u/ENTPoncrackenergy

The majority of people do martial arts as a sport. For fun. A pass time. And the fact you dont know that, and you think that we're all preparing for random street fights tells me you have never stepped foot on a mat or in a cage. Self-defence is the bottom of the list of reasons I do martial arts. I dont live a life that requires me to train for self-defense weekly, and neither does anyone I train with.

"That would never work on a man." I dont know why you think you need to let me know that I couldnt fight a man because the pipeline of a woman going to a MMA class and then attempting to use it on unsuspecting men dosnt exsist. That does not happen. In honesty, if I was in a situation where a man was attacking me, yes, I would do what I could to prevent myself from getting hurt. That includes an attempt of self-defense. Not because I do martial arts but because Im being attacked, and that's a very normal response. If a man attacked a woman and she screamed and started panic slapping him, no one would say that woman is stupid. But the second she attempts self defence with even an ounce of coordination its seen differently. Yes, if you try and attack someone, there's a chance they might make an effort to defend themselves, and I dont know why that's offensive or a shock. Not because I think Im stronger than you or whatever your ego has made it about, but because Im a human, and that's how humans respond when they are scared.

Out of all women, women who do martial arts understand the gender strength disparity more than anyone because most of us spar with men. I infact do know fully what it feels like to be overpowered and choked by a man despite my best efforts. In fact, I am very familiar with the feeling. I would even go as far as to say I know the strength of men more most men because most men have only fought other men in their heads. No woman has come out of a class after sparring men and thought, "yeah Id love to do that on concrete. Let's do that, but this time, he can hit me full pelt- that sounds great"

1. You are not struggling to stay on a healthy diet because you dont like healthy food. You're struggling because you dont like your food in particular. You can't cook.

Healthy eating sucks when you can't cook. You're eating dominos not because you want dominos but because the alternative is your cooking. I've seen some of your meal preps, and of course, you feel as if healthy eating requires a ridiculous amount of motivation and sacrifice because look at that dry chicken. There's actually not an incentive on this planet that would convince me to eat your meals 5 days a week, either. Chicken so dry it sucks in joy, mistaking it for moisture. It's offensive actually that a chicken died for that. You should of let that motherfucker cross the road because why is it white?

There's a big difference between cooking to get through the day and knowing how to cook. The easiest way to stay on track is knowing how to cook. This skill will dramatically improve your diet and your standard of living.

2. You're attempting exercises that are too advanced for you

Not all exercises are the same in difficulty. Some exercises require more mobility and balance that you may not be yet equipped with like Bulgarian split squats. Some have a higher rate of injury and require a level of technique to do safely like deadlifts. The difficulty of the exercise can prevent you from making gains, and there's a higher chance you're going to get injured as a beginner. If you haven't even figured out how to mind to muscle, connect your legs and go to failure on leg press, trying to coordinate a compound movement like deadlift where you need to brace your core while engaging your lats and pushing through heals while keeping the bar path straight might be a tall order.

You can absolutely do these exercises as a beginner but understand its going to take a longer time to build the technique required to reach muscular failure because you have to spend more time on neural efficiency for these moves. If you just want to focus on building muscle alone, start with the stable machines that have fixed paths and, to a degree, take a level of coordination and stabilisation requirements out of the movement. Machines are easier to understand and a lot safer to fail on as well. Anything freeweight like dumbells and barbell is going to be slightly trickier.

3. Get comfortable with dips in performance and failure

Everyone of every level has fluctations in performance. Building muscle is not a direct upward trajectory. It's more like a wave that gets higher and higher as time passes. When you develop strength, you dont hit a new weight and then remain on that new weight from then on without deviation. That new weight or new rep is what you've hit on your best day. The next day, you may not hit that weight. Eventually, your best will become your average, but dont expect your working weight or reps to go up with no deviation. This doesn't just apply to PRs. It also applies to consistency and intensity. Theres peroids where even the most avid gym goer stalls in intensity or struggles to get consistency back after the holiday, but they know they will get back on track- even if it takes a few weeks.

The issue is that a lot of people struggle to get back because they've convinced themselves that they're starting from ground 0 and that concept discourages them. Your muscles remember and regaining lost muscle is a lot quicker than building it from scratch. You're coming back with more neural efficiency and muscle memory- youre not starting from ground 0 again.