Why I built this site

Everyone has an agenda. Even the apparently most esoteric studies are related to personal agendas. In this sense - and only this - there is no neutrality, proper: all intellectual claim staking is informed by a personal agenda, or "interests", depending o the analytical model.

There is something on my personal history that stimulated not only this initiative, but everything that has to do with it (my own relationship with physical activity and nutrition).

This has set the conditions, to a great extent, for the beliefs I claim throughout this site:

1) I believe there is a widespread and diffuse marginalization of Strength as a functional capacity and as an Esthetic, among other things, in our society;

2) I claim this marginalization is highly damaging to public health (utilitarian argument);

3) I claim that this marginalization reflects prejudice derived from forms of violence that are unacceptable for me (gender and class violence) (political argument);

4) I have decided to expose and confront this marginalization;

5) I consider it my mission to stimulate practices, people and initiatives that I consider conducive to the dissemination of strength training as the basis for the prevention and treatment of disorders; of strength sports and bodybuilding and to the esthetic standards associated with them;

I haven't always been like this. I haven't always lived in good health and in a general state of well being, either. This has come to be only since mid-2004. I am totally convinced that my health, survival and, much more than that, my happiness, are a consequence of my devotion to INTENSE STRENGTH TRAINING. I do, indeed, hold some deep resentment because this alternative was denied to me for 41 years because of the forms of prejudice I mentioned. I don't have too much patience with people who express them, either consciously or unconsciously. People who tell me they "hate strength training", knowing they must practice it, are a pain in the ass.

This story goes more or less like this: I have some serious and treatment-resistant conditions and I am sufficiently unlucky to be refractory to existent drugs. My educational background allows me to critically examine the medical and pharmacological literature and to discuss treatment options with my physicians as an equal. Decades of much suffering, dozens or even around a hundred of drug combo strategies, old and new drugs and even, in a real desperate condition, "alternative treatments", have worn me out. In 2003 I developed a drug induced hepatitis that almost killed me. It was a critical situation: left with little alternatives and with aggravating symptoms. My life was worthless.

In the climax of this loss of life quality, in the beginning of 2004, I decided to follow my common sense and recover the only thing that, along my history, produced any result: intense physical activity. I have always practiced sports and, recently, I used to run and swim. In the periods when these activities were most intense, I got better. But never - in any moment - I have experienced a dramatic, qualitative improvement. One that could lead me to claim: "I can't live without this".

I enrolled in a gym close to my home and engaged in many different activities. I was aware that strength training was important. During my postdoc in Virginia, I even bought books on "strength training for women" and I tried to build my own workout routines. I worked-out in gyms in the United States and in Brazil, but I never had any significant results. Therefore, in 2004, I didn't have many expectations concerning strength training. However, as in everything related to physical activity, I took it seriously.

It was then that a physical education professional who had specialized in strength training suggested that I should give it a serious chance. He claimed that maybe I could achieve my desired therapeutic results more efficiently by lifting weights than by running for one hour and then swimming for an extra 90 minutes. At the time, I doubted it because there are no indications in the scientific literature to back his claims. In spite of that, I decided to give it a try.

This professional built my first higher intensity workout routine and suggested that I adjusted my diet to the higher energy needs that I would have. This was August 2004. From August to December, I gained 14 pounds without going over 14% body fat. I learned to exert strength. But that isn't anything compared to the general metabolic and physiological transformations my body went through. My sleep changed, I never felt fatigue anymore, my concentration and productivity were enhanced, my mood swings disappeared, my digestion went stable and my sexual life... no comments.

I never used any medications again.

Now, really, I can claim: "I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT THIS".

How was this possible? I think many transformations had to take place. There is a moment in one's training that we "learn" how to exert strength and this is when we appropriate ourselves of our bodies. We are in charge. Until then, I don't believe we are very conscious of our bodies.

I believe my trajectory was this successful because of the strategies devised by the professional who guided me.

Maybe for this, too, I feel this commitment towards the field of Physical Education and more or less became an "advocate". I know, through my own experience, that one such professional can make all the difference in the life of a survivor such as myself.

This is the story, more or less.

These are the interests, precisely.

And this is a road.