Play the hits, Swole Woman (2022 edition)

The set of links below is a combination of 2022’s biggest hits, and some stuff you might find most needful at this time of year. The new year is when the pressure peaks to white-knuckle through a total overhaul of every single health habit you have. I feel it’s almost better to focus that energy on tried and true lodestars to soothe the anxiety pit, rather than feed its growth with lots of new stuff.

These links are also just for when you find yourself wanting something to read in the next couple of slow weeks, when it would technically be rude to go hide in a bedroom but everyone sitting together in the living room waiting for dinner to be ready has run out of things to talk about, and the YouTube video “Best of Steve Harvey Family Feud Highlights” is playing on the TV.

So with all that ado out of the way, here are the hits (none of them in any particular order). There are also a couple little themed packages that draw on vintage Ask A Swole Woman material. If you were to dig around here or or here or here or here, you might find even more good stuff. Happy holidays <3

Your favorite Friday newsletters of the year

• Why you can't build muscle on 1500 calories per day: the Blogilates muscle building journey, part one
• Okay: Blogilates' muscle-building journey DID have some good lessons (part two)
• If you do athletics, you’re an athlete
• Exactly how and why this dude who's mad at a fat fitness mag cover model is wrong
• The strength you build is yours, even if you don't do it forever: the evidence for 'muscle memory'
• Time to put the 1200-calorie diet in the grave
• What 15 pounds of muscle actually looks like
• The Munchausen’s by proxy [derogatory] of women’s wellness startups
• Go ahead: assume they are on steroids
• Hold on: why do we want to do pull-ups?
• I hate the ‘exercise snack’

Your favorite Ask A Swole Womans of the year

• How to eat like a big beautiful horse
• The high-strung perfectionist’s guide to dealing with injury
• What it means when you hear “don’t lift more than x pounds”
• What it means when Lenny Kravitz does high reps with low weights
• Is it possible to do intuitive eating and strength training at the same time?
• Why the popularity of "low-impact exercise" continues to chap my ass
• The spring 2022 cutting recap
• So 'weight loss' is bad, but 'cutting body fat' is fine? Explain yourself immediately
• The pull-up protocol
• If any fitness fad was going to succeed, it would have been Curves

How to start going to the gym

• Treat yourself to a copy of LIFTOFF: Couch to Barbell!
• How to start going to the gym, part one: The case for the gym visit
• How to start going to the gym, part two: the pre-production dry run
• How to start going to the gym, part three: how much weight to use

Some New Years intention-setting

• How to be okay with starting all over again, part two (and part one)
• The last article on workout motivation you will hopefully ever have to read, amen
• 'How do I lose weight?' is the wrong question
• How to become perfect in the new year
• ‘I’m sick of my belly fat—how should I deal with it?’
• How to create a ‘mindset bubble’ for the New Year

A lil “intermediate programming” package, if you are done with your beginner program

• The Intermediate Programming Compendium (including 2x/week programs!)
• How do I pick my accessory exercises? [Thread]
• Accessory moves that everyone should like and do more, in my opinion

Protein

• I need HOW much protein in a day??
• The magic protein ratio
• The Last Article on Protein Powder You Will Hopefully Ever Have to Read, Amen

Disordered behavior coping

• What to do when the clothes are too small
• On pushing yourself
• Against clean eating
• Is this program really enough? What about accessories?
• Does nothing taste as good as skinny feels?
• When you want strength but you ‘love’ cardio
• Wait, you mean I don’t have to do cardio?
• How do I set goals and still like who I am now?

You STILL want more? Fine; here is the list from 2021.

That is it, and that is all! I love you for reading, thank you, see you in 2023, let’s go–