#ironfat

[mizurade]

Tony Stark style Halloween!!! 🎃 🎃 #ironman #tonystark #ironfat #tokadamakabra #rootsbar

[bigfatdenial]

Ragen Chastain and Gym Shaming

Going to the gym can be a scary place for newcomers (regardless of size) because no one wants to feel judged. Our 300++ lb international (pay-to-win) dance champion, (12.5 hour) marathoner and (DNS) triathlete Ragen Chastain regularly speaks out about body shaming and weight stigma and has had quite a few blogs on existing as a fat person in the world of fitness. But how does this attitude transfer to her fellow gym rats?

Body Pump is a group fitness class. I’ve taken it many times before. It’s fun, it’s a really good workout - but it’s NOT REALLY weight lifting. It’s a low weight - high rep total body group fitness class with music and an instructor.

Well, when a guy dares to stand next to her in class, she starts off with an abelist slur (FUCKTARD, not ‘Donald Trump’ though that would work too) and then proceeds to emasculate this guy for his ability level (allegedly beneath her elite status). Then she laughs when he looks as if he’s struggling (her form is beyond reproach). Oh, I love how she called modified push-ups bitch-style. Bitch-style! She’s making assumptions based on his appearance (maybe he’s had previous injuries that would prevent him from regular push ups). Look, there is NOTHING wrong with a modified exercise. You know your body better than anyone else (Ragen preaches this quite a lot) so you should not perform anything that would cause injury. Of course, she’s quite alright with being carted away in an ambulance just to prove a fucking point. 

She later edited this as a recycled entry for her DWF blog. Well, she was nice enough to remove “FUCKTARD” and “bitch-style” but was still okay with emasculating him and making assumptions about his fitness/health.  

I’m sure that in reality, she was just being hyper-sensitive as usual and fabricating conflict so she’d have something to blog about. Truth be told: size, age, gender & ability really mean nothing to anyone else in the gym. Everyone is there for a reason, and that reason is not to shitlord anyone. Yes, there are people who will offer advice or compliments - many times this is just to be social. For someone like me, I’m shy and have social anxiety, I’m happy to have someone speak to me in the gym, about whatever! 

Ragen is a fucking asshole and does such a disservice by preemptively shaming fat people from bettering themselves and creating/reinforcing negative stereotypes about fat athletes. 

LJ screencap credit to  bob_mcbob, Director of Ragenology at reddit

[bigfatdenial]

The big day is upon us in just two days now. At the moment, Ragen should be traveling to Phoenix after her predictable travel mishap yesterday, but we have no confirmation she has arrived yet. She ...

Anyone else following Ragen Chastain’s Ironman Saga? She actually made it to Tempe for the 70.3 and is now a registered participant. The race starts in the morning. She’s been “training” for almost 2 years with only vague references as to her progress. Like her Dances With Fat blog, she recycles her training posts (as well as photos). 

In the time she’s trained for this half triathlon, she’s cancelled a full marathon and 2 sprints - so we don’t know exactly what level of Elite Athleticism she’s reached thus far on her journey to Ironman 2016. 

Dances with Facts has chronicled Ragen’s triathlete journey, as well as a look at her past claims & scams, and is worth a look if you really want to peer into the very definition of an Elitist Narcissist. 

Why do we care about her so much? Why the obsession? It’s easy - she is making a total mockery of REAL athletes, of ACTUAL fat athletes and of people who would like to be more active but take Ragen’s (imaginary) “impossible feats” as a sign to not even bother. She is putting everyone on that course tomorrow in serious life-threatening danger (while lying about her own death threats) with her complete lack of training and experience in each discipline (seriously, read the Pre-race Training Mega Recap, it’s terrifying). She is also grifitng her followers for money by setting up crowdfunds for projects that in some cases never happen (after the money was collected). She’s a delusional, dangerous woman - and it’s about time someone shut her the fuck down. People who trust her are being harmed by her.

Ragen is in the top 5% in the country in strengh, stamina, flexibility, and all medical markers of health. If she truly is, then a Half Ironman will be a walk in the fucking park for an Elite Athlete.   

PS

This is Ragen’s Elite Flexibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK-eLaJaAPo (this is how it’s supposed to look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlHOMHgklgQ). Mkay.

[bigfatdenial]

through your blog i found the "truthaboutragen" wordpress and was introduced to a whole world of "WTF". i had no idea who ragen chastain was before this and it disgusts me that there is actually a human being out there that profits off of the insecurities of obese people. blatantly lying to them about their health to further delude them into thinking their lifestyle is okay, while continually lying about her own. YUCK. i feel sorry for those naive enough to follow her.

Yep. Ragen Chastain is nothing but a grifter. She loves pushing fat people to alienate themselves from everyone else by encouraging hypervigilance. The misinformation she spreads about nutrition, exercise and weightloss are bad enough but her alleged accomplishments and current ironman training are… rather chimerical.  

For instance, last month she was learning how to ride a bike, learning to turn, brake and switch gears and being scared riding with people or near traffic… and a month later (minus a week that she was sick) she’s doing half centuries (50 mi)?

Ummmmmmm…

NOPE!

Even if she had the endurance (it’s obvious she doesn’t) there’s no way you could - in a month’s time - bust out anything close to 50 miles in one ride without it feeling like you had hot knives in your ass cheeks (extra padding or not). There’s just no way. I know that feeling, and there’s not a goddamned thing that would keep me on a bike with that kind of pain.

So since the half-ironman is less than 2 months away, I see this “miraculous cycling feat” as a last minute jolt to get her followers to send her money. Then, she’s not going to make it to the half-ironman. Something will happen and she’ll have to cancel BUT BUT BUT SHE TRAINED SO HARD AND WOULD HAVE FINISHED!!! Then she’ll have another year to grift people for more money until she bails on the full ironman in 2016.

I’d be thrilled if she proves me wrong!

Until then, I’ll follow Ragen’s madness and Dances with Facts’ excellent commentary. It’s a bikewreck in slo-mo.

Addendum: I love when people create goals and push themselves to meet their goals, and I’m in no way ‘discouraging’ Ragen Chastain, but she is in over her head... it’s not reasonable... it’s foolishness. She doesn’t have to do anything that extreme to prove anything. For fuck’s sake. I would love to see her get some honest 5k or 10ks under her belt. But an ironman? Come the fuck on.