that is a big motivating factor). \u00a0Nothing beats the stress release of a hard workout. And, I appreciate being challenged by new athletic endeavors.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest, the incentive to simply look good in clothes has been replaced by looking good in skin tight Spandex or a teensy, tiny bikini. Total buzz kill.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much do you weigh?\u201d or \u201cWhat size pants do you wear?\u201d no longer defines the ultimate physique. Now, one has to worry about their VO2 max (huh?) or submersion body fat percentage (because those pesky skin fold calipers are bogus and inaccurate).<\/p>\n

I desperately want a chiseled body\u2026the problem is the amount of time and effort it requires. Don\u2019t laugh! OK, you can laugh. It is a ridiculous statement.<\/p>\n

I think that I exert maximum effort into all of my workouts. My main problem is that I have trouble resisting the siren song of a warm chocolate chip cookie and steaming mug of hot tea at the end of a long day.<\/p>\n

While the argument may be that life is too short to forgo the cookie, you can\u2019t \u201chave your cake and eat it, too\u201d. If you want rock hard abs and shredded arms, you need to eat a clean diet and push it to the limit with your workout. It takes a serious amount of dedication and will power to achieve that kind of result. It certainly does NOT happen by accident.<\/p>\n

My plan for this fall (because summertime, with its lazy schedule and ample opportunity for soft serve ice cream drowning in jimmies (NOT sprinkles! Fist pump to my Delco peeps) is unrealistic) is to step up my game.<\/p>\n

And, who knows? Maybe by this time next year 20 pull-ups will be child\u2019s play!<\/p>\n

Oh, who am I kidding? Pass the m&m\u2019s\u2026.<\/p>\n

Happy Weekend \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some, thin is no longer enough, strength matters By Kelly Hockenberry, Columnist, The Times Strong is the new skinny. Have you heard this expression? It makes me tired. How about you? It\u2019s no longer impressive\/desirable to just be thin\u2026the question now becomes \u201cbut, can you flip a tire or do 20 pull-ups?\u201d The answer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[245,7],"tags":[1719,1720,1722,1721],"class_list":["post-10862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-featured","tag-diet","tag-exercise","tag-ripped","tag-strength"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}