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Brandon Held - Life is Crazy
This podcast is designed to help with suicide prevention. That is the #1 goal! This is also a Podcast of perseverance, self-help, self-Improvement, becoming a better person, making it through struggles and not only surviving, but thriving! In this Podcast the first 25 episodes detail my life's downs and ups. A story that shows you can overcome poverty, abusive environments, drug and alcoholic environments, difficult bosses, being laid-off from work, losing your family, and being on the brink of suicide. Listen and find a place to share life stories and experiences. Allow everyone to learn from each other to reinforce our place in this world. To grow and be better people and help build a better more understanding society.
The early podcast episodes are a story of the journey of my life. The start from poor, drug and alcohol stricken life, to choices that lead to success. Discusses my own suicide ideations and attempt that I struggled with for most of my life. Being raised by essentially only my mother with good intentions, but didn't know how to teach me to be a man. About learning life's lessons and how to become a man on this journey and sharing those lessons and experiences with others whom hopefully can benefit from my successes and failures.
Hosting guests who have overcome suicide attempts/suicide ideations/trauma/hardships/difficult situations to fight through it, rise up, and live their best life. Real life stories to help others that are going through difficult times or stuck without a path forward, understand and learn there is a path forward.
Want to be a guest on Brandon Held - Life is Crazy? Send Brandon Held a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/brandonheld
Brandon Held - Life is Crazy
Episode 46: Men, Women, and Athletics: A No-Filter Truth Bomb. Be warned.
Brandon dives into the controversial topic of biological differences between males and females in athletic performance, arguing that biological males who identify as women should not compete in women's sports due to inherent physical advantages.
• Males have 40-50% more muscle mass and significantly more upper and lower body strength than females
• Men's larger hearts, lungs and higher hemoglobin levels provide advantages in endurance sports
• Comparing Olympic records shows substantial performance gaps between male and female athletes
• Personal stories of beating Division I female athletes in basketball, golf, and volleyball as an amateur male athlete
• Discussion of how biological males in women's sports take opportunities away from female athletes
• Arguments about bathroom and locker room access issues related to gender identity
• Stance that respecting someone's gender identity doesn't mean biological advantages should be ignored in competitive sports
Subscribe at BrandonHeld.com and follow on Instagram @BH_Life_Is_Crazy or YouTube at BrandonHeld_LifeIsCrazy.
Want to be a guest on Brandon Held - Life is Crazy? Send Brandon Held a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/brandonheld
BrandonHeld.com iPad drawing for Life Coaching clients
Welcome. Welcome back to Brandon Held. Life is Crazy, and today I want to thank you for listening and being a part of this podcast, as always, and recently I came across an article and a controversial topic that I just have to talk about. I warn you, if you are someone who is sensitive or easily offended when it comes to controversial topics, then you should stop this podcast right now. Now also, let me say I don't believe we have to live in a society where you have to think the same things I do or we can't be friends with anyone who had every belief aligned with yours, you would have zero friends. The point is, it's okay to agree, to disagree and still be friends. If you feel any other way, you would be considered an extremist. If you feel any other way, you would be considered an extremist. Trust me, I know there are a lot of you that feel this way. I read message boards, I'm on social media, I see posts and comments and I used to be on dating apps and I read dating apps, and there are a lot of people who feel, if you are not aligned with them exactly on certain topics specifically, you can't even be in their world. You can't even be in their sphere, and to me that's very extreme. So it is actually quite discouraging that there are so many extremists or what I would consider closed-minded people in this world in the aspect that you can't get along with or intertwine with people who don't feel exactly like you do. So today I want to dive into the fascinating world of male and female biology and performance and societal points of view. Now let's start with physical differences between males and females that show up in strength, speed and athleticism. I will go into personal societal feelings about identification on gender and other aspects later, but let's just start with statistical facts, scientific facts. So let's talk muscle mass and strength Now. Males tend to have 40 to 50% more muscle mass, especially in the upper body, thanks to testosterone, and that's why, on average, men are stronger about 30 to 50% more in upper body strength and 20 to 30% more in lower body strength than women. Here's the only thing about it. The twist, if you will, is muscle quality is nearly the same. It's just the quantity and distribution that are different that make men stronger.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk cardiovascular performance. Males also have larger hearts, lungs and higher hemoglobin, giving them a higher VO2 max, the maximum oxygen they can use during intense activity. That's why in endurance sports like running or cycling, men generally have the edge in raw numbers. In ultra endurance athletes, where pacing, fat metabolism and recovery play bigger roles, men just dominate those fields. So let's talk power and speed.
Speaker 1:Whether it's sprinting, jumping or lifting, men typically have an advantage in explosive power due to more tight to muscle fibers and higher testosterone. This shows up in Olympic records and athletic competitions across the board. Men have faster times. They have higher jumping abilities, they're stronger. Just everywhere, men just perform better. These are facts. Now the one thing women have that men don't have is they are typically more flexible and they excel in balance based sports like gymnastics or dance. But this comes with a cost, right? Women have wider hips and looser ligaments and that may contribute to a higher risk of knee injuries like ACL tears. So even when women have an advantage, they also have a disadvantage, because likelihood for injury is much higher.
Speaker 1:Let's talk reaction time and control. Men generally have slightly faster reaction times, but females often perform better in fine motor control and balance. It's a nuanced area where both sexes excel in different ways. So for reference, let's take the 100 meter dash in track and field in the Olympics. All right, the men's world record is nine minutes and 58 seconds, and that's held by Usain Bolt, which I'm sure most people know. The woman's record is 10 minutes and 49 seconds, which is held by Flojo Florence Griffith Joyner for those of you who don't know who she is Now, that's less than one second apart and you might think.
Speaker 1:So what Big deal. It's one second right, and Flojo's 10.49 is an incredible accomplishment. It's amazing. Here's the thing If she was competing against men, it wouldn't even be in the top 50 of fastest 100-meter dashes ran at all times in the Olympic. As a matter of fact, it wouldn't even be in the top 75. At least 91 men in Olympic competition have recorded a faster time in the 100 meter dash than Flojo. Can you name the 10 fastest men of all time? I bet you can't. So imagine how many people would remember Flojo in the 90s. And that's just straight running. There's no other athletic prowess needed, like jumping or physical strength or anything like that. So let's talk a few others. Basketball. So let's talk a few others Basketball.
Speaker 1:The average vertical jump for a man is 28 to 34 inches. For a woman it's 18 to 24 inches. That's 10 inches higher. Almost a full ruler distance, length of jumping ability. To put this in perspective, michael Jordan could jump 46 inches, and he has one of the highest recorded jumps of all times, and Candice Parker could jump around 28 inches, and she has one of the highest recorded female jumps of all time. Vertical jump Now, this is just jumping. We're just talking about vertical jumps here, which is a part of the basketball game, but it's not everything. Let's not forget fast twitch muscles now, if you don't know what fast twitch muscles are, they are key in vertical jumping, but they're also key in a quick first step which you use to blow by a defender on offense or if you're playing defense. Those fast twitch muscles give you the opportunity to move quickly from side to side and play defense, and men have a much faster reaction time because they have more fast twitch muscles.
Speaker 1:Let's talk strength Now. The strongest woman that has ever been able to bench press is 457 pounds back in 2016, which is incredible. That's incredibly strong Now, while that is impressive, incredibly strong Now, while that is impressive, the strongest man is 782 pounds Now. To put that in perspective on a personal level, about two years ago, as an average guy who just goes to the gym after work and lifts casually a few times a week. I could max out at about 400 pounds and I wasn't even close to the strongest man in my gym. I would even go as far as saying I could go to just about every LA fitness across America and find a man, or multiple men, who can beat the strongest woman ever's bench press. I'm not afraid to say that. I'm not scared to say that I truly believe that, being someone that's been a personal trainer and a weightlifter. I'm currently a weightlifter and I know what men are capable of. And I know what men are capable of and I've seen just your average guy who has a nine to five job come into the gym and bench well over 500 pounds on a regular basis. It's not even that uncommon intelligence to think it's okay for biological men who identify as women to play sports with and against other women, and that's obviously my stance here today. I don't agree with it at all at all.
Speaker 1:I played sports when I was never a college athlete, so forget pro or anything close to that. I was a very good intramural sport athlete. I played on a traveling volleyball team in the Air Force. That was very competitive and you had to try out to make the team and be selected. I was an outside hitter, an outside blocker, sometimes middle blocker. So don't get me wrong. I had athleticism but I didn't play at the college or semi-pro or pro level. I won intramural championships in flag football and basketball and volleyball and I even won some two-on-two beach volleyball tournaments as a kid. I was a Little League baseball champion as a starting pitcher. So why do I tell you all that? Because I'm not here trying to say I'm some couch potato and every now and then I played sports. Yeah, I was an athlete, I played sports, but I didn't play it at the highest levels. I played it at the very lowest amateur levels you could possibly play, and I lifted weights as well, but I didn't start that till my mid twenties and, for the record, I'm almost 52.
Speaker 1:So this is all relevant because I want to share these stories and as for as long as I can remember, female athletes mistakenly compare their skills to men and what they're capable of doing. And when I was younger, I met women who were very accomplished in their sport A division one point guard in basketball, a division one golfer, a division one volleyball player. These young women were my friends, and, like friends do, we had a little fun with each other and we talked a little smack and about our athletic abilities and what we would do to each other in our work environment or wherever we knew each other from. And I was very competitive and when people talk to me, whether it was another man or woman, I would say show me, let's play one-on-one, let's go out there and show me that you are everything you claim to be. So let's just start simply with the basketball player. She told me she was going to wipe the floor with me that she was so good at basketball this amateur athlete that only plays intramural basketball she was going to wipe the floor with me. So I challenged her to a one-on-one and she was confident, talking shit the whole way about how badly she was going to beat me.
Speaker 1:Now she was about 5'10 and I'm 6'1 and we placed the bet on who would win in a 1v1. So I played for real. I didn't take her lightly and I didn't take it easy on her. And it was the first to 11 by ones and there were no two pointers. And for those of you who don't know that a two pointer is a three point line, drop down to two in a one point scoring game. But that was her rule, because I was already bragging about how great of a three-point shooter I was and she knew that was a weakness for her. So she eliminated two-pointers and said every score, no matter where you scored from, was only worth one. I said, all right, fine, you can take away my greatest strength, but I'll still beat you.
Speaker 1:So when we started playing, she literally couldn't do anything against me. I would stay in her face and block any jump shot attempt she would try to make. And if she tried to ball fake or whatever and take a step to go by me, even if she got the slightest advantage her fast twitch muscles were too slow. I could easily catch up and recover and, if necessary, block her shot from behind if she did get by me because I had a better vertical leap and I was faster and there was just literally nothing she could do when she was on offense. Now, when she was on defense, she had to give me an open jump shot, because if she came up and tried to pressure me on a ball fake, I literally take one step and I'm gone and she can't catch me and there's nothing she can do about it. She doesn't have the speed to recover. Nothing she can do about it. She doesn't have the speed to recover. She doesn't have the hops to block me from behind Literally nothing she could do. So I think you know where this is going.
Speaker 1:I beat her 11 to 1. Division 1 basketball player talking mad shit to this amateur male. I beat her 11 to 1. And her one point was me being kind and giving her an open jump shot towards the end because I was already ahead 10 to nothing. So she only scored because I let her out of kindness, because I didn't want to beat her 11 to nothing. I felt it was too embarrassing for her. I could tell she was getting mad and her pride was hurt. So I gave her a shot. She made it 11 to one. Final score Not even close.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk golf. I was never, ever a great golfer, Didn't play intramural golf, didn't do anything golf related except casually play. But I had a female friend Her name was Jamie and she was a division one player for a major university golf team and we happened to work together and I wanted to play golf with her. But she started talking smack to me and she challenged me and so I said, of course I'm not afraid, and we made a bet. Now, we didn't discuss this prior to the bet, but I offered to let her hit from the ladies tee box and she refused. And for those of you that don't know, the women's tee box is closer to the hole than the men's in golf and so they don't have to go as far. And there's an obvious reason for that Men have a strength advantage. But she was so confident and she was so cocky that she said no, she, I want to play from the men's tee box. And so she did. And so right away I knew she was giving herself a disadvantage because I could drive the ball 300 yards off the tee box.
Speaker 1:I may not have been a great golfer, but what I was? An athlete, someone who knew how to contort his body and torque his body and properly swing of a golf club. And so I could hit a ball 300 yards off the tee box. And we played 18 holes from the men's tee box and in the end I beat her by at least 10 strokes I don't remember exactly how much it was, but it was a pretty easy win and she was a division one golfer who had been golfing for a good majority of her life. She started as a child. I had been golfing for one year, one year and I beat her pretty easily.
Speaker 1:And finally let's talk volleyball Now. In fairness, this is one of my best, if not my best, sports. At the height of my athletic ability, I could jump high for a white guy and I hit the ball with a lot of power. I was someone who lifted weights. I was a baseball pitcher. I had the ability to put some oomph behind my swing as an outside hitter and I was playing against one of the players that was a Division I volleyball player and she was on the other team and on one play I spiked the ball with such velocity that when she tried to get it I broke her thumb. I broke her thumb. So why do I tell you all this? Not to brag about my athletic prowess or strength, but actually quite the opposite. It's to show I didn't play college sports. I wasn't a division one, even division three athlete. I wasn't on the scale of male spectrum and capability. I was just an intramural sports player and I was easily smacking these division one elite level athletes, female athletes, level of athletic echelon than I ever was in their respective sports.
Speaker 1:What does that mean for women who are playing with men against men, who are identifying as women, who are on the same level, who are in the same tier that they are? It means it's unfair as hell. It means they don't have a chance. And the facts are the facts, no matter how much anyone wants to deny them. Biological males are bigger, faster, stronger and just more athletic Period, more athletic period. Not only do they have an unfair advantage physically against females, but they are taking a spot of another female athlete that could use that spot on the team or in the sport, and it's not fair. It's not fair and for any of you who support this and agree with this, you're robbing young women of an opportunity to enjoy a sport that they love, that they want to play, either by not being able to play at all because that biological male has their spot, or by not being able to advance and play competitively because the team with the biological male has an advantage. Hell yeah, if I'm playing a team sport and I got a biological male on my team and I'm a woman, I love that guy, unless he's playing center field and I'm a center fielder and I'm not getting to play because this guy's taking my spot. I'm a center fielder and I'm not getting to play because this guy's taking my spot. The rest of the teammates are loving it because this guy is helping them win and dominate, and that's exactly what's happening.
Speaker 1:So normally, generally, as a person, I believe in live and let live. As long as you are doing what you want to do in life and what you are doing doesn't hurt or negatively affect other people, then live and let live. Live your life and be happy. If you want to be a man who identifies as a woman, great, be a man who identifies as a woman, but that doesn't mean you deserve the same rights that women deserve. So not only did I want to talk about how this negatively affects athletes, but let's talk locker room, let's talk bathroom.
Speaker 1:Are you telling me that a man that identifies as a woman with a penis should be allowed to be in a woman's locker room seeing all the women naked and changing and they should have to be subjected to his nudity? They should have to be subjected to his nudity. They should have to be subjected to his penis flopping around in the women's locker room. If you think that's ridiculous and if you think that's okay, then you need to take a hard look at yourself and look in the mirror at who you are as a person, because that's not okay. And let me tell you something If my wife ever just told me I was in the bathroom and there was a biological man in there with me, guess who would be getting confronted when he walked out of the bathroom?
Speaker 1:And I'm saying he. I know that they would identify as she and they deserve that respect when they're giving that respect. But when you're not giving that respect to other people, you don't deserve it and I would confront him or her and I would let them know that what they did is not okay and, depending on their response, at a minimum I would report them. At a maximum I would knock them. The fuck out. Period, hands down. My wife and if I had a daughter shouldn't be subjected to your manhood because you want to say you identify as a woman. That's selfish.
Speaker 1:Until they come out with restrooms that the person who was born with a biological gender but identifies as another to use non-binary restrooms whatever you want to call it, non-binary restrooms, whatever you want to call it then you should be in the locker room in the bathroom of your biological gender period. This isn't all about you. Life isn't all about you. That's a huge problem with our society today in many aspects the lack of thought for others around you and selfish behavior, because you only care about what you think or how something affects you as an individual. Great, you're a man born in the wrong body and you want to identify as a woman, live your truth, but others should not be subjected to your truth because you don't want to use the restroom of your biological birth. Whether you like it or not, on some level, that is still who you are and you need to respect how other people feel as well. Yeah, it sucks. You weren't born in the body you feel like you belong in. I get it and I would hate it too, but it also sucks trying to be forced to agree that your penis should be allowed to be in every woman's face because you feel like you should be a woman. So think about other people. At the end of the day, biology sets the stage.
Speaker 1:The men's capabilities physically are an unfair advantage over women. These physical differences just define starting lines. If men train and live up to their physical potential, women don't stand a chance athletically against quote-unquote equal athletes. So, whether you're coaching, training or just curious, understanding the differences support each other in a better way in the world of fitness and performance and gives us the intelligence we need to make the right choices. Biological males do not belong in sports with females. Period, that's it, period. You will never, ever, be able to convince me any other way, because the facts are there. The facts are there. It's just an unfair advantage.
Speaker 1:Controversial topic. If you like my podcast and what I have to say and you want to support it, then go to BrandonHeldcom and subscribe today. You can also follow me on Instagram at BHLifeIsCrazy, and YouTube, brandon Held. Life Is Crazy, and I know some of you are going to hate me for this stance and dislike me for this point of view, and that's fine. That's your right. I personally won't agree with you if you feel different than me, but I also won't dislike you or hate you or feel any kind of negativity towards you, because differences of opinion are our rights as human beings and that's what we're allowed to have, and I'm expressing my difference of opinion, maybe with you, or maybe it's the same opinion, depending on who's listening. And, as always, thank you for listening and I'll talk to you next time.
