Very little can go wrong when you’re strong. Have to move your furniture around after binge-watching HGTV? That couch has nothing on you. Need to make one trip from your car to the front door with your Costco groceries and HomeGoods *ahem* necessities? No sweat. Physical strength prepares you for all of life’s little annoyances (i.e. running after your dog …
The shoulders take a serious beating during strength training, making the warm-up a critical part of the workout to prevent injury. Having dealt with shoulder injuries myself, I can attest to how much better my upper body lifts are when I consistently warm-up the shoulder complex before overhead pressing and pulling. Grab a band, a foam roller, and five minutes. …
Rest days is something most elite athletes look forward to and plan for. Oddly enough, the average, recreational athlete like you and me, will overlook rest days in their strength and fitness regimen. As I tell my 1:1 BarbellSTRONG Coaching (BSC) ladies – Rest days are just as important as the workout day. It’s programmed intentionally to allow your body …
The sun was sweltering hot. I could feel a sunburn coming on despite applying sunscreen hours earlier. As I breathed in and out, my feet, hands and elbows dug deeper into the sand, spreading, moving, and making me feel I was falling out of line. It’s just a plank, Trish. You can hold it longer. The woman next to me …
What happens when we outgrow ourselves? Our dreams? Our stories? Our fitness? Our friends? Our job? In fitness, this can look like over exercising to hide our discomfort with ourselves. It appears healthy on the outside, but inside there’s turmoil, shame, and self-loathing. At work, this might look like a colleague who is always in bad mood. In relationship, it’s …
Does looking at another woman’s body or achievements in the gym make you feel insecure? It’s human nature to feel triggered by someone else’s success. Comparison is normal but it doesn’t have to be your normal. I rarely feel insecure about my body anymore or compare myself to others in the fitness scheme of things. I used to a lot. …
Years before I became a Pilates teacher, I found myself in fitness classes that claimed Pilates to be the bedrock of its workouts but was nothing more than creative takes of dance routines with a few core exercises sprinkled in. Pulsing, crunching, and bopping around to “feel the burn” is not Pilates, though I enjoyed the novelty of it all. …
You may not call yourself a runner, but the minute you tie those laces to jog before breakfast or sprint through an alley in a CrossFit class, you have become the real deal. A runner in every sense of the word. To make sure your runs are fast and pain-free, strength training is a critical component. Here are the six …
Jennifer looked at me defeated with tears in her eyes after a workout one morning. She couldn’t understand how after months of consistent training, cutting back on alcohol and treats, her arms were still not looking the way she wanted. She was weeks out from her wedding and wanted the photos to capture a happy time in her life, not …
The best movers have the strongest feet, and yet so many of us treat the foot like an afterthought when lifting. If you’re serious about improving your main lifts – the squat, deadlift – and every other exercise in between, you must get reacquainted with the tripod foot. Not only will this activate the muscles, joints, ligaments in the foot, …
