If you are in your late 30’s or 40’s, it may feel as if your body is going haywire. Don’t fret, a lot of women are going through the same thing around this time. But it’s really hard not to feel as though you are isolated in your suffering. Many of women struggle from constant irritability, hair loss, feeling like you are always rushing, depression, anxiety, vaginal dryness, extra 10 belly pounds that won’t leave, painful sex and lack of libido. Let’s be frank: life sucks whe

Do you know about the spectrum of health? Specifically, the Sickness, Wellness, Fitness Spectrum? This is something that nearly no MD talks about. If they do, You know they are up on their game or at least do CrossFit. Let’s start here: If we don't have measurable definitions for goals, we don't really have goals - not good ones at least. Ones that lend themselves to a plan. Goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. There is no working, widely accepted

Congratulations! You have reached a plateau. I know this may seem like an odd thing to congratulate you for BUT this is a big step. It means all of your work has paid off and you have reached all that you can achieve with your current knowledge and training. You have literally topped out and can’t go any farther with what you have built. Although it is frustrating, this is a GOOD thing. The only way out and up, is to step back, re-asses and drive forward with new skills and m

Most of us long for a good looking physique and desperately scramble trying to get one. Too much scattered effort and not enough results are the fruits of lack of knowledge. There are many things that go into being well trained and it not just weightlifting and running. When you InstaHeros say its a lifestyle, they are right. You cant take the average american office worker and just tack on 45 minutes of gym time to 5 days of their week. While it will make some benefits, what

If you have recently had a baby, congratulations to you and your growing family! This is quite an experience and you are a stronger woman for it. No really! The Mayans and Aztecs likened child birth to going to war. Women who were mothers were just as much warriors as the young men who fought to preserve the tribe. This is a delicate time for your body. Unfortunately western medicine is waaaaay behind the ball when it comes to rehabilitating a postpartum body. Doctors are sim

Pregnancy and fitness is a topic that is finally starting to get some serious research and heat in the fitness industry. We have all seen pregnant women and some of us have even side-eyed them for working out. Even the ancient greek philosopher Socrates noticed that the active slave women fared easier pregnancies and faster recovery times. Well, the good new is, you can work hard and carry a baby. In fact it is ENCOURAGED to do so. There is no need for you to greatly reduce p

If you are a gym hopper, travel a lot or are new to a gym, you are familiar with the experience of walking into a new place and hoping to god you don't look like a fool Ok, actually I think we are all familiar with that feeling... But I digress, today we are going to have a short lesson on walking in like you own the place - like you belong there because you certainly do! Here are our goals, every time we walk into the gym but special when we walk into a new gym or unfamiliar

Your period. Yay! Not the thing most women think of but coming from a woman who has lost her period for two years, I am grateful every time I have it. We should really honor out cycles as it tell us SO MUCH about what we are capable of, our current hormonal health and it gives us a tell about our bodies performance. It is a signal of our super power as women. So start working with your period and make it work for you. For women, making your training work for your cycle is jus

We all have them: imbalances and injuries the affect our daily lives.. Learning how to push through a certain amount of pain is an important part of weightlifting and fitness in general. The fact is, there are no outstanding figures that are not the product of hard, consistent work, pain and sweat. Don't let that scare you. The fact is, not only is the work worth it but you will also learn to enjoy it. People of all ages have imbalances and these tend to multiply themselves a

You have moved past the beginner stage. You have gone to the gym for over 8 months, showing up at least 3 or 4 times a week CONSISTENTLY. For a real beginner, you can follow the same program for two years, only increasing the weights used, and you will most likely still see results. Once you are past this, past 6-12 month of consistent work, you can start to play with your program and incorporate other things. This is when we start playing with supersets, metcons and 1 RM. Ye

There are many theories on training and a lot of them are pretty good. No, really, they are. Because most people are over-fat and under moved, Literally anything they do will be useful and benefit them greatly. Physical fitness is 80% you DOING SOMETHING and 20% WHAT you do. When we get into weightlifting, we want to work the body evenly and towards our goals. So lets go over how to plan your training for the week. A well thought out training program will have some guidelines

The second question you will have when starting weight lift is How Many? In Part 1 we went over exercise selection and what are the moves that will fit your overall life and bring you closer to your fitness goals. Here, we will talk about how to do those exercises. Not all bodies and brains are the same, therefore not all goals are the same. That being said, most women do have the same goal: lose fat mass (aka “lose weight”) and gain muscle mass (aka “tone up”). For those of

Let's talk about exercise selection. Most women do ridiculous, complex movements that include a lunge twist, press and toe tap ("thats ONE") with 4 pound weights. They are told that this will target you bum and slim your waist and tone shoulders, when this move in fact does NONE of that. Most likely, this kind of advice will give you shoulder impingements and be tiring without changing one thing on your body. Listen Ladies, I love you and respect you so here it is: For the

The more I learn about coaching and training, the more I end up telling people to take it easy. It seems butt-backwards in the pursuit of fitness to down-shift. I am shocked how frequently I tell people to do less, to set boundaries and to schedule an hour for themselves - yet it must be done. Our westen, christian society values Hard/Long Work. In America, Hard/Long Work - not deep work - has become our new god. Even in making ourselves happier and healthier, modern busynes

Unless I am doing a mental exercise, I am always working out with music. I dance as I lift and run, because working out is my happy place. When small iPods were a thing I used to just fold up my key and Nano in the waistband of my short and go run. That was easy and light. No giggling and stayed everything stayed safe. But now we use phones for streaming our music and those things are a lot bigger. Since the glory days of teeny tiny pod are over, I seem to always be looking f

There are so many ways to feel the burn, it is easy to get overwhelmed when trying to decide what works best for your fitness. In the long and joyful journey of getting fit and losing weight we have a number of options to aide in changing our bodies. So the biggest question is when to strength training and when to do cardio? The good news is, your goals and preferences will best tell you what will work best to achieve that body you deserve. Let’s go through a couple of scenar

So we all know that taking the stairs will burn more calories. How about something more specific? Incorporate these tips into your routine and results will be guaranteed. Warning! Some of these are so effective that you have to watch your food intake. Wear heavy and warm clothes during your workout. Sweat is your fat crying at its own funeral, so make it cry like a freshly dumped Sophomore on prom night. Wear sweatpants and hoodies while weight lifting. Beginners should avoid

Let's talk about travel and physical activity! Lucky for you, you have made, or are making, regular physical activity and eating right a habit in your life. Congratulations! This is the one of the main ingredients in a happy life. For many, one of those other ingredients to happiness or wealth is travel. Anyway, you trip is booked. Now you are going to spend the next few days or weeks in a place where everyone is trying to feed you and you are not a member of any gym. Let’s t

Numerous studies have been done on this subject; Does music help performance? Well, that is a more complex question than we think. There are two kinds of performance: perceived and actual. Perceived performance is how you think you performed or how easy it was to perform the task at hand. Actual performance is, you guessed it, how much work, speed, distance or volume was measurably achieved. While in many cases, test subjects increased their cadence in cycling when the tempo

Ladies, please share with your awesome, single, fit guy friend! Get that dude a loyal lifting girl! So, you know how to get the woman at the gym, but what if your Artemis is at work? Or friends of friends? Then we need a different strategy. If you see her around a lot, it behooves you to take it slow and get her to be curious about you. Fit Chicks are fun babes, focused and loyal - but also protective of themselves. Hey, great glutes don’t come without a price! Get her walls