[TheForge] weather report yak

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> Big's right.  I was in the Davis Bike Club and we trained 6 days
> a week.  The biggest legs of all were had by the girls... wow,
> talk about tree trunks, yet they weren't unattractive. :)  I never
> new why that was.  The guys that trained a lot were certainly
> stronger yet the legs were smaller.  Anyone know why?

Well, most women's strength is in their legs, whereas men's strength tends
to be in the upper body. It's particularly noticeable in the US- for
whatever reason, US males don't think to develop their legs, although
they'll do upper body weightlifting. As a general rule, European men have
much nicer lower bodies than American men do.

Women's leg strength can compete with men's, even though we don't get the
denser muscle and ligaments, and the heavier bone structure caused by
testosterone (fortunately, we also get less of the aggressiveness caused by
testosterone, too ;-) But, the reason that women athletes are unlikely to
ever compete with men in track sports is that the attachment structures
caused by the baby bearing pelvis are less efficient for running. One of the
things that our women fighters in SCA have to learn is to fight making
efficient use of their lower body strength- thus a woman fighter can do well
with a Great Sword, but men will do better with Florentine- Great Sword uses
more leg strength- Florentine uses more upper body strength.

> I remember when I discovered that I had huge leg muscles, about
> six months after I'd started serious training. I was drying my
> legs after a shower, flexed something and this large lump pops
> up with a correspondingly large crater next to it.  At first I
> was a little shocked and then it sunk in that the exercise had
> had its effect.  one of life's entertainingly memorable moments.

Sure that just doesn't mean you're a hermaphrodite? ;-P

Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....