My most excellent friend Ellie just posted some lovely quotes from Gurujii, and one regarding the strength women gain through Ashtanga yoga spoke true to my little crossfitting heart.
(Note: I do not know what Gurujii is, but if I context clue myself from the quotes and my knowledge that Ellie is a yoga teacher, I’m going to go with: yoga related, possibly Indian, definitely awesome)
“I do not feel that the more advanced series steal femininity. There is nothing more beautiful than a strong woman…The changes to the female body are only more masculine if you identify strength with the male. If something was lost on the way, it was probably nothing I needed. I love my yoga body. Whether it is attractive to another is not a major concern. Femininity comes from within. My female peers are women of dignity and beauty.”
-Dena Kingsberg
I love this … “if I lose a sense of feminity by getting stronger, than I didn’t need that sense anyway”… perfect. I hate the age-old complaint from women that they don’t want to weight train or crossfit because they don’t want to bulk up. Well, I don’t to run myself into invisibility on a treadmill for hours at a time. I want to seen in this world, I want my body to take up space as it moves around. I want to do 50 pull ups in a row (like I did last week) and lift my 100lb dog up on a table (like I did yesterday) and to know when I look at myself what looks back is a body that will continue to do those thing. To be unable to do them because of a fear of bulking up, of looking wrong: That was nothing I needed, anyway.
InnerTeub 
50 pull ups in a row is totally amazing.
It was so hard. There was lots of dead hanging time. And now there’s no skin on my hands. But it was awesome.
I love this. That’s the kind of femininity I want – the strong kind. Apparently I need to take up yoga.
And 50 pull-ups? Yowza. Go girl.
Ha. So many parallels between yoga and crossfit! 🙂
Since I didn’t explain it at all in that post, your guess was right. Guruji is a term people use to their guru, in a respectful and affectionate way. (the “ji” ending is also added to other names, or for parents, sometimes, like Dadaji or Lizji)
In this case, it’s a book about Sri K Pattabhi Jois, whom many Ashtanga practitioners consider their guru, so he is simply known as Guruji in the Ashtanga community. He passed away two years ago, and this book is a collection of interviews of his longtime students, friends and family members.
I really enjoy the sentence “I don’t want to run myself into invisibility on a treadmill.” Amen to that. Also, jesus christ, 50 pullups? Lizji FTW.
Can I just say, pursuing “strong” instead of pursuing “model-like and lithe” has done wonders for my crazy. I mean, obviously I’m still crazy, but not body obsessed crazy. There’s a difference. 😉
This was such a great quote I wrote it down. Also – 50 pullups — JESUS H. CHRIST ON A CRACKER…you are a champ! So inspiring!