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There’s this new trend of people trying to distance themselves from feminism even though everything they stand for reeks of is from the feminism.
They start statements with things like “I’m not a feminist but...”
If you catch yourself saying this, you are most likely a feminist.
...And that is a good thing.
Contrary to what you might be thinking, feminism is not a bad movement. It’s not a man-bashing, bra-tearing, anger-manifesting, vile-spewing movement of women out to avenge their exes and fathers misbehavior on all men.
It’s because of feminism you as a woman can dare to dream of being anything and actually achieve it
It’s because of feminism you are being paid equally with your male counterparts
It’s because of feminism you are seeing the rise of women in the boardroom and striving to be like them
It’s because of feminism you are able to
As a young girl in Senior Secondary school, I was constantly body-shamed about my legs, especially by one boy in particular. I really don’t think he did it out of wickedness. I think it was out of ignorance of how the effect of his words could define the way I see myself and influence my self-esteem. You see, sometimes, words are like arrows shot way ahead of you. They have a way of going into your future to wait for you before the strike your bullseye. And that is when the rotten seed that had been planted form way back begins to take root and germinate.
I can’t count how many times I heard words like “see your yam legs”, “Isu”, “Yam ooo”, “Short and stout” “Muscle”.
I just eyed and ignored the perpetrator when those words were thrown at me, but of course, the roots had begun to form deep, even though the trees were still wearing harry potter’s invisibility cloak.
It didn’t help that I used to have really bowed legs when I was a baby. I’m talking really bowed that you could trace the letter O from it. Thankfully, my mother was wise enough to take me to the Orthopaedic Hospital in Igbobi to get it sorted. She used all her salary to buy a very expensive drug and the issue was sorted out in a matter of months.
The knowledge of my history with bow legs as a child and “yam” legs as a teenager made me so insecure about my legs that I decided never to expose my legs when I finished secondary school, where we had been forced to wear skirt.
And so, for the next four years of my life, you would never catch me wearing anything knee-length or above.
Sometime later, my mum bought me a very good-looking pair of knee length farmer shorts. I wore them to class one day and a few people commented on how I had nice legs. I accepted the compliments gracefully, but a bit sceptically.
I later examined my legs well, and was like “hmm, it seems my legs are not bad ooo”.
It was then I gradually gained the confidence to expose my leg. I started wearing knee lengths and above-the-knee dresses and shorts
But you see this insecurity, it is a bastard, I tell you. If you don’t stone it to death, burn and bury the ashes in the pit of hell, its seed will never die out and will continue to lurk around like a sneaky rent-owing tenant in an apartment it has been evicted from. It still waited for me into my thirties.
When I started working out, I stayed away from leg workout. I worked out every part of my body except from my knees below.
One day, I was having a conversation with my former instructor, and I asked him if it was compulsory for me to do leg workouts. He quickly pointed out to me the danger of neglecting “legs” while working all other parts.
I told him I didn’t want to do “legs” because I have “yams” and I don’t want to have more “yams”
He looked and me and said sternly, “They are not “yams”, they are called calves. You don’t know what you have. Women are killing themselves in the gym everyday to have calves. They are taking steroids, doing surgery, and lifting heavy weights. Calves are what is in vogue now. You have this naturally and you are despising it”
What an irony. Something I was shamed and insulted for is what everyone is dying to have now. This is the same way people were shamed for having big butts with words like “Idi nla, Idi rabata,” etc, but now some people are literally dying under the knife and risking their lives to get this booty.
Since the talk with my instructor, every atom of insecurity I had about my legs melted like ice cubes exposed under Gombe sun.
As an unmarried lady, I did all my workouts at home, and they were sufficient in helping me maintain my fitness goals. After getting married, I got pregnant immediately and home workouts became harder, while trying to adjust to life as a new wife and potential mother. I resumed home workouts in my third trimester and stopped when my child was about three months old. The struggle was real.
I eventually decided to take the bull by the horn and register to join a gym when my son was 11 months old.
What I had not realized was that different phases of our lives required different workout modes. Switching to gym workout when I did was the best decision I made for myself. If I had been wiser, I would have switched earlier than I did and stopped struggling at home. Workout modes should be flexible while the workout itself is constant.
Since then, I have switched between home workout and gym workout depending on my seasons, and for the past year, I have employed a hybrid of the two. Because of this, I’m quite qualified to write about Home workout versus Gym workout
1. Expense
Home workout is less expensive than Gym workout. You don’t need to pay monthly subscription fees at home. Except you are buying your own heavy-duty equipment, Consider home workout if money is tight for you. Home workout wins in this one
2. Accountability
It’s harder to achieve accountability with home workout. No one is watching your every move or checking your results. If you don’t hit your fitness goals for 10 years, no one will know because no one even knows you are working out. If accountability is a factor for you, hit the gym right now. Gym workout wins in this one
I had an unbelievable laughable encounter with a job candidate now. Believe me, everything you read here is true. I can’t even make this story up
For sometime now, I’ve been looking for a dispatch rider for our business. And my husband sent me the contact for a candidate
I called him first thing this morning and we arranged to meet for an interview by 12 noon. When I didn’t hear from him by 12.33pm, I called him. From his voice, you could tell that he was still lying down when I said “where are you?” He replied saying “oh okay, I’m on my way”.
He finally got to the office and my first impression was that “this guy is a bit elderly.” He pulls his chair in front of me, and slumps backwards, leaning lazily into the chair as if he’s watching African magic in his living room.
I asked why he was late and he said he was not available. I was the one who said 12, not that he agreed to it.
Even though I knew right there and then that he wasn’t going to be hired cos attitude stank like rotten egg that had been forgotten in an unplugged fridge for 5 months, and the entire office could smell it from afar, I just had to carry on with it.
At the gym this week, I was minding my business with my weights when I saw an “unseeable” sight.
It was a lady in her 30s into 40s who had obviously surgically enhanced her body, and was using a standing inclined squat machine, with wobbly knees, tilted forward, squatting straight on her toes, and her rear enhancements pushed backwards.
She had no stamina and you could see she was struggling while her supposed “instructor” stood by watching her, asking her to go.
I knew there and then that somebody’s knees were about to be shattered. If that lady did 50 of that, her knees were going to be toast. After contemplating whether I should “put mouth” in this matter, I couldn’t take it anymore.
I whispered to Mr Instuctor… she is going to ruin her knees and he was like “she will ruin it, shey”
It was then I knew that this guy was no instructor, but had the unfortunate advantage of having an athletic build. He didn’t know what he was doing and was a disaster in motion. It was so sad that Miss booty enhancer chose to look on the outside and decided this guy was going to be the one to make her body enhancement stand the test of time.
The thing about shattering your knees during workout is that your life will never remain the same. The workouts you will be able to do will be limited and life won’t be as sweet. You won’t be able to do some Dance steps, whether you are komole-ing in church or twerking it like it’s hot in the club. You won’t be able to climb the stairs without pain. You won’t be able to run, jog, squat or lunge. Even after surgery, you will never get back your knees again. To put it in summary, weak knees are any agile person’s nightmare.
Anyway, Mr instructor took the machine from her and tried to show her how to do it correctly. I was more pissed because he was doing it wrong. He was doing it exactly how she was doing it, and his knees were also tilting forward. I was hurt to my very chest but I kept quiet and faced my workout while they kept at the eyesore
While working out, I kept thinking about how numerous guys in the gym had helped me in the past when I was doing something wrong. How one saved me from hurting my back when I was doing deadlifts the wrong way, how one showed be the ropes when I was doing diagonal core twist the wrong way, etc. The truth is some of the good results I have achieved in my workout journey is because some people took the liberty to point me in the right direction when I was obviously missing it, even when I didn’t ask for their opinions
The issue here was that no one would want to tell the guy and the girl they were messing up because he was supposed to be her instructor and it might be touchy to point him out as a quack who didn’t know what he was doing.
Anyway, I finally succumbed to the voice in my head telling me to save this woman from the lifetime of regrets she would face with shattered knees if she carried on with this foolery for the next 30 minutes. I walked up to the guy and told him they were doing it wrong and showed them know to incline their bodies and their knees. He thanked me and they whispered one or two things to each other and left the machine for good.
At least, I’m happy I had done my duty to her knees. Hopefully he doesn’t end up damaging it with a more complicated one in another section of the gym
So tell me… should I have minded my business
Currently rebelling against culture! Will you join me?