Mary Spencer's Blog

Muscle Babes Perfect Lean Body Mass Fitness

2019-02-23T12:15:00.000-08:00

As a muscle babe do you find it difficult to maintain your lean body mass fitness? If you are so concerned about building a lean muscle, you should also not forget to include taking care of your physical body appearance. The tips in this guide will assist you execute a workout routine to your everyday schedule on how to build muscle fast as a muscle babe. The result of getting to become one of the girls with muscle requires practicing fitness routines regularly.

How To Get Started As A Muscle Babe

To achieve success building muscle for women, reducing your workout soreness is important. This is why you need to perform sufficient cool down exercises. This cool down period allows your muscles to loosen up and relax after your workout is completed and signs to your body that the journey to becoming muscle babes is close by. Attempting to cool down correctly after exercising may cause extra soreness as well as cramping to happen.

How To Become Fit For Girls With Muscle

If you are just beginning your girls with muscle exercise, start out slow. Do not jump in head and attempt to run five miles without even needing worked out before. It is possible to end up depriving yourself and doing more damage than good. Rather begin with a brief walk and gradually increase the duration and the rate. Before you know it you will be operating five miles with no issues.

Do not worry! Biking is another superb fitness action. Cycling is a nutritious alternative to driving. A 5 mile ride may require less than half an hour. Following work, you bicycle back home.

A great way to get healthy is to consult a Specialist muscle babe. A good deal of muscle chicks have their own sites where they offer you a service which provides you with the chance to pay to get your appointment. It's possible to receive their experienced advice in your diet and workout routine.

Speaking generally, you will want to accelerate your breathing so that you are exhaling after every weight-lifting rep that you do. This helps your body to take in more air after exhaling, and you are able to utilize more energy.

You need to alter your fitness routine occasionally so that you continue to gain from exercising. If you apply exactly the exact same routine for a long time your body becomes accustomed to it and also the benefits begin to decrease. Including a new exercise may also be enjoyable and save you from getting bored with your workouts.

If you're thinking about becoming a huge muscle woman, then a great Pair of sneakers must top the list of equipment that is necessary. Your shoes offer a base for your own workout. They cushion and support your foot and help you get the maximum from whichever exercise you decide to do.

Muscle accidents may bring us down, but getting back to exercising just as possible will help you heal faster. Start out slowly, attempting only a couple of minutes in a very low intensity simply to examine yourself. The moment you experience pain, stop. When you're completed apply ice for twenty five minutes. Continue the following day hoping to do a bit more.

A great fitness tip is to begin using cables on your workouts. Utilizing cables is a great way to add extra resistance and challenge yourself. You prepare the pub with plates as you normally would, then you put in cables on each side to the excess resistance.

Should you train your abdominal muscles, do not neglect to also train your lower-back muscles. Should you dismiss lower-back muscle training, abdominal training may actually create poor posture and back pain. A fantastic guideline is for every abdominal place; follow this up with a lower-back set with the equivalent number of repetitions.

For women over 40, It's Important to stretch to get at least 60 seconds in front of a workout. This is only because the older a individual is, the flexible your muscles are. For people 40 and below, it's encouraged that you stretch for 30 seconds before a workout.

It's important to stretch your tight muscles instead of your flexible ones. This is since the elastic muscles are prepared to handle whatever workout routine that you will follow along with while the tighter muscles aren't. It's strongly suggested that you spend as much time in your tight muscles compared to your elastic ones.

Be sensible about the goals of lose fat gain muscle that you set for yourself. If you specify a goal that there's not any way to really accomplish, you'll end up feeling downhearted and discouraged about keeping up with all the fitness and diet plan you have started. You may stop altogether and be stuck where you are for quite a while.

Taking in a Lot of calcium could be great for particular fitness goals. Steak or skim milk is the ideal way to get calcium without even taking a great deal of useless fat with it. Magnesium doesn't only build strong bones. Heavy doses of calcium enhance the muscle-building procedure. Muscles develop stronger quicker with lots of calcium.

Offer your muscles to rest between workout sessions. You shouldn't ever kickstart lift weights on successive days since this can cause your muscles to become exhausted and hurt. A simple means to do so is by alternating the times you spend doing weight-lifting or other strengthening exercises with times which you do cardiovascular exercise.

Increase your physical activity by making great use of your time on the phone. Each time you create or get a telephone call, get up and move around rather than staying seated. Wash a few dishes, do some leg lifts or even walk around the entire time that you are talking. All these minutes of mini exercise sessions will really accumulate over time.

As you can see, you'll find many different techniques for female muscle growth you can employ to maintain yourself engaged in a regular fitness routine. Use these muscle babes hints as a principle and apply those who best fit your lifestyle. You're sure to be happy at the additional energy you have after implementing a girl with muscle fitness routine.

Hiring a Coach? Here’s What You Need to Know

2018-12-25T05:38:00.001-08:00

So you’ve decided to hire a coach. Congratulations! This is a significant step in your fitness journey, and one that you may take several times over as you progress in your goals and in your abilities.

While exciting, this can also be a very confusing time. How do you know who a “good” coach is? What should you look for? How do you know if your coach is the right fit for you? Decisions like these don’t often come with a manual, and it can be difficult to know where to start.

I’ve coached hundreds of clients over the years, and one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is to listen, drop my biases (as much as I can) to be present in the moment, and coach each client as an individual, partnering with them on their fitness journey to help guide them to that to which they aspire. After hours of listening, I’ve learned that when first hiring a coach, many people go with the first trainer they find without giving it too much thought.

Unfortunately, sometimes this experience doesn’t go well, and women are kept out of the gym for extended periods of time for the (understandable) fear of repeating an experience in which they weren’t listened to, heard, or fully supported.

I’m passionate about women feeling at home in their bodies and in their training, so I’ve laid out five important considerations to keep in mind so that you get the most out of your coaching experience and set yourself up for success!

1. Interview Them

Many gyms and trainers set up an initial consultation session in which they ask you a lot of questions about your goals, your health history, your availability, and things of that nature. It can feel like you’re sitting down with your potential coach for an interview, or some sort of screening process.

And you are! But it may not be the one that feels apparent.

It’s important to recognize your decision-making power here. We’ve all been there: in need of someone’s help, and as a result, we listen to everything they say as though it’s gospel.

Your coach may know more technical things than you do — and is there to help! — but your knowledge and experience of your own body and your preferences are important too.

Look for a coach who is open to your questions, who is willing to be patient with you, who can point you in the direction of further resources, and who is ready to accept that very few paths in fitness (or otherwise) are linear.

Remember that during the initial consultation, the coach is assuring that you’re a good fit for their expertise and ability level as a coach. Make sure to also ask questions to find out if they’re a good fit for you, too.

2. Ask About the Ground Rules

All coaches have them: What’s the policy on canceling a session? Do they allow for rescheduling? Is there a penalty associated with either? Do they bill monthly, or by the session?

The logistics of coaching are just as important as the content of each session. You don’t need the added stress of trying to reschedule a session because your child is home sick from school, for instance, only to find out your coach has a policy that doesn’t allow for last-minute moves.

You’ll want to work from a firm base of understanding, knowing that their level of flexibility matches up with your lifestyle. If you’re a split-shift nurse, for example, working with a coach whose only availability is Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 p.m. is unlikely to be a feasible option for you (if you want to maintain a regular sleep schedule and get to work on time, anyway).

It’s important that you know in advance if you are allowed some flexibility or not (and how much you do have), so you will know what will happen when, you know, life happens.

On that note, I’ve found it’s also helpful to ask smaller logistical questions as well: what sorts of clothing do most people wear in your coach’s gym or studio? This can cause a lot of anxiety for people (not to mention, some gyms are hot!), and I’m more than happy to let a potential client know what most people find comfortable in my space. What equipment is available? Can you use the gym or studio while you’re not training in a session, or is it private access only? Does your provide plans for days you don’t work together? Is there a water fountain?

Small things can make all the difference, and comfort is key!

3. Communicate Your Boundaries

Your coach is there to help you.

As a coach, it is important to me to do the work to get to know my clients. I want to know about your goals, your nutrition, your sleep habits, your relevant health history, and your current routine, but I also want to know what you need in order for our sessions to be supportive, engaging, productive, and fun.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you need to spill your life story upon first meeting (unless you want to), and it is certainly not your burden to educate your coach on the context of your entire life. But it is important to relay information that will help your coach better serve you.

Stating your boundaries and preferences allows your trainer to help you in the best way possible.

For example, if you have a history of disordered eating, it would be neither the most productive nor helpful approach to ask you to log everything you’ve eaten for the last week. If you never check your email for anything but work, emailing you reminders of your next appointment is not the most effective communication strategy.

Big or small, your boundaries and preferences matter. Let your coach know how they can best support you.

4. Ask About Their Expectations, Training Style, and Methods of Communication

Going along with the previous point, it’s important to know how your coach will be communicating with you, as well as what you both expect from each other.

Coaching is often a collaborative process, as you work together to find the best path to get to your goals. Some coaches provide plans that spell everything out down to the letter, while others provide guidance with more wiggle room for your preferences. Some coaches have strict boundaries or “office hours” and only accept questions via business phone or email, while others prefer a text message or a phone call.

It’s important to know the ways in which your coach is available to you to ensure that you’re getting what you want out of your coaching relationship. If you know you’re best motivated by strict guidelines and a more firm, no-nonsense approach, a coach who asks a lot of questions and is more flexible in schedule and approach is probably not for you. Conversely, if you know you’re most motivated when your coach asks for your say in the direction of your training, it’s important that you work with someone who is willing to do so.

It’s also helpful to know what your responsibility is throughout sessions. Will you be expected to arrive early to warm up on your own, or will your coach block off time for that? Will you be doing cardio in your sessions, or should you plan for it on your off days? Will you have time for to cool down and stretch in the last 5–10 minutes of your session, or should you allow extra time in your schedule to do that when your session is complete?

Understanding expectations will help you to feel understood and remove a potential barrier to effective coaching.

There are few things more frustrating than expecting to receive help after you’ve put yourself out there and then not getting it due to a misunderstanding. Knowing how to best communicate, what you can expect from each session, and how you can hold up your end of the deal will help you feel more comfortable and more empowered (especially in a vulnerable environment!) as you deepen your relationship with fitness.

There’s no “one right way” to approach fitness or coaching, but there are certainly ways that work better for you. Asking your potential coach about their style and expectations will help you determine if they are a good fit for you at this point in your journey.

5. Have Fun!

Hiring a coach can be the beginning of one of the most fulfilling relationships in your life. Your coach may be there for you through significant life events, from weddings and babies to promotions and losses and everything in between.

It may seem like a big decision, and it can be! But the vast majority of coaches do what we do because we love to see the people with whom we work succeed and feel confident, capable, and empowered, in the gym and otherwise. It’s a gratifying feeling to help someone you trust succeed, and, while your goals are very serious, it can be a lot of fun to get there, and your coach is a person too! Don’t be afraid to laugh, to let your guard down, and to enjoy yourself.

Tired of not getting the health and fitness results you’re looking for?

We can help!

Our small group Get Results Coaching program gives you everything you need to accomplish your goals – with GGS co-founder and head coach Jen Comas right by your side.

Enrollment opens twice a year – get on our free, no-obligation pre-sale list now to learn more and get an opportunity to enroll early.

Learn More!

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GGS Spotlight: Melissa Butler

2018-12-23T06:08:00.001-08:00

Name: Melissa Butler
Age: 46
Location: Nashville, TN

How did you find out about Girls Gone Strong?
While trying to figure out what kind of program to follow, I began to read community posts in My Fitness Pal, where I found several groups specifically for women who lift. Several threads mentioned Girls Gone Strong, and I began to check out the GGS website periodically and follow the group on Facebook.

I continued to stumble around for a while longer, until, fortunately for me, I saw a post about the 5-Day Get Results Jumpstart program. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try out GGS and see if it was what I was looking for.

What does being a part of the Girl Gone Strong community mean to you?
GGS offers everything that I was missing in my strength training practice. From the very beginning, I loved that the workouts incorporated all kinds of movement and offered substitutions and adjustments for my ability level. The video library has proven invaluable, and the group and the coaches are always available to recommend a piece of equipment, suggest a substitution, or help improve form.

The GGS Community has been the very best part of the program — I love being part of a group that is geared toward women, encourages body positivity, and welcomes everyone, regardless of experience, fitness, size, shape, gender, race, or ability. It is truly empowering.

What do you do?
I’m a Quality Assurance Analyst and Technical Writer. (I test software and write user manuals).

What else do you do?
I love outdoor activities — hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, skiing; the forest and the beach are my happy places. I love to travel, and I’m definitely a Disney and Harry Potter fanatic.

How were you introduced to strength training, and how long have you been training?
In 2010, I started going to the YMCA every day at lunch. I was very focused on weight loss and cardio and spent an hour or more each day on the elliptical or motion trainer. Although I really enjoyed the workouts, I knew strength training was important for overall health and weight loss and decided to add it to my fitness routine.

I completed a 3-session introduction to the wellness floor and started machine-based strength training a few times a week. Although I loved the feeling of getting stronger, I struggled with my inability to do as much cardio as I wanted and still fit in the strength training during the workday. I set up a home gym, starting with dumbbells and a bench and eventually adding a barbell.

My training was very haphazard, though — I had no instruction or guidance and was piecing together my workouts from programs I found online, and although I wanted to be able to lift heavier weights, my focus was still very much on weight loss. I also became frustrated with doing the same movements each week and with my ignorance about how to proceed.

Favorite lift:
Kettlebell swings are fun, and I love the deadlift — lifting something heavy makes me feel like such a badass. Medicine ball slams are my go-to when I need to blow off some steam.

Top 3 things you must have with you at the gym or in your gym bag:
Good shoes, good music, and good deodorant. (And a good bra ranks right up there!)

Do you prefer to train alone or with others? Why?
I prefer to train alone. Working out is my “me time,” and I really enjoy the mindfulness, whether I’m strength training, running, or practicing yoga. I do enjoy spending time outside with my family, though, whether it’s a hike in the woods, shooting some baskets, or taking the dogs to the park.

Best compliment you’ve received lately:
My supervisor let me know that everyone involved in a recent project, from management down, was impressed with my performance and glad to have me on the team. I’m currently doing contract work, so I really appreciated the feedback. Plus, she gave me the afternoon off!

Most recent compliment you gave someone else:
I complimented a mom-friend about how she was handling Fortnite and household responsibilities with her son. I tried the same approach with mine the next day, and it was very successful. It’s reassuring to know that other parents are going through the same things with their kids; I valued her perspective and let her know.

Favorite way to treat yourself:
I love getting my nails done. It’s a little confidence boost to look down and see polished nails, and it sort of says, “Hey – you deserve to feel pretty!”

Favorite quote:

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.” — G.K. Chesterton

Three words that best describe you:
Strong. Introspective. Dorky.

Favorite books:
Skinny Legs and All, by Tom Robbins; Middlemarch, by George Eliot; Hug, by Jez Alborough; and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

What inspires and motivates you?
My family motivates me every day — I particularly want to set a good example for my son.

I am inspired by strong women in all fields and activities, and especially by my mother, my sister, and my grandmothers.

Describe a typical day in your life, from waking up to bedtime:
My days are pretty ordinary — wake up, express gratitude and goals in my journal, shower and dress, commute, work, commute, workout, help with homework, dinner, TV or reading, and bed.

On weekends we try to get out of the house more, especially when the weather is nice; in the winter we hunker down with movies, hockey, and house cleaning. I would really like to exercise before work in the morning, but I’ve never been able to pry myself out of the warm bed consistently.

When did you join Get Results Coaching? Why did you decide to join and what helped you make the decision to join?
Immediately after completing the 5-day jumpstart program, I purchased the Get Results bundle. I knew that I needed more than just a set of exercises to follow, though, so I jumped at the chance to add the Get Results Coaching. It’s like having a personal trainer work with you every day, but also includes guidance about nutrition, mindful eating, and self-care practices. I would sign up for another six months in a heartbeat.

What has been your biggest challenge in the Get Results Coaching program?
I have a history with bulimia and binge eating disorder; food is how I self-soothe, and it is very difficult for me to eat mindfully for hunger rather than appetite. The coaching program is no substitute for medical care, of course, but I am gaining valuable insight and tools to work on these issues.

What has been your biggest success in the Get Results Coaching program?
I am just two weeks away from completing my first Get Results program (Get Lean). I’ve worked hard to stay consistent and keep moving forward, and I’m excited to be nearing completion. I also completed my first 5K, which was a huge accomplishment for me.

What do you like best about the Get Results Coaching community?
I love checking in daily with the group. It’s so helpful to see what the other members are doing, what questions they have, and how they’re progressing.

Our paths are unique, but we have so much inspiration, knowledge, and encouragement to offer each other.

What is your “BIG” goal you’d like to achieve by the end of Get Results Coaching?
I would like to complete a single, standard push-up. I have been working on band-assisted and incline push-ups but completing a standard push-up with good form has eluded me. I am confident I will be able to do at least one by program’s end.

What is the habit you’re currently working on most?
In addition to a history of bulimia, I also struggle with anxiety and depression. I tend to binge, particularly in the evening, instead of sitting with my emotions. I’m focusing on several nutrition habits, including meal planning and mindfulness, to reconnect with my hunger instead of my appetite.

How has Get Results Coaching changed your life?
I have been focusing a lot less on the scale and a lot more on what my body is capable of.

It is a complete turn-around for me to care more about how much weight I can lift than how much weight I can lose, and I am stronger, more confident, and empowered because of it.

What would you tell women who are nervous about joining Get Results Coaching?
Go for it. It is without a doubt the best thing I’ve done for myself in a really long time.

Tired of not getting the health and fitness results you’re looking for?

We can help!

Our small group Get Results Coaching program gives you everything you need to accomplish your goals – with GGS co-founder and head coach Jen Comas right by your side.

Enrollment opens twice a year – get on our free, no-obligation pre-sale list now to learn more and get an opportunity to enroll early.

Learn More!

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Get the Most Out of Your Bird Dog

2018-12-19T18:12:00.001-08:00

Do you know the bird dog? While, at first glance, this bodyweight exercise may not seem very challenging, its magic is definitely in the quality of the execution!

Want to know why and how you should add this exercise to your own repertoire? Read on!

What Are the Benefits of the Bird Dog?

The bird dog’s benefits are numerous, and the exercise can be used to do any or all of the following, depending how it’s used in the workout (more on that later):

Warm up the body before performing more advanced exercise variations, or as part of a general warm-up.
Increase core strength, including the anterior core, the posterior core and the glutes.
Even out asymmetries and imbalances between the left and right sides.
Reduce the risk of injuries, particularly any that may result from a weak anterior core and the subsequent pelvic and spinal stability issues that may follow.

One of the best things about the bird dog is that it can essentially be performed anywhere, as it requires no equipment, and minimal space.

Who Can Perform Bird Dogs?

The bird dog is accessible to all, from absolute beginners to advanced exercisers. Beginners who struggle with balance and core stability can begin by performing only the arms or the legs component of the exercise, or by keeping their arms and legs lower to the ground to start. Once you can perform 10 reps of the exercise with good form, you can move on to more challenging versions of the exercise.

Intermediate and advanced exercisers can challenge themselves by holding the position longer and integrating dynamic breathing, or adding resistance to the exercise with bands. See the video below for a description of the dynamic bird dog, which is another more challenging variation.

Where Should You Use the Bird Dog in Your Workout?

Bird dogs can be used several ways in a workout, including:

During the warm-up, to prepare the body for your training session.
In between more challenging resistance training exercises, as a form of active rest.
As part of a conditioning circuit.

No matter where and how you choose to use the bird dog, remember that proper technique is paramount to get all the benefits of this exercise.

What’s the Proper Technique?

As mentioned above, to get the most out of the bird dog, strengthen your core and challenge your stability, you want to pay close attention to how you execute the exercise.

When you are performing this exercise, it is imperative that your spine remains in neutral alignment, and that your hips and spine do not twist. The whole point of this core stability exercise is to train your body to resist extension and rotation.

If you are doing this exercise properly, you should be able to balance a dowel on your back and not have it fall off.

Set Yourself Up

Get into a quadruped position (i.e., on your hands and knees).
Set yourself up so your hands are directly under your shoulders (you may want to look at yourself in a mirror to double-check your form, as many people tend to automatically place their hands higher, below their face instead of their shoulders).
Make sure that your knees are directly under your hips, and that your spine is in a neutral position.
Before you go, forcefully exhale, actively tuck your rib cage towards your hips (you can pretend that you are doing a crunch).

The Movement

Slowly, simultaneously extend your arm and opposite leg until they are straight and off the floor.
Make sure that you lead with your heel, and don’t lift your arm or leg past parallel to the floor as this will cause your lower back to arch.
Make sure that you don’t shrug your shoulder, and that you keep your neck neutral throughout the exercise.
Slowly return to the starting position.
Reset and repeat with the opposite arm and opposite leg.
Remember that the goal of the exercise isn’t speed, but control!

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What You Can Do to Support Survivors of Sexual Violence

2018-12-18T05:27:00.001-08:00

While we as a culture work to confront the crisis of sexual violence, we have witnessed waves of survivor disclosures via movements like #MeToo, #TimesUp, and #NotOkay. For the health, safety, and emotional wellbeing of survivors of sexual violence, it is critically important that support providers — including friends and family members — be prepared to provide positive, helpful reactions to survivors who come forward.

This article aims to outline the difference between positive and negative reactions to sexual violence as identified in the fields of clinical psychology and criminology. Our hope is that this piece will better prepare readers to provide loving, compassionate support to the survivors in their lives who choose to disclose, and to contribute to a safer culture for survivors regardless of their disclosure decision.

Positive and Negative Reactions

Social reactions to disclosures of violence have a significant impact on health outcomes for survivors, and are commonly characterized in psychology research as being either positive or negative [1].

Positive reactions to disclosures include:

Providing emotional support (listening, telling the survivor they are brave or strong).
Providing tangible or informational support (offering to connect the survivor to resources).
Providing validation or belief.
Providing non-blame (telling the victim it was not their fault).

Whereas negative reactions to disclosure include:

Blaming the victim.
Treating the victim differently (as if they are damaged or incapable of taking care of themselves).
Attempting to control the victim (forcing them to disclose or to report to law enforcement).
Egocentric responses (for instance, responding so angrily that the victim is forced to comfort the disclosure recipient rather than receiving comfort themselves).

While survivors who receive positive reactions to disclosures tend to have better health outcomes and are more likely to formally report their experience, survivors who receive negative reactions to their disclosure may experience heightened PTSD, anxiety, depression, self-blame, avoidance coping, feelings of shame, feelings of guilt, and negative affect [2-5]. It is therefore important that individuals learn how best to respond to survivors who disclose experiences of violence.

For a comprehensive list of what to do, what not to do, what to say, what not to say, and resources for self-care following receipt of a disclosure, please see the “supporting survivors” section below.

Supporting Survivors

Note: this section has been adapted from a manuscript written by the author and published in the Journal of Sexual Aggression [6].

As discussed above, responding supportively to a survivor who discloses or shares an experience of sexual violence may facilitate survivor healing, empower survivors to report, or help survivors feel comfortable moving forward with disciplinary or legal procedures against their perpetrator.

On the other hand, providing a negative or unsupportive response may increase survivor self-blame, lead to poor outcomes for the survivor, or dissuade the survivor from sharing their experience with other support providers and resources.

It is critical that we all be prepared to respond appropriately to disclosures of sexual violence.

Advice and guidance on how to provide support for a survivor who discloses a sexually violent experience, as well as information on which reactions to avoid, are included below. Some basic scripts on what to say and what not to say to survivors, as well as information regarding self-care resources, are also included. Please review these carefully, and print a copy to keep in your home, your vehicle, your wallet, or your place of employment.

If You Receive a Disclosure of Sexual Violence, Do…

Listen without judgment or interruptions. Allow the survivor to speak until they are finished.
Thank the survivor for trusting you with their story and assure them that you are here for them.
Provide emotional support to the survivor (i.e., offer to hold their hand, remind them that they are loved and valued).
Express non-blame (i.e., assure the survivor that this experience was not their fault)
Provide validation and belief (i.e., demonstrate that you believe their experience occurred the way they have presented it, and assure them that you do not doubt their story).
Provide tangible support (i.e., offer to help the survivor find a mental health counselor; facilitate the reporting process with; find a place to stay if they are currently living in close proximity to their perpetrator; help the survivor access resources such as a local rape crisis center, support group, or therapist).

If this is a campus assault, and you are considered a Mandated Reporter by the University, do tell the survivor that you are required to report their experience, and ask them how they would like to move forward.

Re-asserting survivors’ feelings of agency, independence, and choice is crucial during the reporting process.

Assure them that they will be a full partner in the reporting process, and that you will not move forward with a reporting step until you are both on the same page. Assure them that you will check in regularly, and that you can take a break at any signs of emotional distress. Remind the survivor that, though it is your job to report the experience to the appropriate campus leadership, it is also your job to ensure that the survivor feels heard, supported, and in control of their healing process.

Do Not…

Blame the survivor or imply that the survivor was in any way responsible for their experience
Ask the survivor unnecessary questions or for more details than they have given you. If the survivor chooses to disclose to a formal resource like the police, the survivor will likely be required to recount their experience many times, which can be retraumatizing and stressful. Do not make them do so more than is absolutely necessary for the sake of reporting procedures.
Treat the survivor differently (as if they are damaged or broken) or act as though they are unable to take care of themselves.
Respond in an overly-emotional, angry, or upset way — the survivor is already coping with their own hurt and trauma and should not be required to comfort another person while they process their experience, disclose, and heal.
Assume the survivor will be visibly hurt, upset, or reacting to their experience. It is possible that the survivor will appear to be unemotional, display a flat affect, or be calm during their disclosure. This does not discount the severity of their experience.
Distract the survivor or attempt to get them to talk about something else — this may send the message that you do not want to listen to their story, are not taking their pain seriously, or do not care about their experience.
Advise the survivor not to talk about their experience — this can have a silencing effect, and may reduce the survivor’s comfort in formally reporting.
Try to take control of their decision-making process. The survivor is free to make their own choices regarding whether to tell family or friends, confront the perpetrator, seek additional counseling or support, or formally press charges.

Do Say…

“Thank you for sharing your story with me. I am honored that you would trust me with this, and I am grateful for the opportunity to support you.”
“I believe you. I believe that your experience happened as you say it did.”
“I support you and whatever decisions you make in your own healing.”
“Would you like a hug? Would you like me to hold your hand?” (Ask for permission before making physical contact with the survivor, but do provide them the resource of affection if they would like it.)
“This was not your fault, and you did nothing to deserve what happened to you.”
“What do you need from me? What can I do to best support you right now?”
“Are you interested in learning about resources that can help you through this process?”
“Are you interested in reporting to police or law enforcement?”
If you are a mandated reporter: “Because I am a mandated reporter, I am required to report this to the appropriate authorities. However, this is your story and your experience. How would you like to move forward? What can I do to help you feel safe and comfortable discussing your experience? Are there any other members of the campus community that you would like to be involved in your reporting process?”
“During the reporting process and our conversations about your experience, we can take breaks whenever you want.”

Avoid Saying…

“I don’t believe things happened that way.”
“What were you wearing?”
“Were you drinking before this happened?”
“Did you have a sexual history with this person?”
“Why didn’t you just leave? Why didn’t you fight back?”
“You have to report this right away.”
“You have to press charges.”
“I am so furious at [perpetrator]”
“I am so devastated — this is awful.”
“Let’s talk about something else, it seems like this is upsetting you.”

Self-Care

It is normal to feel stressed, sad, anxious, worried, confused, or hurt after receiving a disclosure.

Your feelings as a support provider and disclosure respondent are valid, and your own emotional health matters.

Self-care is an important part of the disclosure and response process — it is impossible to “pour from an empty glass.” In order to best support other people, you must also make sure that you feel safe, happy, healthy, and cared for. Here are some skills and activities that are recommended for self-care:

Meditate (digital apps such as Calm and Headspace offer free meditation guidance, and many meditation resources can be found on YouTube).
Do some yoga or stretching (Yoga with Adriene is a free online resource, available on YouTube, and offers specific videos on coping with PTSD, stress, and anxiety).
Garden or spend time in nature.
Journal — writing about your experience can help you to make sense of your feelings.
Seek out a counselor or therapist to support you and help you process your emotional reactions.
Spend time with friends and loved ones.
Breathe mindfully for 3–5 minutes at a time, to soothe your nervous system and connect to your body in a healthy, present way.
During moments of heightened distress, do a 5-senses check-in. Ask yourself what you are: seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling.
Cook, bake, or eat a meal.
Unplug from devices.
Make sure you are getting enough sleep.

A Note to Survivors

To you, who move through the harm of this world and are still standing. You, who have the resilience and compassion to create radical change in our society. You, whose presence in my world I celebrate. You, who deserve so much better than this world has given you.

First, I would like to say: I believe you, I support you, your voice matters, your story matters.

It is up to you to decide whether you want to disclose or report, it is up to you to decide how you want to process your trauma.

As a survivor myself, I know how important it was for me to have ownership over my healing process; how critical it was to feel confident that I was back in the driver seat. Developing agency in the aftermath of my experience was miraculously healing.

The self-care resources and skills listed above are for you, too. Use them. Figure out what self-care works best for you. Radical self-love is a game-changer.

I am honored by your presence in my world. The strength that you gain in moving through your experience will be the strength that heals your community, that changes our society, that leads to a better future for all of us. Though this burden should not be ours to bear, we make this world a sweeter, softer place when we work in kinship and community with each other. There is no safer space than the love between survivors who validate one another.

Survivors are a boon to our communities. To future victims, we will be your calm after the storm. There are no words strong enough to hold my love for you — the way your presence in my universe honors and validates me — the honor it is to build community with you. We are going to change this world. We are the warriors of equality and accountability. We are the harbingers of love, light, and change.

Our voices, our experiences, and our resilience are revolutionary. We are a mighty tide, and we will carry our communities toward justice.

Read Also

Want to support women? Check out this FREE Course.

Women are being sexually harassed and assaulted in and out of the gym — and we need your help!

Interested in helping? If so, we’ve created a FREE course just for you!

→ Get access now, and start whenever you’re ready:

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References

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Is Lifting Safe for Children?

2018-12-12T17:17:00.001-08:00

My mother never taught me how to be physically strong.

Sure, she showed me what it meant to be mentally strong, emotionally strong, and transcend strength into my work, education, and personal aspirations — but being physically strong was not something I learned from her.

I wish it had been though.

Sure, she brought me to soccer practice five days a week and watched my games on the weekends. She made me go to conditioning for swim team when I definitely did not want to. She supported my dreams of becoming a starting center on the basketball team only to have those dreams thwarted when I didn’t grow past 5’1”. And she did it all with a smile on her face while making extensive sacrifices in her own life, and for that I thank her endlessly.

But I wish she had been the one to show me how to work with weights. I wish she had been the one to put a dumbbell in my hand. I wish she had showed me how to wield a barbell, instead of thinking a man had to be the one to do it.

Knowing what I know now, if I had learned how to properly strength train when I was young, I would have been a monumentally better soccer player, a faster and healthier swimmer, and maybe (just maybe) I would have been a semi-decent basketball player.

This is to no fault of my mother’s though. It’s a fault of a generation stuck in a hole of stereotypical thinking and lack of education on the safety of allowing children to strength train. Unfortunately, these are misconceptions that still ring true for far too many.

So, if you’re wondering: “When is it safe for my daughter (or son) to start strength training?” The answer is now. The answer is yesterday. The answer is whenever you feel like they are mature enough to follow instructions and you know of a qualified and reputable coach available to teach them proper technique.

But I hear you.

Is it safe?
Won’t it stunt their growth?
What about growth plate injuries?

Not Only Is Lifting Safe, It Prepares Children for Life

Let me ask you, how many times is that child going to pick up a suitcase? Or lift the side of the couch to reach for a fallen toy? Or sit in a chair and stand up with something in their hands? Or, does that child plan on playing sports? What happens when they collide with another player on the soccer field or tackle someone in football? Are you asking these same questions when they show interest in those sports and activities?

Not only has weightlifting been shown to enhance performance, it prevents injuries in other sports and activities.¹

By teaching young children how to properly perform basic movement patterns (squat, push, pull, hinge, lunge), their biomechanics improve, their body awareness improves, and most importantly their confidence improves. I’ve seen this in multiple instances working in a facility with young athletes. They come to us unable to crawl or skip, and they’ll walk out of the building successfully front squatting with a barbell or deadlifting their body weight, and then some, off the ground.

Furthermore, an injury to a growth plate has never been reported as a result of weight training, and among competitive youth weightlifters, no injuries were reported after a full year of training.² Injuries that have been sustained from resistance training have been primarily attributed to misuse of the equipment, inappropriate technique, and lack of supervision.³ And even still, loading a barbell on their back won’t cause them to shrink or stop growing; youth resistance-training programs have little influence on growth in height and weight.⁴

It is also perfectly safe for a child to find their one repetition max — of course under supervision — as the force they sustain from something like this is no less than forces they would experience in other sports.⁵

Coaching a child through a strength-training program should prioritize technique over everything though — the strength gains are a happy byproduct. By following a strength-training program, children can improve strength by 30 to 50 percent in just 8 to 12 weeks.²

If you can teach children how to move properly, you will give them the confidence to tackle any other obstacle in their life — it’s a liberating experience to be proud of what your body can do.

Confidence in Action

In September 2018 at Smart Fit Girls’ inaugural Unite for Strength powerlifting meet, I had the utmost pleasure of watching a 6-year-old girl by the name of Ava Brewer (remember that name) strut out onto a powerlifting platform like it ain’t no thing. And it is a thing. It’s a very scary thing actually.

The confidence she exuded was like nothing I had ever seen before from a 6-year-old. But it wasn’t always like that. At the age of five, Ava began talking about wanting to diet and be skinny after a boy in her class called her “fat,” despite not even being on the growth chart for her height and weight. “Lifting has completely reversed that,” says Ava’s mom, Laura Hartley. “The biggest thing it has done for her is give her confidence.”

Ava was equally nervous and excited for her first meet. Weighing just 30 pounds and standing no more than 3’6”, she won the hearts of the crowd. “As soon as she did her first lift I knew she would be fine,” Hartley says. And she was. (She only missed one bench press attempt because the blocks under her feet — yep, she’s that small — weren’t in the right position.)

When deadlifts came around, her favorite lift, the 30-pound little ball of energy ripped a 45-pound barbell off the ground and smiled a smile I will never forget, while the crowd around her cheered.

Yet, in my own little circle of social media the concerns and skepticism rolled in.

This looks weird.
Is it safe for a child to be doing that?
Won’t she stunt her growth?
What about her growth plate?

I was discouraged that something so amazing to me was something that was so misconceived by others.

You Can Contribute to This Change

Ava is going to grow up with a training age (how many years you’ve been training) four times mine by the time she’s my age, if she keeps it up. She is going to pursue all the many things she loves to do including cheerleading, roller derby, and skating with so much confidence and gusto in what her body is able to do. And it all started with her mother, who brought home a barbell and a set of weights and showed her what it looked like to be physically strong.

Mothers, we need more of that. Sisters, daughters, friends, nieces, wives, we need you to show up for the girls in your life and show them how cool their body is. And if you don’t know where to turn, or are still a little skeptical, I urge you to look at girls like Happy Luma, Ava Brewer, and Addy Lifts, seek out organizations like Smart Fit Girls that encourage and support girls to pick up weights, and see how strength training has transformed their lives.

When you are able to teach a young child how to move properly you erase self-doubt from their thinking and “can’t” from their vocabulary. You give them the confidence to go after whatever they want in this world.

And I can’t wait to watch how little girls like Ava Brewer continue to change the world and see where they’ll be in five, ten, fifteen years from now because I have a feeling it’ll be somewhere pretty amazing.

References

Faigenbaum, A.D., Myer, G.D. Resistance training among young athletes: safety, efficacy and injury prevention effects. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2009. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40039109_Resistance_training_among_young_athletes_Safety_efficacy_and_injury_prevention_effects
Byrd, R. et al. Young Weightlifter’ Performance Across Time. http://www.treinamentoesportivo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Young-Weightlifters-Performance-Across-Time.pdf
Dahab, K., McCambridge, T. Strength training in children and adolescents. Sports Health. 2009. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445252/
Malina, R.M. Weight training in youth-growth, maturation, and safety: an evidence-based review. 2006. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17119361
Faigenbaum A.D., et al. Maximal testing in healthy children. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2003. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.491.8731&rep=rep1&type=pdf

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Why Believing Sexual Violence Survivors Is Evidence-Based (and Important!)

2018-12-11T04:42:00.001-08:00

Note: for the sake of this article, the terms “victim” and “survivor” will be used interchangeably, as individuals who experience sexual violence often feel a connection to one or both of these terms.

Sexual violence — defined as any sexual act committed against someone without that individual’s freely-given consent — is a critical social problem; one that social movements including #NotOkay, #MeToo, and #TimesUp have recently brought to the forefront of media discourse surrounding violence, gender, sex, safety, and health.

One need only look at the Vox.com list of 252 celebrities, politicians, CEOs, and high-profile individuals recently accused of sexual misconduct — including the President of the United States and newly-appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — to grasp the scope of this crisis [1].

This problem has surfaced across social contexts, and survivors are coming forward in droves to share their stories, seek justice, hold perpetrators accountable, and lead the nation toward a safer, kinder, softer future. As our nation grapples with the acute catastrophe of sexual violence, it is critical that we look to data and research to illuminate our discussions surrounding sexual victimization, survivor justice, and the requisite gentleness of our national discourse.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 3 women and nearly 1 in 6 men are victims of contact sexual violence in their lifetime, with over 40 percent of women victims and about a quarter of men victims experiencing their first completed rape before the age of 18 [2].

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, and genderfluid youth are at even higher risk for experiencing sexual violence; 46 percent of bisexual women and 47 percent of transgender people are sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime, and trans women of color are widely regarded as being at the highest risk for experiencing sexual violence [3,4].

The intersections of marginalization clearly have a dramatic impact on the likelihood that individuals will experience sexual violence. Therefore, we must consider intersectionality when discussing sexual violence.

Although the narrative of sexual victimization tends to focus on the stereotype of the cisgender, straight, white, woman victim, victims with multiple marginalizations (or multiple experiences of social oppression) require increased care, attention, and efforts specifically designed to enhance their safety.

Health Outcomes of Sexual Violence

Importantly, survivors often experience a range of negative physical, sexual, and psychological health outcomes, including (but not limited to) [5-7]:

Post-traumatic stress disorder
Depression
Anxiety
Disordered eating and body dysmorphia
Self-blame
Non-suicidal self-injury
Suicidality
Social issues (especially social isolation and anxiety)
Sexual dysfunction and dissociation
Chronic illness

The list of potential health consequences of sexual victimization goes on, though it is important to note that each survivor may respond to their victimization experience differently, depending on their own experience, social network support, resiliency, coping strategies, and access to resources.

Notably, individuals who experience sexual violence once are vulnerable to revictimization. Further, stigmatization — or the process of managing labels, stereotypes, isolation (us vs. them mentalities), loss of social status, and discrimination — greatly impacts sexual violence survivors, and may decrease survivors’ confidence in sharing their experiences.

Incredibly, in spite of myriad potential negative health outcomes, as well as the stigma frequently faced by survivors of sexual violence (we need look no further than the GOP’s treatment of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to affirm that this stigma exists), most survivors nevertheless choose to share their experience. The process of sharing an experience of sexual violence is referred to as “disclosure.”

Interestingly, it is more common for survivors to disclose to an “informal” support provider — like a family member or a close friend — rather than “formal” resources like a counselor, campus Title IX offices, or members of law enforcement. This trend may indicate survivors’ distrust of the legal system, frustration toward a culture that frequently fails to hold perpetrators accountable, fear of being blamed for the assault, fear of punishment, or fear that the survivor will be accused of falsely reporting.

Survivors who do choose to disclose tend to be more likely to formally report against their perpetrator, better-equipped to receive the necessary support to engage in their healing process, and more able to place blame on the perpetrator than survivors who keep their experience private. In order to increase the likelihood that survivors report, it is vital that we as a culture improve our responses to survivors who come forward, and understand the way that social reactions to survivor disclosures shape the survivors’ healing experience.

Barriers to Reporting

Despite relatively high rates of disclosure to friends and loved ones, survivors report numerous barriers to disclosure, especially barriers to formal reporting. Cited barriers from college students, survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and adult survivors include [8,9]:

Shame, guilt, and embarrassment
Fear of being called gay (particularly salient for men survivors)
Fear of retaliation by the perpetrator
Fear of rejection by their community
Concerns about confidentiality
Fear of being disbelieved or blamed
Lack of knowledge regarding the legal definition of rape or sexual assault
Not labeling the experience as rape or not wanting to define their experience as rape
Self-blame; believing the assault was “their fault”
Receiving an initial negative social reaction to disclosure and not disclosing further due to fear of another negative response
Desiring privacy or not wanting people to know about their experience
Financial dependence on the perpetrator
Not wanting the perpetrator to be prosecuted (especially if the perpetrator is a friend or family member)
Disbelief or lack of confidence in a successful prosecution
Lack of awareness regarding the importance of receiving medical treatment
Lack of knowledge regarding help and resources
Lack of access to resources or few available services
Distrust or dislike of police or the justice system (especially salient for survivors of color)
Cultural or language barriers to obtaining help

Survivors are forced to overcome a wide range of obstacles in order to feel safe and comfortable seeking help, to receive support throughout their process, or to potentially formally report their experience.

Each of the aforementioned obstacles reduces survivors’ likelihood to report to formal resources like law enforcement. In fact, according to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), only about 23 percent of rape cases are ever reported to the police, meaning that the list of above concerns or obstacles could dissuade 77 percent (or more!) of survivors from filing an official report against their perpetrator [10].

So, though most survivors do share their experience with a friend or loved one, most choose not to report through formal channels.

False Reporting (a Brief Review)

One of the largest, most influential obstacles survivors cite to reporting is their own fear of being disbelieved. Survivors frequently choose not to report because they anticipate being accused of lying or experiencing the pain of having their stories invalidated — a form of revictimization referred to in the field of clinical psychology as the “second rape” or the “second assault.”

Unfortunately, this is a valid fear — one that we saw illuminated in the aftermath of the Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford testimonies.

In the context of the Kavanaugh hearings, the internet was flooded with the myth that women frequently falsely report sexual violence. It was hypothesized by social media users and national news outlets that they do so in order to get revenge against their alleged perpetrators, to make money off of wealthy figureheads, to “ruin the reputations” of powerful men, or to gain some form of prestige (though what prestige they are possibly seeking, I do not know). Even President Trump cast public doubt on Dr. Ford’s testimony, inquiring via Twitter why she hadn’t reported immediately after the event (for a list of potential obstacles to her reporting, see above).

Research across the fields of psychology, public health, criminology, and sexual and gender-based violence prevention asserts that instances of false reporting are very rare.

Unfortunately, the myth that individuals frequently falsely report has real, concrete consequences for victims of sexual violence. Research indicates that between 2 and 10 percent of formal reports (reports made to police) may be considered false, while the most reliable review statistic indicates a rate of false reports between 5 and 6 percent [11].

However, literature on false reporting is limited, as definitions of what constitutes a “false report” vary across police precincts. The range of 2 to 10 percent may include reports that aren’t made by the victim themselves, but made by someone other than the victim, such as a relative or partner, on behalf of a victim who may not even be aware of the report.

Additionally, the range may include a combination of intentional misreports and reports that are “baseless” (the attack doesn’t meet the legal criteria of rape in that precinct, but the victim was not intentionally lying or misleading police). Some research indicates that these percentages may include cases in which the police chose to drop a case because they suspected the victim was lying, though they could not definitively prove that they victim was lying.

Similarly, literature suggests that police sometimes classify reports as false when they are skeptical about victims who are mentally ill, gave inconsistent statements, or had been drinking or using drugs, though police were not able to prove that the victims were lying. This points to a problematic trend of disbelief among law enforcement of victims with mental illness or substance abuse problems — two populations at heightened risk for experiencing assault.

Importantly, given research regarding trauma’s impact on the brain, memory, processing, and narrative formation, it is logical that survivors of sexual violence might give conflicting reports as they work to remember, piece together, and communicate their violence experiences.

Survivors and researchers have also reported a trend of police precincts threatening victims with a polygraph test to “prove” their story (a practice that is considered retraumatizing and could intimidate a victim out of reporting), or threatening victims with legal consequences if their report is false, which can frighten actual victims out of moving forward with the reporting process.

Interestingly, literature on actual false reports indicates that false reports commonly follow the stereotypical rape script: the “stranger in an alley” example wherein the perpetrator is unknown to the victim, the perpetrator uses a weapon, the victim struggles, the victim has bruises or signs of injury, the victim is sober, the victim is visibly upset, the victim reports immediately, there is forensic evidence of assault, etc.

Indeed, if an individual were to choose to lie about a crime, it would make sense that they would want their report to look like the perfect example of that crime, in order to enhance believability. However, this does not mean we should begin to doubt reports that follow the stereotypical rape script.

Rather, it indicates that reports featuring more complex characteristics (the victim was intoxicated, the victim froze or didn’t fight back, the victim had a sexual history with the perpetrator, the perpetrator was a friend or acquaintance, the victim reported inconsistent memories or an inconsistent story, the perpetrator did not use a weapon or make verbal threats) should be taken equally seriously by law enforcement.

In order to address the crisis of sexual violence, to hold perpetrators accountable, and to increase survivors’ likelihood to formally report their experiences, it is vital that survivors are not investigated or interrogated, but that law enforcement agents pursue what is called trauma-informed questioning.

Moreover, it is important to note the potential benefits of expressing belief and support of victims — especially that victims themselves may experience less negative health outcomes and may be more likely to file a report against their perpetrator, which keeps their communities safer by proxy.

Survivors who receive responses of belief are less likely to experience self-blame, more likely to label their experience an assault, and more likely to place appropriate blame on the perpetrator. It is worth noting that many sexual assaults are committed by serial perpetrators (that is, perpetrators who will violate multiple victims). So, empowering survivors to bring perpetrators to justice through trauma-informed law enforcement practices may reduce population-level victimization by limiting the opportunities of serial perpetrators to continue causing harm.

A Note to Survivors, From the Author

And now, my wonderful and brave and miraculous loves, I get to turn my focus to you — the people who most deserve these words, this support, and any comfort I can possibly offer.

First, I would like to say what an honor it is to share community with you. As a survivor myself, I know that we frequently carry the burden of advocating for ourselves and our community. I hope that this piece has in some way reduced this burden on you, or helped you to feel seen and heard. It is my privilege to take part in this discussion, and my privilege to draw public attention to our needs. A few words of validation:

You do not owe your stories to anyone. You do not owe the world your narrative, or your pain. Be soft with yourself. Your experience was hard enough – you get to heal in whatever way works best for you. I acknowledge that much of the news coverage of movements like #MeToo have celebrated the survivors coming forward, and that doing so might be harmful to survivors who choose to keep their stories private. Know that this decision is yours, only. Living with your experience is brave.

You don’t need to report it if you are not ready, if that will not be a healing experience for you, or if you choose not to. Your narrative is your own, period.

No one should have to go through the process of reporting without the help of an advocate specifically trained go offer you the necessary support. If you are interested in reporting and would like to access an advocate, check the Resources section below.

You are loved. You are worthy. You are valuable.
I believe you.
I support you.
I am here for you.
You matter.
Regardless of whether you ever choose to share your story – your experience matters.
You deserve kindness, respect, and to be treated with dignity.
You did nothing wrong.
You are not to blame.

Resources

If you are interested in reporting and would like to access an advocate, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) hotline can direct you to these resources, either online or by phone (1-800-656-4673).
For self-care resources on coping with trauma, click here.
To learn more about trauma-informed victim interviewing, click here.

Read Also

Want to support women? Check out this FREE Course.

Women are being sexually harassed and assaulted in and out of the gym — and we need your help!

Interested in helping? If so, we’ve created a FREE course just for you!

→ Get access now, and start whenever you’re ready:

Get Your First Lesson

References

The post Why Believing Sexual Violence Survivors Is Evidence-Based (and Important!) appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

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GGS Spotlight: Maria Lara

2018-12-09T06:34:00.001-08:00

Name: Maria Lara
Age: 42
Location: San Antonio, TX

What does it mean to you to be part of the GGS Community?
Girls Gone Strong is an amazing and diverse community of ladies I’m proud to be a part of. There are so many different types of ladies on their own journey, and we can support and cheer each other on. Having like-minded friends and support is always great to have.

How long have you been strength training, and how did you get started?
I have been strength training on and off since I was in middle school. For several years in my 20s, during college, a friend and I were consistent enough to lose some weight, but we didn’t maintain it, and soon parted ways.

Around 2009 I discovered kettlebells, and I was amazed by this incredible tool. I tried to use it with little instruction, but I knew something wasn’t right because it would make my back hurt. In 2013, I was in introduced to Lean & Lovely by (GGS co-founder) Neghar Fonooni. This beautifully muscular lady had created a program for ladies with my new favorite tool! I was hooked and happy to have proper instruction.

Shortly after, I was curious how many other strong ladies there were out there using kettlebells. I ran across Artemis Scantalides, StrongFirst Team Leader, and followed her for a bit before subscribing to her workouts. Everything then became StrongFirst, and I learned more about the organization.

In summer 2017 I asked Artemis if she thought I could do the Tactical Strength Challenge with StrongFirst in October. She said, “Maria, YES!” She wrote a program for me, and in less than 12 weeks I increased my deadlift by 50 pounds!

My husband and I drove down to Hardstyle KBJJ owned by my friend, Hector Gutierrez, Senior SFG, in Corpus Christi, TX. That day was magical because I felt the support and camaraderie of the StrongFirst instructors and students around me and was ready for more! I remember filling out the “Athlete Form” thinking I’ve never been an athlete in my life! Hector said, “You’re an athlete now!”

A few short weeks later I had the pleasure of meeting Karen Smith, StrongFirst Chief SFB, Master SFG, at the one-day kettlebell course in Austin. I had a blast and learned so much. I knew I had to pick a date for my certification and go for it.

Working with both Artemis and Karen, with additional help from Hector and other SFGs, I’ve been training for my kettlebell instructor certification for almost a year, as I prepare for the weekend of December 7-9, 2018 in Dallas.

What does your typical workout look like?
Warm-up with T-spine and lat mobility, foam rolling. Kettlebell get-ups, swings, presses, cleans, squats, and snatches in some variation. A few other exercises to increase strength and endurance.

Favorite lift:
Kettlebell swings and deadlifts.

Most memorable PR:
231-pound deadlift (105 kg) in October 2017 at the StrongFirst Tactical Strength Challenge.

Top 5 songs on your training playlist:
No specific songs, but usually Tiesto, Depeche Mode, Ricky Martin, Prince, with a little comedy from Gabriel Iglesias and Bill Engvall.

Top 3 things you must have at the gym or in your gym bag:
Water, music, and chalk.

Do you prefer to train alone or with others? Why?
I train alone at home. I’ve gotten used to it and it helps me focus. If I have everything I need at home, I don’t have to drive to the gym, and I can train anytime.

Most memorable compliment you’ve received lately:
I am seeing a chiropractor for an old childhood back injury that flared up. He was checking my movement and asked me to squat. He asked, “Do you have any weight training background or anything? Because you have great squat technique!”

Most recent compliment you gave someone else:
“That color looks good on you,” to a random person at the grocery store.

Favorite meal:
Pizza!

Favorite way to treat yourself:
Massage, pedicure, and relaxing.

Favorite quote:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”
“Love each other.”
“Do to others as you would like them do to you.”

Favorite book:
The bible.

What inspires and motivates you?
My family, friends, other badass ladies.

What do you do?
Neurology research at a military hospital. We work with service members who have had a traumatic brain injury to try to improve their quality of life post injury.

What else do you do?
I love food, eating and cooking, but I’ve always enjoyed baking. I love dogs; they are my kids. I also enjoy crochet and other creative things.

Describe a typical day in your life:
Get up, get dressed, pack lunches for my husband and myself, cook us a quick breakfast, then off to work. After work, home to cook dinner. I like to plan out my meals every two weeks so I can speed things up. I train in the evenings after dinner is done.

Your next training goal:
To earn my SFG certification.

For what are you most grateful?
My family, friends, and my relationship with the Lord.

Of what life accomplishment do you feel most proud?
I value education, so anything I’ve learned, whether formally or informally.

Which three words best describe you?
Caring. Thoughtful. Tenacious.

How has lifting weights changed your life?
I can do more things, and I have better endurance. My husband asks me to help him lift things like his kayak. It hangs on the wall when not in use, so it takes two to hang it and take it down.

What’s the coolest “side effect” you’ve experienced from strength training?
Just being stronger is pretty cool! Feeling that kayak getting lighter.

What do you want to say to other women who might be nervous or hesitant about strength training?
Find a good instructor and learn basic movements first. You certainly don’t want to get injured. Strength is awesome, but it’s important to do it safely.

Don’t be afraid to try. I’ve often shocked myself when I looked at the weight and thought, “I wonder if I can lift that?”

Once you’re comfortable with the movement, pick up something challenging. It won’t do much if it’s not heavier than your purse. And most of all, enjoy the stronger version of you!

You can connect with Maria on her Facebook page!

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Intuitive Eating: Myths and Realities

2018-12-05T18:36:00.001-08:00

Due to intuitive eating’s rise in popularity over the last few years, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of it before. Perhaps you’ve seen a personal trainer dismiss intuitive eating as an excuse to gorge on junk food and never exercise. Or maybe you’ve read a blog post from a nutrition coach heralding intuitive eating as an amazing weight-loss method.

No matter how the phrase came into your vocabulary, it’s likely that you’re confused about what exactly intuitive eating is and whether or not you should care.

Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to eating and living that centers on eating in a way that makes you feel good (as opposed to eating to look a certain way).

Where a diet might say, “This diet is the answer to your problems,” intuitive eating would say, “You have all the answers you need inside of you already.” The practice of intuitive eating teaches you how to tune into your body’s innate wisdom around food and movement to figure out what and when you should be eating.

The idea of using your intuition to guide your eating may seem scary, confusing, or downright ridiculous. But remember, we were all born intuitive eaters. As children, we ate with curiosity and interest. We asked for food when we were hungry, and we refused to eat any more when we were full. We ate the foods we enjoyed while ignoring the ones we didn’t (much to our caregivers’ frustration).

It was only when we were indoctrinated into a culture of dieting and body obsession that we started to make decisions about our eating based on external factors instead of internal ones. So the basis of intuitive eating is more familiar than you think, and it’s something you can work your way back to with practice and patience.

Unlike diets with strict rules, intuitive eating has more wiggle room in its interpretation and execution. In fact, that’s what’s so wonderful about it. But as a result of that flexibility, it has been easy for some to reject intuitive eating as unhealthy or unrealistic, or to co-opt parts of intuitive eating without truly understanding the whole method.

I see some of the most common misconceptions about intuitive eating repeated frequently, so let’s set the record straight.

Myth: Intuitive Eating Has No Structure and Leaves People to Fend for Themselves

Reality: Intuitive eating has a flexible structure that allows people to tailor it to their individual needs.

While it’s true that intuitive eating is not based on hard and fast rules like diets are, the creators of intuitive eating, dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, based it on ten principles which act as guidelines [1].

The ten principles for eating intuitively include:

Rejecting the diet mentality.
Honoring your hunger.
Making peace with food.
Challenging the food police
Respecting your fullness.
Discovering the satisfaction factor.
Honoring your feelings without using food.
Respecting your body.
Exercising to feel the difference.
Honoring your health through gentle nutrition.

When first beginning to practice intuitive eating, the ten principles are especially helpful. As time goes on, the guidelines leave room for you to find what works best for you and adapt them to your own preferences.

Eating intuitively can be a challenging method to adopt at first if you have a history of dieting, disordered eating, or eating disorders. If that’s the case for you, I recommend working with a doctor, therapist, dietitian, or coach who specializes in intuitive eating to help provide guidance and support.

Myth: Intuitive Eating Is a Free-for-All Excuse to Eat Whatever You Want, Whenever You Want

Reality: While you could technically eat whatever you want, whenever you want as an intuitive eater, intuitive eating is about honoring what your body needs to feel its best.

When people first begin to loosen the diet reins and practice eating intuitively, they often overeat foods that they have been restricting. This makes complete sense psychologically, and it’s also the reason people get caught in the binge and restrict cycle.

We restrict foods until our willpower gives out, and then we binge on them until we feel so guilty and ashamed that we start the process all over again. The difference with intuitive eating is that you’re giving yourself unconditional permission to eat the foods that you have restricted in the past — for good.

At first you may overeat those foods because your body is waiting for the restriction that it believes will be coming. This can be a particularly precarious time if you’re just starting out with intuitive eating. It’s easy to convince yourself that you’re addicted to certain foods, can’t be trusted, and would be better off dieting when you can’t seem to stop yourself from eating copious amounts of carbs.

But if you stay the course and continue to remind yourself that no foods are off limits to you and that you can have any food you want at any time, your brain will get the message and stop sending the “Eat all the carbs!” signal. Eventually you’ll get the, “I’m finally tired of carbs and would really like some veggies” signal, or your brain’s variation of that.

I know that it’s hard to believe your body is capable of balancing out your food intake without outside rules, but with faith and practice you will surprise yourself. There is a middle ground between restrictive dieting and eating a whole box of donuts.

Myth: I’ll Definitely Gain Weight If I Allow Myself to Eat Intuitively

Reality: While intuitive eating is not a weight-loss method, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll gain weight if you practice it.

If you’ve ever heard someone suggest using intuitive eating as a method for weight loss, understand that they are entirely missing the point. In fact, intuitive eating requires putting weight loss on the back burner. And that’s because it’s both difficult and confusing to pursue weight-loss goals while also trying to heal your relationship with food and learning to eat according to your body’s signals.

Changing the way you eat can lead to weight change, but there’s no way to know how that change will manifest in your unique body (if it does at all). Changes to your body’s weight are determined by many factors, including your natural set point weight range, genetics, hormones, movement, your individual history of dieting, and more.

Part of the intuitive eating process is letting go. Letting go of unrealistic expectations for your body. Letting go of unhealthy views of food and exercise. But letting go doesn’t mean you’re giving up on yourself; it means you’re learning to let yourself be.

Remember, the pursuit of weight loss isn’t going anywhere. You can always go back to it if you decide intuitive eating isn’t for you. But wouldn’t it be nice to not be chasing weight loss for once and to focus on how you feel instead?

Myth: Intuitive Eaters Don’t Care About Exercise and Nutrition and Are Setting a Bad Example

Reality: Exercise and nutrition are a part of the intuitive eating principles, but they come later in the process.

In traditional diet culture, exercise and nutrition are tools of punishment. They are used to achieve “goodness” and superiority. In intuitive eating, the goal is to move away from those dogmatic and obsessive portrayals of exercise and nutrition in favor of something that looks more like self-care than self-control. But it’s important to work on healing your relationship with food and your body first.

Once you’ve practiced intuitive eating long enough to feel more comfortable with it, then you can begin to think more about which foods make you feel your best, are the most satiating, and give you the most energy. At that point you can also start to shift your relationship with exercise to one that brings you joy and isn’t based on burning a certain amount of calories or losing a specific amount of weight.

This process does require caution so as not to get sucked back into diet culture. When done correctly, reintroducing nutrition and exercise into your life in a more sustainable and caring way can transform your relationship with your body and help you redefine what health means to you.

Myth: Listening to Your Body Means Ignoring Your Brain

Reality: Your brain and body must work together to eat intuitively and feel your best.

With so much emphasis on the importance of listening to hunger and fullness cues, I can understand why some people think that intuitive eating requires you to follow those cues without any other input. But our brains and bodies come as a pair, and consequently, they make decisions together.

For example, maybe it’s mid-afternoon and my body is telling me I am only hungry enough to have a small snack. I also know that I have a meeting for several hours in the evening that will keep me from having dinner when I typically get hungry for it. In that case, my brain would probably suggest that I ignore my current hunger level and eat a larger snack or small meal so that I won’t be too hungry during my meeting.

Or perhaps I’m stuck at the airport for several hours for a layover and I can’t find anything to eat that will truly satisfy me. I would most likely choose something subpar to eat until I could get to a location with better options, rather than eat nothing at all.

Just because intuitive eating helps you gain back the mental bandwidth you were previously using to think obsessively about food, exercise, and your body, doesn’t mean you completely shut off your brain. Eating according to more flexible guidelines requires you to make judgment calls and to learn from them.

Diets may be easier in the short term, but intuitive eating will bring you peace in the long run.

The concepts behind intuitive eating are simple enough to understand, but in a world caught up in dieting they can be tricky to execute. Intuitive eating goes against everything we’ve been taught to believe about food and our bodies, whereas diets give us clear cut rules to follow, which can be appealing.

However, between the two, intuitive eating is the only choice that will build sustainable habits to make eating more enjoyable throughout the rest of your life. The temporary discomfort of learning new concepts while unlearning harmful ones will be well worth it if you stick with it.

So where should you start if you want to give intuitive eating a try? The key is to begin the work of reconnecting with your body and its cues.

To do that, you’ll first have to leave the false promises and restrictive rules of dieting behind you. Instead, you can start to practice eating more mindfully. See if you can notice when you’re getting hungry. Before eating, ask yourself what kind of food you’re in the mood for, then try to match that with your selection. When you eat, slow down enough to notice the taste, texture, temperature, and smell of your food as you eat it and try to get a sense of when you’ve reached a comfortable fullness. Eat meals sitting down and without distractions when possible.

In general, start asking yourself what it is that your body needs, and try to meet those needs from a place of self-care and respect for your body. At first you may have no clue and feel silly even trying to figure out your body’s needs. But as you start to listen more closely and pay attention to how your body responds to things, it will get easier. Remember — there is no one right way to “do” intuitive eating. It looks a little different on everyone.

To practice intuitive eating is to go on a never-ending journey of self discovery to find out how best to care for yourself. It amounts to playing by your own rules and casting aside society’s expectations. And in a world where the current of dieting and restriction runs strong, swimming upstream and eating according to your own body’s wants and needs is a bold and beautiful act.

Reference

Intuitive Eating, 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating, http://www.intuitiveeating.org/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/

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Understanding Depression to Better Support Your Clients

2018-12-03T20:44:00.001-08:00

As a private coach, fitness trainer and writer, I realize that depression can be masked. The first time I knew, and I mean knew in my bones that something was really wrong, I was less than half a mile into a run. At the time, I ran 30–50 miles a week. But on that day, I couldn’t shake out the stiffness. The heaviness in my feet and legs made it feel like I was running with wet shoes in the sand. I found myself, standing alongside the road, hands on my knees, trying desperately to will myself on for the rest of the run. Yet, physically, it was all I could do to even get back to my house. And once I got there, I spent the rest of the day on the couch.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nearly one in 12 adults report having depression [1]. Of that total, the prevalence of depression among women is almost double of that seen in men.

It’s very likely that someone that you work with, run with, or go to book club with is facing their own battle with depression.

Not long after that failed run, I was diagnosed persistent depressive disorder (PPD), also called dysthymia, which manifests as episodes of major depression in between long periods of mild to moderate depression.

The Mayo Clinic describes PPD as “a continuous long-term (chronic) form of depression. You may lose interest in normal daily activities, feel hopeless, lack productivity, and have low self-esteem and an overall feeling of inadequacy. These feelings last for years and may significantly interfere with your relationships, school, work and daily activities [2].”

It took me a long time to realize that I didn’t have to feel that way.

The Physical Effects of Depression

In retrospect, it’s not surprising that it was the physical symptoms I experienced that finally led me to a diagnosis of depression. I’d been experiencing the mental effects of depression for years — sadness, worthlessness, trouble sleeping, trouble concentrating — but I always managed to remain physically active, which helped me to cope with my depression, while also masking some of what was really going on.

I assumed that because I could function well enough to at least go for a run every day, nothing was wrong. I also assumed that it was always up to me to try harder. This led me to berate myself for not trying hard enough whenever I struggled. With the onset of a major depressive episode however, it was the physical effects that finally pushed me to consult a doctor.

Depression affects people in different ways, and according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a high percentage of patients with depression who seek treatment in a primary care setting report only physical symptoms [3]. Some of those symptoms might include joint pain, limb pain, back pain, and gastrointestinal problems, among others.

As a coach, it’s helpful to remember that there are ways in which depression makes the physical things we ask of our clients that much harder. The strong mind-body connection makes the body feel heavier, the mind feel heavier, and the body hurt. People’s experience of pain increases and it’s important to take these factors into consideration when coaching.

Easing the Stigma to Help People Get Treatment

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, PDD specifically affects approximately 1.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year (about 3.3 million American adults). Only 61.7 percent of adults with PDD are receiving treatment [4].

Fortunately for me, at the time of my failed run, I was already working with a therapist. Anytime she had asked me if I thought I was depressed, my answer was the same: I was in a funk. “What’s the difference between a funk and depression?” she asked. “Well,” I said. “I function.”

“And how’s that working for you?” she asked.

I had always thought that my ability to plod on with my life meant that I wasn’t depressed. I knew from the media and some other people what depression could look like, and I didn’t think it looked like me. I got up every day, showered, exercised, and showed up to work. Sure, I often wished I were dead, so I wouldn’t have to deal with life some days, but didn’t everyone think that? (The answer to this is no — wishing I was dead is a form of suicide ideation — another symptom of depression.)

Like many of us, I grew up in a time and environment where mental health was never talked about — or if it was, the discussion was in whispers. I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, the descendant of coal miners, steel mill workers and farmers who carried a strong blue collar work ethic. To me, that work ethic meant grinding through everything on your own. Go to work when you’re sick, and if you don’t feel like doing something well you just pull yourself up by the bootstraps and do it anyway. We grind through physical pain and never talk about emotional pain.

I believe a big part of reducing the stigma of any mental health struggle is to give those struggles a voice. I decided to tell my story and I’m glad I did. Because if helped even one person to open up and share her story, or better yet, reach out for help, then it is worth the vulnerability of sharing.

What You Can Do to Support Your Clients

Depression is a lonely thing to experience. The trouble is, the more depressed you become, the harder it is to reach out. Anything we can do to make reaching out more accessible will help. As coaches, there are a few things we can implement that fall squarely within our scope of practice.

Create a Safe Space

When I worked in a college environment, faculty and staff members placed rainbow stickers on their office doors so that students could more easily identify a safe space. I often feel like the rest of the world would benefit from similar practices for mental health concerns.

If we are working with a client with an acute injury — a broken foot, a sprained ankle, or plantar fasciitis — we make a plan to work with them around that injury. As coaches, we honor our scope of practice — we refer our clients to a doctor and we work with physical therapists and chiropractors and other professionals in a team effort to provide the best care possible for a client.

In many ways, depression is no different — except that in our society, the stigma of talking about our mental health is so strong.

“The stigma of mental health in our culture and the internal resistance to reach out for help are two of the primary ways that depression continues to progress and really take hold,” says Dr. Lisa Lewis, a licensed psychologist who teaches at Northeastern University in Boston.

A client might feel comfortable enough with you as their coach to tell you that their back is bothering them, but they’re much less likely to mention that they also struggle with chronic depression and anxiety. Unless we make the space safe enough for them to acknowledge that depression.

The most important step I took as a coach was opening up about my own experience with depression — because it allows clients to feel comfortable acknowledging their own struggles to me. This does not mean that I step outside of my scope of practice — but it does mean that clients know that I’ve been there too, and that they can feel free to acknowledge depression or anxiety as part of their overall health, the same way they might acknowledge back pain.

Check In

If you are around a friend or a client whom you know struggles with depression, remember that depression literally “hurts.” If you know that a client is depressed because they have shared this with you, take that into account when you’re working with them. Some days 10 pounds feels like 50, and two minutes on the treadmill feels like a marathon. Keep the lines of communication open and reinforce the fact that your client showed up and that any movement is good movement. Remind them that everything they feel is OK.

Remember that you can be supportive without going into a “counselor” role.

“Don’t be afraid to check in,” says Dr. Lewis. “But also don’t hesitate to turn the attention back to a workout. That is the best way you can help your depressed client and you can be supportive and caring in a boundaried, time-limited way and then keep it moving to the reason why they’re there.”

Someone who suffers from depression often can feel less alone just by a simple check in, and the reminder that they are not walking this wellness journey alone.

Have Some Resources on Hand

I have the business card of at least two therapists that I keep on hand at the gym. It’s a very delicate process to hand someone who is struggling the business card of a therapist, and I don’t always do it. Often, in telling my own story, I’m open about working with a therapist. This self-disclosure alone can lead a client to ask if I know anyone they can contact.

Let Them Know There Is Help Available

If I had one message to share with anyone reading this, it’s that you’re not alone, even though it feels that way. It can feel as if no one understands. It can feel hopeless.

If you or someone you knows needs immediate help or support, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a 24-hour resource; call, chat, or text at 1-800-273-TALK. The Lifeline can also refer you to resources and counseling in your area.

There is help. There is hope. And there is a light that can shine through that darkness.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, Prevalence of Depression Among Adults Aged 20 and Over: United States, 2013–2016. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db303.htm
Mayo Clinic, Persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia). https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/persistent-depressive-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20350929
National Institute of Mental Health, Depression: What You Need to Know. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression-what-you-need-to-know/index.shtml
Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Facts & Statistics, https://adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics

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So You Want to Do a Triathlon?

2018-11-29T04:01:00.001-08:00

I remember when I started lifting consistently and exceeding my expectations of what I could do. I started searching for other types of physical challenges, and contemplated the triathlon.

Could I do it? Would I like it? Is it too much? How would it fit into my lifting?

In wondering if the foray into this hardcore competition is for me or for you, I decided to talk to a couple people who know personally what a triathlon entails.

What Is a Triathlon?

A triathlon is an intense race that encompasses running, biking and swimming — all three in the same race! While the most commonly known is the Ironman, there are actually four major types of triathlons. In order of distance, most triathlons can be categorized as sprint, Olympic, Half Ironman and Ironman.

How Do I Start?

Often, the most likely person to be drawn to a triathlon is already a runner. Because runners are used to those longer distances and training cardio regularly, it is theoretically a natural progression.

Because it’s the shortest and gives an overall introduction to a triathlon, the sprint is recommended as a first-time race by triathlon coach Alison Headley. Typically, a sprint triathlon is comprised of a half-mile swim, 12-mile bike and a 3.1-mile run. If possible, the most ideal first sprint race is an indoor one. Gyms often sponsor indoor sprint triathlons for their members. Having the sprint indoors controls the run, swim and bike environments, making it more approachable.

Now, here’s a little known fact about training for a triathlon: running isn’t the hardest part!

USA Triathlon (USAT) studies have shown that the swim is the greatest problem area. Coach Headley points out that most of us are not prepared to do an open water swim where the water is dark and choppy; we are accustomed to seeing the bottom of the pool or pool walls surrounding us. Furthermore, of all the modes required in a triathlon, the swim requires great form in order to be most efficient, as the resistance of the water demands efficiency to support endurance.

Competitive triathlete Kerry Girona says, “Swimming is easily the most frustrating and demanding from a mental standpoint for me. I spend 5-6 days a week in the water.” Girona’s history is as a longtime competitive runner before she started in triathlons in 2010. She competes in 12-15 triathlons each year since 2016. She attests, “Initially when I started triathlons, I didn’t quite realize just how much of a struggle swimming was. I didn’t realize how slow I was until I got competitive.”

Why Is Swimming So Hard?

Swimming is the most technical discipline of the three. Besides adapting to the outdoor water, a triathlete needs to come to terms with the close proximity of the swimmers around them — people bump bodies regularly. In addition, Coach Headley points out that swimming in a wetsuit is a far different experience than swimming in a bathing suit. For some, the wetsuit can feel extremely constricting.

With biking or running, an athlete simply needs to push harder to go faster. Girona points out that swimming is the opposite, “The best swimmers swim with ease and use minimal effort to go fast.” This is why perfecting one’s technique is so essential for the swim.

What Kind of Training Do I Need?

First and foremost, pick a race and sign up. The commitment will help you mentally focus and create your training schedule.

If you’ve got little to no cardio training in your workouts now, Coach Headley advises giving yourself six months to prepare. If you have some cardio training, she suggests 14 to 16 weeks of triathlon-specific training (that’s three to four months), considering the complex scheduling required.

Once you’ve got your timeline scheduled, your focus will be to train twice a week in each mode of race. That means two swims, two runs, and two rides each week. If you can fit it in, two strength sessions would be ideal. Strength training can help reduce the risk of injury, especially in runners.

When training starts, athletes should begin with shorter distances and slowly build each week. For example, in the first two weeks of training, swim distances would be 200-500 yards in the pool. Ideally, as one gets closer to the race, training distances should exceed those of the actual race.

For biking, this could mean starting with 5-mile rides and adding 10 percent each week. For running, one might start with a 1-mile run or walk. As with the swim, the goal is to build so that by the end, training discances exceed race goals. The week before the race will be a taper week.

Girona asserts that for a sprint or Olympic race, one might not need a coach. However, for a half or full Ironman, she believes a coach is essential. Having trained without a coach, and with various coaches as she got competitive, “A great coach changed my life,” she says.

A good coach will look analytically at technique, but also at the emotional and psychological demands of the athlete in this sort of race.

What Kind of Challenges Are There?

As Coach Headley mentioned, the surprising challenge is the difficulty of the open-water swim. She suggests training the swim portion outdoors whenever possible. Girona echoes this sentiment as the swim was and continues to be her greatest challenge.

An equal but non-physical obstacle when training for a triathlon is time management. “Most people underestimate just how much discipline and time training for a triathlon requires,” says Girona. Training is a juggling act of schedules and programming. How does one get in two swims, two runs, two bike rides and two strength workouts all in seven days while also adding in a day or two of recovery?

Most people train a single sport; training to excel in three sports requires time and planning.

Coach Headley advises creating specific days for specific activities, and understanding that in order to get all the practice in, triathletes will need to stack days. This could mean lifting and swimming or biking and running on the same day.

I’m Used to Training for Strength or Hypertrophy — How Will I Adapt?

Strength is essential to combat injury. This statement is supported heavily by Coach Headley and Girona. Coach Headley points out that strength athletes are less prone to injury when competing.

However, in shortening the strength aspect of training and increasing the work in swim, bike and run, athletes will lose muscle mass. Muscles will be lost for a max strength or hypertrophy athlete. In fact, as Girona says, “It’s not uncommon to lose a significant amount of muscle when training for an endurance event. It’s difficult to hold onto all of your muscle if you’re putting in hours of endurance training.”

Strength is important for injury prevention in a triathlon but too much muscle will slow down the athlete. Because of this, athletes who are used to embracing gains in terms of strength and muscle mass may have to shift their during triathlon training.

In conclusion, attempting a triathlon is not the same as trying a marathon. With three disciplines to master, all of which require a significant juggling of scheduling and practice, the triathlon takes pointed focus and devotion. The sprint is the easiest race to get a taste of a triathlon, and an indoor one specifically. Preparing for a race like this requires a sacrifice of personal time, and possibly family time. However, accomplishing a triathlon is commendable human feat!

Alison Headley is a certified triathlon coach who also works for marathoners and half marathoners. Find her on Facebook at TRIumph Coaching LLC. She’s been a triathlete for 10 years and a lifelong runner.

Kerry Girona is a ranked competitive triathlete, triathlon coach, and personal trainer. She is the owner of Orlando Fit Body Bootcamp. She’s been competing since 2016 and devotes 13-20 hours a week to training. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook.

A message from GGS…

Understanding how to get more results in less time so you actually enjoy exercise and can have a life outside of the gym isn’t hard, you just have to understand the Blueprint and be willing to trust the process.

If you'd like to know:

How much you should exercise
What to do for exercise
How to put it all together into a plan that works for YOU

The good news? It's simpler than you think!

Tell me how!

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Why You Have “Tight” Hips and What to Do About It

2018-11-27T05:31:00.001-08:00

You might have experienced hip stiffness and discomfort after a challenging workout, long car ride, or sitting at your desk for several hours. Given that this is common challenge for fitness professionals and their clients, it’s beneficial to understand the underlying causes of hip tightness, how to address it, and how to identify if you should seek medical advice for the issue.

Anatomy of the Hips

To understand the causes of hip tightness, it helps to you where your hips are located.

Many people use the term hips as a general way to refer to the area around the pelvis. Anatomically however, your hip is defined as a ball and socket joint, where the head of the femur (or thigh bone) fits into a rounded socket called the acetabulum. The acetabulum is where the ischium, ilium, and pubis, or bones of the pelvis meet.

The articulating surfaces of the hip joints are covered in smooth cartilage, which allows the bones to glide against each other with ease during movement. The hip is surrounded by ligaments, tendons, and muscles, which hold the bones in place and prevent it from dislocating. Your hips support the weight of your body when standing, walking, running, and squatting and are responsible for the movement of your upper legs.

Spatially, you can also think of your hips as the creases, created when you sit, between your upper leg bones and the front of your pelvis. If you’ve ever experienced hip stiffness or discomfort, it was probably located around this area. Sometimes, this will also be described as tight hip flexors.

Potential Causes of Hip Tightness

While many people will describe hip discomfort or stiffness as tightness, it’s important to note that tightness isn’t a clinical term and can’t be quantified and measured. However, there are several factors that can contribute to what is often described as hip tightness.

In some cases, there is an underlying condition that is causing hip stiffness or pain. Some of these conditions include arthritis, bursitis, tendonitis, and hip labral tears. If you experience audible clicking, grinding, or ongoing pain and stiffness in your hip, which doesn’t get better with rest, then it’s recommended that you consult a medical provider for a diagnosis and treatment.

However, many of us will experience mild to moderate hip tightness without there being anything wrong with the joint. In this case, the experience of tightness is often the result of not using our hips in their fullest range of motion, and weakness or instability around the joint.

This happens because for most of us modern life requires that we sit for at least part of our day. While sitting isn’t inherently bad for your hips, if you sit in one position for long periods of time, it means that you are only using your hips in a limited range of motion.

Furthermore, you are only strong in the ranges of motion that you use on a regular basis. If a large percentage of your day is spent sitting or standing in a single position, it makes sense that your hip muscles will be weaker in the ranges of motion that go beyond those positions, which you don’t use as frequently.

It is believed that your nervous system will send a signal of stiffness or discomfort when it senses weakness around a joint to protect you from moving into a range that you can’t control, which could result in injury. Your nervous system might also send these signals when it has difficulty sensing where a joint is in space. This is sometimes referred to as a loss of proprioception and has been associated with assuming repetitive postures such as sitting [1].

This is also why stretching doesn’t always create lasting relief from hip tightness. In many cases, the issue isn’t caused by short or tight muscles, and it is possible to feel tight while having normal range of motion in the hips. In this scenario, feelings of tightness may be due to weakness and lack of movement around the hip joints.

How to Address Hip Stiffness

As mentioned above, you should consult a medical provider if you experience chronic hip pain or stiffness that doesn’t resolve with rest or worsens over time. However, many of us can use movement as a way to reduce feelings of tightness and discomfort.

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, here are some approaches that you can explore to address hip stiffness.

Foam Rolling, Massage, and Soft Tissue Release Work

While foam rolling or massaging your tissues won’t make your muscles longer, it can create some relief if you feel stiff and sore after a challenging workout. Foam rolling also creates a temporary increase in range of motion or flexibility, which you can use to prepare your body for exercise. However, to maintain these changes, you will want to follow up with strength work to teach your body how to use and control this newfound range of motion.

Stretching

Much like foam rolling and massage, static stretching can improve flexibility and decrease feelings of tightness or discomfort. However, if you already have a lot of flexibility or if stretching doesn’t relieve the symptoms, you might want to consider layering in strength and mobility work to train your body how to control the flexibility that you’ve created by stretching.

Mobility and Stability Drills

You can think of mobility drills as dynamic stretching where you move your hips through full ranges of motion. These exercises usually involve little to no weight and can increase body awareness and control through the hips. Stability exercises are also typically unloaded and focus on training the smaller postural muscles that help track your joints when you move. Oftentimes, increasing stability will improve mobility. Some examples of pelvic stability exercises include neutral bridging, side leg lifts, bird dogs, and dead bugs.

Strength Training

As mentioned above, sometimes weakness can manifest as stiffness. Exercises such as deadlifts, squats, step-ups, and lunges require moving the hips through large ranges of motion with control. This can help increase body awareness, improve mobility, and strengthen the muscles around the hips to support the joints.

In Conclusion

Hip stiffness can stem from a variety of places and the best approach for addressing it is an individualized one. However, if you are unsure of where to start, a good general guideline is to move and strengthen your hips in all directions. This would mean choosing exercises that involve hip flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, internal rotation, and external rotation. This might look like practicing stability and mobility exercises as part of your warm-up and then following up with lower body strength work.

If you try some of the suggestions outline above, notice what seems to decrease stiffness in the moment and how you feel the next day. This can give you insight on what works well for your body and what doesn’t seem to be as effective. Overtime, you can use this information to figure out what your best options for both workouts and recovery might be and to better understand how your body responds to different types of exercises and self-care tools.

Resources

Dr. Greg Lehman, Reconciling Biomechanics With Pain Science, Recovery Strategies – Pain Guidebook, http://www.greglehman.ca/pain-science-workbooks/

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GGS Spotlight: Lysanne Richard

2018-11-24T19:26:00.001-08:00

Name: Lysanne Richard
Age: 37
Location: Montreal, Canada

What does it mean to you to be part of the GGS Community?
I’m happy to see that women’s image is evolving, and that having self-confidence and surpassing ourselves is valued now more than ever.

I’m proud to see all the diversity that’s highlighted, and that each woman’s authenticity is encouraged.

How long have you been strength training, and how did you get started?
It has almost always been a part of my life. My mother tells me that for Christmas, as a kid, I would ask for mats and weights to exercise! I started diving during my childhood, and joined a specialized program in high school. That’s when gymnastics also became a part of my training.

Later, I studied at the National Circus School, and strength training was also part of my program. When I was working at Cirque du Soleil, I loved having access to the gym there and taking the pilates classes that were offered.

I’m a mom of three, and after the birth of each of my children, I enjoyed stroller cardio classes before getting back into circus and diving. For the last few years, I’ve specialized in high diving, and strength work is a major part of my training.

What does your typical workout look like?
A lot of my training takes place at the Institut national du sport du Québec. Cory Kennedy, my trainer, is amazing and I love working with him and having access to the state-of-the-art technology that’s available at the gym. While my training is varied, diving requires a special focus on the core and the legs, to allow me to perform as solidly as I can, reduce the risk of injury and jump high!

In addition to diving-related training, I also do Essentrics and ballet. I mostly commute by bike as well, and take part in many physical activities with my family, such as obstacle course races.

Most memorable PR:
Having been able to come back in strength after a serious injury! I was out of the competition circuit for almost two years after suffering from a cervical disc hernia with severe nerve compression. For several months, I couldn’t move my right arm.

Rehab was long and difficult. I had to be patient and work very hard. Finally, in 2018, against all odds, I’m back doing high diving and taking international podiums.

Training was key to my success, and it’s thanks to it that I gained back the strength to endure the impact that comes with the sport. In high diving, we hit the water at around 80 km/h (50 mph), and our muscles must be ready to deal with this shock — they’re our only protection. In the air, there’s only us, in a swimsuit!

Top 3 things you must have at the gym or in your gym bag:
My water bottle, resistance bands and kettlebells.

Do you prefer to train alone or with others? Why?
There are positives to both options. I like variety: sometimes alone, sometimes in a group.

Most embarrassing gym moment:
When I was at the National Circus School, I did a split jump and split the entire crotch of my pants!

Most memorable compliment you’ve received lately:
My diving coach writing to me to tell me I’m the best. It feels especially good coming from someone who knows both my strengths and my weaknesses.

Most recent compliment you gave someone else:
Telling my husband I find him incredible. When I leave for competition, he holds the fort, takes care of our three kids, and encourages me as well. I’m very lucky to have so much support and I’m very grateful for him.

Favorite meal:
Anything with vegetables! I’m a vegetarian, which is in line with my values and helps me feel good.

Favorite way to treat yourself:
I absolutely love lattes! I vary the type of milk (almond, soy, etc.) but taking a break during the day with the comfort of a great coffee is a moment I always appreciate greatly.

I also love meditation and it’s part of my daily routine.

Favorite quote:

“To a valiant heart, nothing is impossible”

I believe every person contains infinite possibilities, and that if we really want something and that we give ourselves the means, we can achieve anything.

What inspires and motivates you?

I like being a model of courage and determination for my children, and having the opportunity to inspire other people as well.

What do you do?
I’m a professional high diver and world cup champion. I hold three titles as well as several podiums on the Red Bull Cliff Diving circuit. I’m also a diving analyst on television, a public speaker, a stuntwoman and a circus artist.

What else do you do?
I enjoy doing activities with my family, like picnics, bike rides, crafts, obstacle races, etc.

Describe a typical day in your life:
There’s hardly any typical day in my life! As a freelancer, I have to adapt to very variable schedules between stunts, speaking engagements, television appearances, etc. Also, being a mother of three means I have to be ready to face the unexpected, as well as being involved with school and daycare.

I also have to adapt the intensity of my training according to my competition calendar, as well as my trainers’ availability. Still, barring any special circumstances, a typical day could look like this:

Wake up at 6 a.m., and take a moment for meditation and gratitude. Wake up the kids, prepare breakfast, brush teeth, etc. Take my bike and do drop-offs at school and daycare, then keep going to the sports complex where I work and do my in-pool training. After lunch, take my bike to a different training center for ballet, Essentrics and/or strength training. Bike home and take care of homework, lunches and whatever needs to be ready for the next day with the kids. Dinner, baths, and bedtime routine for the kids. More work for me (writing blogs, preparing speaking engagements, etc.), and then bedtime for me!

Your next training goal:
I’m still working on regaining all my muscle strength, because I’m still not quite as powerful and dynamic as I was before my injury.

For what are you most grateful?
My family and the opportunity I have to live a different and exciting life.

Of what life accomplishment do you feel most proud?
Being both a mother of three and a world cup champion in an extreme sport.

Which three words best describe you?
Determined. Courageous. Positive.

Tell us about a time when you overcame fear or self-doubt.
Every time I’m standing on the platform, twenty meters above ground, I have to be stronger than my own fear, which is always present. But I’m so prepared that I know that my physical and mental strength can conquer this fear, and that I can succeed.

How has lifting weights changed your life?
I learned to overcome the fear that I wouldn’t be strong enough for certain challenges.

I learned that, by taking it one step at a time and using the right tools, nothing’s impossible.

What’s the coolest “side effect” you’ve experienced from strength training?
Training allows me to be strong enough to pursue my passion, which is high diving. It also allows me to feel increasingly young, even though the years go by.

What do you want to say to other women who might be nervous or hesitant about strength training?
When there’s a will, there’s a way.

The secret is choosing realistic goals for the short, mid and long terms.

Take the time to enjoy the process, to be proud of yourself, and to savor every small victory.

All photos © Jean-François Savaria. Video courtesy of Red Bull.

You can learn more about Lysanne on her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Instagram.

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How to Talk to a Loved One About Alcohol

2018-11-22T05:12:00.001-08:00

Drinking alcohol is common. In the United States, for example, the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that more than 86 percent of people 18 and older have drank alcohol at least once in their lifetime, and over 50 percent reported they drank some in the last month [1].

Many people can enjoy alcohol without negative physical, psychological, or social consequences. In other words, these individuals can “drink in safety.” Others, however, can drink too much, too fast, or too often, and these patterns of alcohol consumption can lead to negative consequences.

It can sometimes be hard to know for certain if a friend’s or family member’s relationship with alcohol is safe, or if it might be problematic. Even more confusing is knowing how — or even if — to talk about alcohol with someone you care about, if you’ve been concerned about their drinking.

If your interest was piqued by the title of this article, the short answer is yes, you should talk to your loved one. This is an easy answer, because alcohol can be extremely detrimental to both physical and psychological health, as well as careers and relationships. To put it bluntly, alcohol can cause death.

For example, more than 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes every year, and it is the third leading cause of preventable death, just behind smoking and sedentary lifestyles [2].

Despite this easy affirmative answer, it may not feel easy for those of you who are uncomfortable bringing up friend’s or a family member’s drinking. If your aunt or best friend had a nasty cough, would you ask about it? No problem! It would be normal to express concern and wonder if they had seen their doctor. If your workout buddy or office mate was walking with a limp, or kept rubbing their knee, would you ask if they were in pain? Of course!

But talking about alcohol use often feels “different” for those of us who worry about a loved one’s drinking. This is because much like mental illness, problematic behavior around alcohol is stigmatized, and talking about it can sometimes evoke feelings of guilt and discomfort in both yourself and the person you care about. As a result, you may feel hesitant to speak up.

Please, say something anyway! Regardless of what kind of evidence you have to support your worries, your feelings of unease and your desire to check in about it is evidence enough that you should talk with the person you’re concerned about. Not their significant other, not their roommate, not even the other friends in your circle of friends — the loved one themselves.

Here are some ideas for how to talk to someone you love when you think that alcohol might be a problem.

1. Call a Spade a Spade

You do not need fancy words, research, or anything other than your own experiences to bring up your loved one’s drinking. With empathy and compassion, you can speak directly to the observations you’ve made. For example:

Cindy, I just want to check in with you, because the last three times we’ve gone out, I noticed you had so much to drink that you started slurring your words, and you had to go home early. Then, the next morning you’ve told me you were blacked out on all of those nights. I feel worried that you are drinking too much.

When someone is having trouble with their drinking, they are not objective and will not be able to see their drinking clearly. It may feel confrontational, but if you speak with empathy, your honesty and clarity can help your friend or family member put things into perspective.

In addition, it is common for people who have a problem with alcohol to minimize their drinking, or the effects of their drinking. When you can describe your observations in a black-and-white way, you leave no room for minimization and are helping the person you care about see their drinking more clearly.

2. Have an Idea of What to Do Next

You do not need to solve this problem for your loved one, but if they are open to your feedback, they may respond with “What should I do?” They may not be ready, or willing to make any changes, but if the question gets asked, it will help you to have one or two suggestions for how they can find out more. So here are a few thoughts:

Encourage Your Loved One to Find Out More

It can be helpful to learn about the signs and symptoms of problematic drinking, what constitutes heavy or high-risk drinking, and when someone should seek help. You can be part of the process, or provide a link to information, but either way, encourage them to be an informed consumer.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) offers a free screening tool to assess your pattern of drinking, identify signs of an alcohol problem, and answers common questions about alcohol and alcohol problems.

Recommend Getting Help

The NIAAA offers a free Alcohol Treatment Navigator and lists options for finding help. Your friend or family member should talk to a professional about their drinking. They could see their primary care doctor, but they could also talk with someone who has expertise in alcohol and problems with alcohol.

Some therapists have specialties, or even special credentials in alcohol and drug abuse counseling. These professionals will offer the most expertise, and they often work with people who are questioning their relationship with alcohol.

Suggest Going to Check Out an AA Meeting

Free, anonymous, and often open to the public, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings are widely available in many parts of the world. You can go to AA.org to find local meetings, both online and in person, in addition to loads of free information and literature about alcohol and alcoholism.

If your loved one is open to checking out a meeting, you will want to select a meeting that is “open,” which means open to people who do not necessarily identify as having a problem with alcohol. This will make it more approachable for the person you’re concerned about, and also open to you, if you do not identify as having a problem with alcohol yourself.

In order to find an open meeting, search for meetings in your area, examine the initials listed next to a meeting you’d like to attend, and look for an “O” next to that meeting. This means the meeting is open to all. In addition, there are meetings specifically for women (W), young people (YP), newcomers, and other special groups.

3. Repeat As Needed

Minimization, rationalization, and denial are symptoms of the disease of addiction. If your loved one has a problem with alcohol, count on them responding with these three defenses, and do not back down.

Express your concern each time you feel it. Alcoholism does not only impact the individual drinking, but the people around them. Often, the loved ones of someone with a drinking problem will feel they “shouldn’t harp on it,” or “feel bad” bringing it up repeatedly. These are also symptoms, sometimes referred to as the second-hand effects of alcoholism.

When in doubt, remember that the only reason you’re concerned, reading the article, and planning to talk to a friend or family member, is that you love them! There is no place for feelings of guilt or reluctance. Those hesitancies are the second-hand effects of your loved one’s drinking, and all the more evidence that you should talk to them.

If you need more encouragement, go to any of the links provided in this article, and educate yourself more. Alcoholism is a disease that is chronic, progressive, and fatal; the sooner and more directly you address your concerns about a loved one’s drinking, the better.

Speaking to a friend or family member honestly about their drinking can intervene with alcohol problems that are just developing and curtail the extent of the consequences for alcoholic drinking.

References

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 2015. National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-DetTabs-2015/NSDUH-DetTabs-2015/NSDUH-DetTabs-2015.htm#tab2-41b
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2006-2010. Alcohol and Public Health: Alcohol-Related Disease Impact, Alcohol Attributable Deaths. https://nccd.cdc.gov/DPH_ARDI/Default/Report.aspx?T=AAM&P=f6d7eda7-036e-4553-9968-9b17ffad620e&R=d7a9b303-48e9-4440-bf47-070a4827e1fd&M=8E1C5233-5640-4EE8-9247-1ECA7DA325B9&F=&D

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What Is Kettlebell Sport?

2018-11-20T05:23:00.001-08:00

Did you know you can compete in Kettlebell Sport aka Girevoy Sport (GS)? Whether you want to lift for fun or to become a top kettlebell athlete, there is a place for you in the growing kettlebell sport community.

Kettlebell lifters develop a tremendous amount of coordination, static muscular strength, muscle endurance, power endurance, anaerobic capacity, cardiorespiratory endurance, and mental fortitude. That’s a lot of benefits for your body and mind!

Competition Kettlebells

The steel kettlebells used in GS competitions are different than the cast-iron or vinyl kettlebells you may see in many gyms. Unlike those of cast-iron or vinyl bells, the dimensions and handle sizes of competition kettlebells don’t change as they get heavier. While cast-iron bells are usually black, competition bells are color-coded according to weight.

Kettlebell Sport Lifts

Kettlebell Sport is a power-endurance sport that requires athletes to work under a submaximal load, lifting their kettlebells for as many repetitions as possible in a given time frame. Originating from Russia, the sport has grown throughout the world and has many variations, depending on the organization’s rules and competition formats. Three of the classical lifts are: jerk, snatch, and long cycle.

Jerk

The jerk is performed by cleaning the bell once to rack position — which means rounding your upper back and extending your hips so your elbow can reach your iliac crest or torso, resting the kettlebell in the triangle between your bicep and forearm — then lifting it overhead as many times as possible. The phases of jerk include: first dip (bend your knees while sending your hips forward), bump or triple extension, second dip (get under the bell, push hips back), lockout, and dropping the bell back to rack position.

Depending on the competition format, you can choose to jerk one or two bells.

Snatch

The snatch is performed by swinging the bell to overhead position in one continuous motion. In many competition formats, men and women use only one bell. The phases of a full snatch include: the swing, acceleration pull at the top of the swing, hand insertion, lockout, dropping the bell from overhead, and re-gripping the bell.

In some competitions, lifters can compete in half snatch events. In full snatch, you drop the bell from overhead in one continuous motion, all the way to the swing. In half snatch, you drop the bell from overhead to your rack position, where you can rest before repeating the movement.

Depending on the competition format, you can choose to snatch one or two bells.

Long Cycle

The long cycle, also known as the clean and jerk, is performed by cleaning the bell to rack position then jerking it overhead. The phases of long cycle include: clean, rack, first dip, bump or triple extension, second dip, lockout, and dropping the bell back to rack position.

Depending on the competition format, you can choose to clean and jerk one or two bells.

An Endurance Sport

The goal of kettlebell sport is to perform as many accurate repetitions possible within a given time frame. Lifters are assigned to a platform; a judge and a counter are assigned to each lifter, to record the number of reps and determine the accuracy of each rep. Depending on the competition format, athletes can choose to lift for:

5 minutes, without setting the bell(s) down, only one-hand switch
10 minutes, without setting the bell(s) down, only one-hand switch
5 minutes, with the option of setting the bell(s) down, multiple switches
10 minutes, with the option of setting the bell(s) down, multiple switches
30 minutes (half marathon), without setting the bell down, multiple switches
30 minutes (pentathlon), six-minute set for each of the five lifts, with five-minute recovery in between sets
60 minutes (marathon), without setting the bell down, multiple switches

Kettlebell lifting also emphasizes mobility and technique training that emphasizes efficiency, grip strength, conditioning, and lift-specific breathing cycles.

Events

Competitors can choose to lift in one or more events in a given competition. They can also choose to use one or two bells, and choose their own kettlebell weight. Events can include:

Jerk
Snatch
Long cycle
Biathlon (jerk and snatch)
Triathlon (jerk, snatch, long cycle)
Half-marathon (30 minutes of one chosen lift)
Marathon (60 minutes of one chosen lift)
BOLT Ironman (double snatch, double jerk, double long cycle, single snatch, single jerk, and single long cycle).
Pentathlon (clean, clean and press, jerk, half snatch, and push press)
Timed team relays (jerk relays)

Ranking & Placing

Organizations have various ranking tables, which are similar to the belt system in martial arts. For example, if you hit a certain number of reps within your weight category, your ranking can be Rank 3, Rank 2, Rank 1, Candidate for Master of Sport (CMS), Master of Sport (MS), and Master of Sport International Class (MSIC). This is a good benchmarking tool for your individual progress in the sport. Ranking tables take into account your age and gender, bodyweight category, the weight of the kettlebell.

Placing is different than your individual ranking. When you place first in your event, this means that you scored the most number of reps compared to everyone else in your category (including gender, age group, bodyweight), lifting in the same event with the same kettlebell weight. In addition, some organizations choose to use a formula to determine the top coefficient lifter in each event.

A Great Cross-Training Opportunity

GS training can be integrated into any training program and is especially beneficial for other iron sports (strongman, CrossFit, powerlifting) and combat sports (MMA, boxing, wrestling, judo). Some athletes may choose to train in kettlebell sport during their off-season.

A Sport for Everyone

One of the best things about kettlebell sport is its accessibility — you don’t have to be an elite athlete to pick up this sport. I have seen five-year-olds and 70-year-olds alike, stepping on the platform for the first time. All you need to get started are a few kettlebells, a good kettlebell sport coach, and the patience and focus to develop your technique.

Whether you decide to enter kettlebell sport competitions or simply train for fun in the comfort of your own home or gym, I hope that this article inspires you to pick up a kettlebell and start swinging. Happy lifting!

Infographics courtesy of Chicago Kettlebell Club.

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What Exactly Is Self-Care?

2018-11-14T18:11:00.001-08:00

Self-care has become a popular buzzword over the last couple of years. If you look up the #selfcare hashtag on social media you’ll find almost 10 million posts, showing pictures ranging from pedicures, massages and vacations, to pizza and bottles of wine.

For someone who is trying to get clear on what self-care looks like for them, these posts can make it confusing.

What exactly is self-care? Dr. Kara Mohr, PhD and behavior change expert, defines self-care as follows:

Self-care is taking care of and honoring your body, mind, and spirit in a way that activates your best self.

Self-care choices are those that improve your physical, mental, or emotional health, and move you towards your desired outcome.

Self-care choices move you forward.

What “moving forward” means is something only you can determine based on your personal preferences, desired outcomes, and what you need on each particular day. For example, getting a massage may be a form of self-care that moves someone forward on a given day, whereas doing a challenging training session may be the self-care that moves them forward on a different day.

Contrary to what is often shown on social media, self-care is almost always less glamorous than bubble baths, massages, and pedicures. Something that is often misleading about many of the self-care posts on social media is that true self-care choices aren’t typically the easiest choices.

Examples of self-care:

Choosing nutritious food more often than not.
Drinking enough water.
Turning down a social invitation because you need alone time.
Going for a walk.
Opting for an early bedtime in lieu of another night out.
Pursuing personal development.
Going for annual doctor exams.
Seeking help from a mental health professional.
Refilling your medication, and so much more.

Acts of self-care are an investment in future you.

When Self-Care Turns Into Something Else

While self-care will look different for everyone based on their personal circumstances, it can be easy to confuse self-care with behaviors that aren’t serving your best self, or that may even move you away from your desired outcome.

The Difference Between Self-Care and Self-Comfort

Self-comfort is a type of behavior that is focused on soothing and coping rather than moving us toward our desired goals and direction.

Choices of self-comfort usually involve things that are “easier” in the moment, such as skipping a workout, having another glass of wine when you decided you would only have one, sacrificing much-needed sleep for more television or social media, etc.

Chosen often enough, self-comfort will keep you right where you are, as opposed to moving forward towards your desired outcome.

There isn’t anything inherently wrong with self-comfort, and everyone chooses it from time to time.

The important thing is that you are clear on the possible consequences in order to make an intentional choice.

When Self-Comfort Turns Into Self-Indulgence

Self-indulgence is self-comfort taken to extreme levels. Self-indulgence takes a self-comfort behavior and doubles-down on it in excessive amounts. Where self-comfort is the easy choice, self-indulgence goes all in.

For example, if the self-comfort choice is staying up to watch an extra episode on television instead of going to bed when you’re tired, the self-indulgent choice would be binge-watching several more episodes and going to bed absolutely exhausted which ruins your next day. If self-comfort is having a second brownie, self-indulgence is eating half the pan.

When done often enough, self-indulgent choices move us backward, away from our desired result.

What About Exercise?

Exercise, which is typically viewed as self-care, can fall into the self-comfort, or even self-indulgence category. For example, if a person is using extreme amounts of exercise as a coping mechanism rather than working to get to the underlying issues, it might be self-comfort. Additionally, if a person is participating in extreme amounts of exercise in order to punish themselves for what they ate, exercise may be viewed as self-indulgence.

Only you know for certain if your exercise is serving your best self, in which case it’s an excellent form of self-care.

Choosing Your Self-Care, Self-Comfort, and Self-Indulgence

The purpose in distinguishing between self-care, comfort, and indulgence is to help you get clear on which behaviors serve your best self, and which behaviors may be keeping you stuck where you are, or moving you backwards. Once you’re clear on these, you can make a choice as to what is truly worth it, and what isn’t.

For example, I know that my self-comfort behavior of staying up scrolling social media rather than going to bed is never worth it for me, but having that extra glass of wine when I’m at dinner with friends is almost always worth it. Both of these choices would fall under the self-comfort category.

This article is not intended to be prescriptive or judgmental. Only you know which behaviors serve your highest self and move you forward. Just remember:

Self-care choices move us forwards.
Self-comfort choices, when done often enough, will keep us right where we are.
Self-indulgent choices, when done often enough, will move us backwards.

The choice, whether is be self-care, comfort, or indulgence, is yours to make. Take the time to ask yourself the following questions:

Which behaviors do you participate in that make you feel good and move you towards your desired outcome?
Which choices do you consistently make that provide comfort, but aren’t truly worth it? What are some alternatives that would fall under self-care?
Which behaviors provide comfort, and are absolutely worth it?
Which choices feel a little overboard, and you suspect are moving you away from your goals? What are some alternatives that would better serve you?

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Beyond the Intake Form: Why Coaches Must Do the Work to Know Their Clients

2018-11-13T06:07:00.001-08:00

If you’ve been following and writing for Girls Gone Strong these past few years, you’ve noticed an exciting shift in the GGS community’s conversations. Now more than ever before, trainers and enthusiasts are recognizing that women are more than just bodies, and that a truly inclusive approach to fitness means understanding how race, sexuality, sex, gender, class, etc., shape ideas around — and access to — exercise, food, fitness education, and fitness spaces.

In Who Gets to Be Fit? Working Out the Intersections of Fitness, I briefly discussed intersectionality and how the intersections of our identities creates different experiences of identity for each person.

The concept of intersectionality, as explained by feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, does not simply examine how identities interact with one another, but analyzes the interaction of oppressions. It is important to recognize the difference between the intersection of identities and the concept of intersectionality.

For example, a woman might include her identity as a tall woman as one of her intersections. While being tall might pose some challenges for women, for example, when shopping for clothes, this is not an oppression. Tallness has not historically caused women to be denied a job, experience violence, receive less pay, be politically marginalized, etc.

Understanding that there is a fundamental difference between being inconvenienced and being oppressed is the first step in practicing inclusivity, particularly with your marginalized clients.

Today, at the national level, we are having conversations about race, gender, and sexuality, among others, in ways that are unprecedented and that require that we have cultural literacy in all aspects of our lives and employment.

Having this cultural literacy would help us understand, for example, why after the most recent presidential election, women and people from marginalized communities were experiencing “post-election stress disorder,” as reported by Jennifer Sweeton Psy.D. in Psychology Today [1]. So what, exactly, does this have to do with fitness, and with how we interact with our clients?

Don’t Add to the Burden

As fitness trainers and coaches, you are invested in helping women achieve their health and fitness goals. You do this by getting to know your client and creating custom plans that, we hope, fit your clients’ lifestyles and needs, build their self-esteem, and help them achieve their best results.

However, to work toward a more truly inclusive fitness practice, it is increasingly necessary to go beyond questions about your clients’ goals, nutrition, sleep habits, and basic medical history. We need to be attuned to how the contexts in which our clients live interact with their identities and shape their experiences, fitness and food access, mental health, and motivation. In the midst of this political moment, trainers are asking themselves:

“What more do I need to know about my client in order to better serve them, and how do I get that information?”

While we want to be as knowledgeable as possible about our clients, their experiences, and their communities, we don’t want to burden our clients with relying on them to explain themselves.

Black feminist poet Kate Rushin describes this expectation in The Bridge Poem:

I’ve had enough
I’m sick of seeing and touching
Both sides of things
Sick of being the damn bridge for everybody

Nobody
Can talk to anybody
Without me

Right?

I explain my mother to my father my father to my little sister
My little sister to my brother my brother to the white feminists
The white feminists to the Black church folks the Black church folks
To the Ex-hippies the ex-hippies to the Black separatists the
Black separatists to the artists the artists to my friends’ parents…

Then I’ve got to explain myself
To everybody

Here you get a sense of the layers of translation Rushin engages in as she attempts to explain herself, her family, and the communities that she has to “bridge” in her work as a black feminist.

Though this was written in 1981, it still captures the sentiment of struggle that people, especially women from marginalized communities, are experiencing today. The work of explaining — of bridging — is exhausting work. Indeed, this work of educating those who don’t live on the margins is mentally and physically taxing.

When we expect our clients to do this work of educating us, we are increasing the emotional labor that they may already be engaged in.

As we well know, emotional stress also manifests in our bodies. If doing the work of bridging is also physically taxing, what can we as trainers and coaches do to get to know our clients while not contributing to physical harm?

Read, Listen, Learn

We don’t have to search far to find that women and conscious people of all genders and marginalized identities are sharing their knowledge and making it more available and accessible. They are detailing their experiences as people who are women of color, LGBTQ, disabled, poor, victims of sexual assault, and undocumented. They are giving us access to the realities of living in a world that does not see them as part of the majority or that denies their humanity.

Reading books, stories, and blogs by marginalized folks is one way to acquire more general information about the realities faced by marginalized populations. Importantly, reading with an open mind — and with the willingness to act upon your new knowledge — is essential.

Consider getting involved with local groups organizing around social justice issues. Our sense of “our community” is mostly shaped by who we see the most often.

How do you think others outside your immediate community experience your neighborhood or city? What are the issues affecting their health and safety? Working with local community groups in meaningful ways can make you more knowledgeable about the people around you and can give you opportunities to serve them.

Be prepared to commit yourself to the full duration of a project. Simply “parachuting in” and taking more than what you are prepared to give reproduces the injustices experienced by marginalized communities.

Bring It to the Fitness Industry

Talking with a diverse network of trainers and professionals in the field is critical, as well. There is still a lot of work that needs to happen in the fitness industry to give space to marginalized trainers and coaches and to dedicate more serious conversations to the impact of social and political contexts on our clients’ lives.

If you attend a conference and do not see speakers who look like your clients, raise your voice! If we truly believe that fitness is for everybody, we need to do what we can to create space for other bodies and perspectives.

In our journey to learn, it is important to be open to being challenged and even to feeling hurt.

What we read and hear might challenge our truth system, which shapes the lens through which we see the world and our clients. But as I tell my students in my university classes, we don’t learn in spaces of comfort. Just as we put our bodies through (relative) discomfort to strengthen our muscles and bodies, so do we need to challenge our minds to grow beyond what is familiar to us, and to act upon our new knowledge.

Getting to Know Our Clients Beyond the Intake Form

Before you start asking questions, ask yourself:

Am I asking my clients questions out of curiosity or concern? The questions should be asked in support of the training, not to satisfy your curiosity.
Am I open to being and feeling challenged?
Am I open to making changes within myself?
Am I motivated and prepared to find the appropriate resources for my client?
Have I done what I can to create a climate in which my client feels safe sharing their experiences with me?
Have I done what I can to understand some of the major issues related to my clients’ identities and communities?

Now that you taken personal inventory of yourself, you are ready to start asking your clients more serious questions. Here are some DO’S and DON’Ts for asking questions beyond the intake form:

DO recognize that your client is the authority on their own experience and identity.

Sometimes they may say about themselves that does not align with your assumptions about their identity.

Rather than challenge them, you can say “Thank you for sharing that with me. I’m going to remember that,” or a similar affirming statement.

DO make the purpose of your questions relevant to their training.

Otherwise, they might feel like you want them to be your cultural informant.

DO start some of your question with observations and structure them openly.

For example, if you are concerned about your client’s access to nutritious food, you can say, “I notice that when I’m in different supermarkets, the price of produce changes dramatically. The quality changes, as well. What have you noticed about the produce at your local supermarket?”

Asking for their observations will allow them to prioritize the issues that are most important to them and will give you information about the challenges that they face.

DO express that you are continuously honing your skills as a trainer.

Incorporating a short evaluation at the end of each session will create an environment of openness and will build trust (as long as you are willing to be open to constructive critiques!).

DO NOT attempt to relate to everything your client experiences.

For example, if your client of color describes feeling uncomfortable in an all-white gym, do not attempt to compare your own feelings of discomfort to theirs. Remember the example at the beginning? The social stigma of being tall cannot be compared to their experience of being a person of color. Their feelings are specific to a particular context and history of racism.

DO NOT try to minimize or “explain” their experiences for them.

This can come off as looking like you are trying to defend the person or situation that caused their feelings. Sometimes this turns into a form of gaslighting.

DO NOT impose labels on them that they do not use on themselves.

For example, if your client refers to herself as “Latina” do not refer to her as “Hispanic.” Recognizing clients’ terms for themselves — whether ethnic, racial, or gender identifiers — is a fundamental show of respect.

DO NOT think that just because you may identify with a marginalized identity that you identify with your client.

Be aware of your privileges and the important differences between you and your client.

A Last Word

As trainers and coaches, we must work to improve our social, cultural, and political literacies in order to better serve our clients. It is up to you to decide if you want to more actively know your client beyond the intake form. Every client is different and you can read your relationship, the quality of the community between you and the client, and your client’s progress to determine if there are questions that need to be asked.

But, something that we can all do is be attuned to the world around us and be critically reflexive about our training practices and the efforts we are making to model inclusivity, respect, and compassion.

Resources

Read the GGS articles by Chrissy King, Sonja R. Price Herbert and Steph “Iron Lioness” Dykstra, who write about being women of color in the fitness industry.
Read the GGS articles by Erica Smith and Polly Hawver about questions of gender in the fitness industry.
Listen to podcasts such as the Chocolate Bar Podcast: Our Lives. Our Strength. Our Time., which celebrates women of color in strength sports.
Learn more about marginalized people in fitness through social media accounts such as The Queer Gym, Wrong Is Not My Name: Black Feminist Fitness, and Decolonizing Fitness.
Learn more about fat discrimination in a thin-normalized world thanks to work by experts like Virgie Tovar.

References

Sweeton J, Post-Election Stress Disorder in Women, Psychology Today, November 12, 2016. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/workings-well-being/201611/post-election-stress-disorder-in-women
Rushin K, The Bridge Poem, https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/thebridgepoem.html

The GGS-1 Coaching Certification is the world’s first comprehensive, interdisciplinary, evidence-based, body-positive, women-specific certification for health and fitness professionals. This certification is NOT your “run-of-the-mill” online course. It’s the pinnacle of women’s coaching information and is guaranteed to help you stand out in your crowded field.

Joining the pre-sale list gets you early-bird access when enrollment opens (24-48 hours before it opens to the public), you’ll learn more about the certification, and SAVE $200 when you enroll.

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Coaching & Training Women Academy Spotlight: Diana Edgell

2018-11-11T06:47:00.001-08:00

Name: Diana Edgell
Age: 33
Location: Springfield, VA

What was your first thought when you learned about the Coaching & Training Women Academy and the GGS-1 Certification?
I feel very passionately about the importance of strengthening women. All women, in all ways. I was excited for the opportunity to be a part of a growing movement towards inclusion and education.

What do you do?
I’m a strength coach for teenagers in my area. I also coach gymnastics and cheerleading at the local high school.

What else do you do?
I am a stay-at-home mom to three kids. Although I wouldn’t put that in the “fun” or “hobby” category, it is what takes up a lot of my time.

What I really enjoy doing is connecting with people in any way possible. That could be through strength, personal development, or friendship.

Lately my hobby is a podcast I’ve started with my husband called justOK — a podcast about trying!

Best compliment you’ve received lately:
The best compliment I have received lately is about my voice. In starting our podcast, I’ve heard that people like the way I sound and the ease with which I invite people in and feel comfortable. That’s a new one for me and I’m loving it.

Favorite way to treat yourself:
My favorite thing is a night out with my partner and a few good friends. Getting some delicious food and drinks to accompany deep and meaningful conversation is the best way to fill my heart and soul for the next day.

Favorite quote:
I can’t pick just one…

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” ― Maya Angelou

“Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.” — James Baldwin

Three words that best describe you:
Engaging. Passionate. Courageous.

Favorite book:
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown

What inspires and motivates you?
I am endlessly inspired and motivated by people who do hard things. Someone who makes a courageous decision in the face of difficult and hard consequences.

Vulnerability is beautiful, messy, inspiring, and motivating.

What event or situation in your life lead you to enroll in the GGS-1 Certification?
I have been a certified personal trainer since 2011. I am constantly on the lookout for new ways to strengthen my knowledge and keep the passion alive for training and teaching.

I am heavily involved with the teenage girls in my local area. I wanted to specifically get more insight to help them. I want to be able to have answers when they put their trust in me. I want to assist them in their growth however I can. I felt that the GGS-1 certification was an excellent way to do that.

I believe the rising generation will have a huge impact on the way that women are viewed and treated.

How would you describe your women-specific training knowledge before enrolling in the GGS-1 Certification?
I would describe it as limited. I have spent a lot of time researching and reading what is available but having access to and education from medical professionals, specifically, was an area that needed to be worked on.

Why do you think learning the information that’s included in the GGS-1 Certification is so important to your profession?
Again, working with teenagers is so crucial to how the health, fitness, and overall landscape for women can change going forward.

I think about how little I knew about my own body when I was a teenager, let alone nutrition, or psychology and I just marvel at the advantage that these young women can have, if they have a trusted and knowledgeable adult to teach them.

Now that you’re an official GGS-1 Certified Coach, what impact are you hoping to have?
I hope to be the cheerleader behind the next leaders. I hope I have an impact in supporting and encouraging our next generation to lead us to being more whole humans!

You can connect with Diana on Instagram and listen to her podcast, justOK.

Joining the pre-sale list gets you early-bird access when enrollment opens (24-48 hours before it opens to the public), you’ll learn more about the certification, and SAVE $200 when you enroll.

JOIN NOW

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How to Have Difficult Conversations With Your Clients

2018-11-08T06:14:00.001-08:00

Firing a client.
Ending a romantic relationship.
Addressing staff behavior problems.
Challenging the racist relative at family dinner.
Talking about finances and debt.

The above are but a few examples of difficult conversations we face in life. For the purpose of this article, we will focus only on difficult conversations from the client-coach perspective and how they can impact our work and business. However, becoming better at work-related difficult conversations is bound to have a positive impact on your personal ones as well. Win-win!

What Is a Difficult Conversation?

We can define difficult conversation as a verbal exchange in which we anticipate a number of negative reactions — such as resistance, hurt feelings, anger, or hostility — from our counterparts.

Difficult conversations are painted with a brush of big emotions, typically motivated by strong opinions, entrenched values, and other core beliefs. This is precisely why navigating difficult conversations can be so tricky: they touch deeply personal chords and thus have the ability to threaten or be a source of shame.

In the book Crucial Conversations, authors Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler define these interactions by three determining factors:

Opinions vary
Stakes are high
Emotions are strong

Why Are Difficult Conversations So Scary?

Difficult conversations make most of us shudder because of the perceived danger they imply: almost no one loves the thought of stepping into the proverbial arena and fighting the lion.

In our own life, the lion may be our client’s resistance to admit that their drinking is hindering their weight loss, or their anger when they are informed that a comment they made was inappropriate and will not be tolerated. The process is the same: we fear confrontation.

Our limbic system may be to blame for this fear. The limbic system has been dubbed as our lizard brain for its primitive focus on the simplistic, yet essential, basic needs of life: survival, feeding, and reproduction.

Specifically, our amygdala sits in charge of emotion, addiction, mood, and many other mental and emotional processes. Here is where our fight, flight or freeze response kicks in at the first sight of a perceived threat.

Enter difficult conversations and why we sabotage them, hold back from them, and avoid them at all cost:

What if they get mad at me?
What if they yell?
What if they no longer like me for bringing this up?
Will they go off on a rage?

All of the above are perceived threats. Amygdala overdrive! Thank, you lizard brain. Now take a seat.

Difficult Conversations: A New Perspective

Here is a healthy dose of reality: difficult conversations cannot be avoided forever. If you must step up and conduct them, why not do so gracefully and in a way that is beneficial to all parties involved?

Difficult conversations are the backbone of all relationships.

If becoming skilled at difficult conversations will make you a better coach, boss, partner and parent, isn’t it worth the time and effort to master the skill? We certainly think so!

Confrontation Does Not Have to Equal Conflict

Perhaps the most liberating perspective to be gained is this: confrontation does not have to equal conflict.

We can confront things that bother us without the conversation ending in a fight. We can address pain points without being disliked by our counterparts. We can communicate effectively and respectfully, in a way that leaves all parties feeling heard.

Once we realize that difficult conversations have the potential to be a driving force toward positive change, we become more willing to lean in and have those conversations — the right way. There’s much to be gained from this practice.

Who knows, you might even end up becoming one of those unique people who actually enjoy and dive right into difficult conversations! Hey, it happened to this author; it could happen to you, too!

Success in a Difficult Conversation

Success of a difficult conversation can be achieved by keeping in mind the following pointers:

Avoid Speaking in Absolutes

Words like never, always, every time, everything, and nothing are rarely true, and they quickly undermine the quality of the conversation. They can cause your client to become defensive and focus on listing off the times they have indeed complied — hardly the outcome you desire.

Instead of “You never follow my recommendations,” try “Sometimes my recommendations aren’t followed, and I’m wondering what changes we can make to better your adherence.”
Instead of “Every time I ask for your food journal you have an excuse,” try “I’ve noticed logging your food journal has been difficult, and I’d like to help in making that process easier for you.”
Instead of “You always drink during the week,” try “I believe drinking has remained a challenge, and I’d like to explore how we can improve that for benefit of your goals.”

Approach the Conversation With Curiosity and Openness

If you’re functioning from a standpoint of wanting to be “right,” you’re already setting yourself up for failure. Aim for problem-solving, rather than right vs. wrong dynamics. Remain receptive to what the other person has to say. Information may arise that changes what you believed to be true, and you can only discover this by being open.

Instead of “This is the way it should be,” try “I’d like to hear your input: how do you think we should go about this?”
Instead of “If you want to reach your goals, this is what has to be done,” try “I want to hear your thoughts: what do you think needs to happen next to get closer to your goal?”

To be clear, what needs to happen for your client to reach their goal may not change. But, by asking for their input, you are including them in the conversation and problem-solving process, instead of just dictating orders.

Take Ownership of Your Own Feelings

No one can make you feel a certain way — those feelings belong to you. By taking ownership of our feelings we avoid falling into the blame game — a positive step to effective communication.

Instead of “You make me upset when you make insensitive comments during class,” try “I feel upset when you make that type of comment because to me it reflects a lack of respect for others.”

Helpful examples of ways to frame your viewpoint without making accusations or placing blame others may sound like:

“To me…”
“In my view…”
“It is my opinion that…”
“I think…”
“I may be wrong, but the way I see it…”

In the end, we can never truly know what the other person is thinking or feeling, and their intentions may be vastly different from what we believe them to be.

Reach an Agreement

In the most successful difficult conversations, an agreement is reached. Both parties feel like they can adhere to it, and the agreement seems fair and balanced to both.

“We tried sticking to your diet plan for one month, and that didn’t quite work out. What do you think would be a reasonable time frame for us to test instead? Two weeks? One week?”

“I think we both have given this a really good try, but we don’t seem to be a good fit for each other. I’d be more than happy to recommend you a few colleagues in the area who would be eager to work with you. Would this be helpful to you?”

In Conclusion

Difficult conversations have an amazing potential to help us grow beyond our comfort zone and learn beyond our limitations. One of the gravest mistakes we can do is postponing difficult conversations, since problems tend to fester and get worse the longer we procrastinate.

Leaning into difficult conversations is an act of empowerment.

By making the decision to confront the challenge at hand, you enable yourself to act responsibly, maturely, honestly and respectfully — as opposed to avoiding, being anxious, and reacting. Talk about a change in dynamics!

Get on the Academy pre-sale list now to learn more about enrollment opportunities and save big!

Learn more about the academy now!

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How to Help a Client Who Isn’t Compliant

2018-11-06T04:06:00.001-08:00

It was 2009. My husband and I were running our fitness boot camps and had just had our first child. I knew I didn’t want to travel anymore to speak with a new baby at home, and decided to focus on online training and coaching instead. I loved helping clients effect change in their lives and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to marry what I loved best, with the flexibility and schedule I was looking for. I added in clients who wanted a deeper dive in nutrition and behavior and was excited to get to work.

At first I loved it. Clients adopted the changes we discussed and were making progress and I felt like a rock star. It felt great to know that I was helping them reach their goals and creating a program that worked. They told friends. I took on more clients. And then I hit a road bump.

A client wasn’t following any of my nutrition strategies — despite planning around every barrier and talking about things she could try each week. I sent reminders. I followed up. When we would get on the phone to chat for her weekly session it felt like a confessional of what she wasn’t doing. I would think harder and offer new suggestions, tweaking and offering new meal and snack ideas and new strategies, only to no avail.

Eventually I remember telling her, “I can’t help you. I’ve given you every strategy and tool I can and at this point, you have to make the decision to put them into practice in your own life. Until you do that, you won’t be successful and you won’t make any progress.”

Oomph.

It hurts to recall this now. In hindsight I can see how much I failed that client and all the things I would do differently — but more on that in a minute. Because what I distinctly remember in that moment wasn’t that I had failed to coach her, but that I was just a failure. I wasn’t the rock star or the expert who had all the answers. None of my answers worked for her. And if I couldn’t help this client, then how could I call myself a coach?

Looking back on those days, I wasn’t really a coach. I was selling a program with a specific approach to nutrition and fitness behaviors that worked for many people, and that also worked for me. I was good at directing my clients on how to best use my principles. I had no idea how to guide my clients to find their own principles and answers. That wouldn’t come for a few years.

I continued coaching for a year or so, of course from time to time running into clients who didn’t mesh with my programs and my answers, and I’d feel defeated again. Eventually, I decided to stop individual coaching and go back to small group programs. I started speaking again.

A Question of Mindset

It wasn’t until I became familiar with Carol Dweck’s work on mindset that I began to see my first mistake in my online coaching days. I had a fixed mindset.

If you’re not familiar with Dweck’s work, she is a Stanford University psychologist who studies how we think about our talents and abilities and the impact it has on learning, performance, parenting, athletics, etc.

Essentially people fall into one of two categories: fixed mindset — those who believe that intelligence, skills, and abilities are fixed and their potential is set at birth — and growth mindset — those who believe that abilities can be developed, skills can be learned, and potential is essentially limitless with hard work and effort.

Individuals who have a fixed mindset focus on proving their worth and their value. If you are a coach with a fixed mindset, you expect that you have to be the smartest one in the room. When it comes to your relationships with your clients, you are the expert with the answers. And while in theory the reason you are coaching clients is about helping them succeed, ultimately your choices always comes back to proving your value as a coach.

I remember discovering this concept and feeling such relief! “You mean I don’t have to hold all of the answers? I can meet my client wherever they are?”

I realized my previous errors. By assuming I had to have all of the answers, I didn’t empower my clients to find what was possible for them. By telling my clients what to do, I took the change process out of their own hands. And by being so quick to offer alternatives and new strategies, I took the responsibility for their success.

The Compliance Struggle

If you’re in the behavior change business, it is inevitable that you will encounter clients who struggle with compliance. Whether it’s clients who say their goal is to reduce body fat but who are unwilling to monitor or change their eating habits, those who say they want to maintain progress when traveling and then skip workouts, or those who turn to quick fixes and magic bullets despite your steady reminders that those don’t work.

Poor client compliance can be difficult at any stage in your career. It can be a source of frustration, leave you uncertain about your skills and abilities and can even lead to burnout. When dealing with compliance issues we have to remember it’s not necessarily the client’s fault. Too often we’re quick to think of what the client isn’t doing, instead of recognizing, like in my case, it may be the way we’re coaching the client in the first place.

When our clients aren’t compliant they are trying to tell us something. Maybe they’re saying:

“This requires too much of me, it’s too challenging, too rigorous, etc.”
“This isn’t something I believe I can do; I don’t think I have the energy or resources for this.”
“I’m afraid of failure.”
“I’m afraid of success”

And any other thing in between.

When we take a “comply or die” mentality with clients, we ignore their unique story, experience and underlying concerns.

Even worse, we may be taking someone who has little belief in themselves and validating all the fears and reasons why they think they can’t be successful in the first place. If you have clients who are struggling with compliance, help them own the change process. Use these steps to see if you can meet them along the way.

Start With You

First, check your mindset. Are you feeling responsible for having the answers for your client? Are you focused on your client reaching outcomes rather than on their experience?

It’s easy to fall into a routine with clients that “works.” Without even realizing it, you may be doing what feels best for you instead of what works best for your client. If this is the case, shift toward a person-focused approach.

Focus on Your Client

One of the best tools to help you turn the focus on the client is to use Motivational Interviewing (MI) and its related concepts in your coaching practice.

Motivational Interviewing as a practice is extensive, and further information on training can be found at M otivational I nterviewing.org. However, we can use some of the key concepts from MI to better understand our clients and improve client outcomes.

1. Develop Great Listening Skills

To take a person-focused approach, we have to be willing to get curious. Ask open-ended questions that start with what, how, why, or tell me about. Yes or no questions stop the flow of information between you and your client, but open ended questions may give you information you wouldn’t know or think to ask about. Consider:

Coach: “Ready to train?”
Client: “Never.”
Coach: “Haha! Let’s go.”

vs.

Coach: “How was your day?”
Client: “Exhausting.”
Coach: “Tell me about it. In what way?”
Client: “We had a flood in part of our office last night and I had to unpack and transfer 32 banker boxes of files to the other side of the building. I thought of it as a workout!”
Coach: “Sounds like it was. If you’re feeling overtired we could focus more on mobility and core training today.”

In the first example, you may get to the fact that the client is exhausted from work. Or you may not, and you may just wonder why her performance seems to be suffering, or she could end up feeling over fatigued and sore. The open ended question allows you to obtain more information than you would otherwise.

2. Use Reflective Listening to Seek Clarification

When you’re engaged in open-ended questions, it’s helpful to check for understanding by reflecting your client’s words back to them.

Client: “And after I get home from work, I just feel done and I never want to cook.”
Coach: “So you feel too tired to cook?”
Client: “No. I just hate cooking. It takes so much more energy to do the things I don’t want to do.”
Coach: “I know that feeling. What do you think you would be willing to do?”

3. Understand That Ambivalence Is a Normal Part of Behavior Change

Ambivalence refers to having mixed feelings about something. Most of us experience conflict over the choices we make each day. We know we’ll feel better from eating the salad with lean protein, but we also like the taste of a burger and fries. We know we should get more sleep, but the Netflix binge is too compelling.

When you’re working with your clients, help them to see that this conflict is natural and then help them work through it. To do this, help clients identify:

The benefits of staying the same — What’s good about not changing? By asking what’s good about keeping things as is, you can see what benefit the client sees in not changing.

The challenges of changing — Here you can better understand your clients underlying concerns and worries they have for making change.

The benefits of changing — What’s good about making the changes they desire for themselves?

The negatives of staying the same — What’s bad about not changing?

Hope and optimism for changing — What do they see as possible for themselves? This is a critical step, because ultimately your clients hold the answers.

How to visualize change — Ask your clients to imagine what change looks like for them. If they were able to change, what would that look and feel like?

Walking clients through these steps help them understand that there may be reasons why change feels difficult and why they may not be ready for it. It normalizes the change process and allows your clients to work through their ambivalence until they reach a place where the benefits of change outweigh the negatives of staying the same.

4. Identify Discrepancy

Clients may not see the difference between what they say they desire for themselves and where they are currently. For example, a client may say they really want to dial in their nutrition, but often allow their partner to talk them into making less than healthy food choices. By pointing out the discrepancy, you can explore the potential challenges and barriers to making that change a reality.

5. Roll With Resistance

This last point may be the most important step. When a client is highly resistant to suggestions and ideas, avoid getting into a back and forth with them. Instead, let go of the need to steer them in one direction. They don’t have to change. Knowing that you have their back no matter what choices they make helps your client trust that you see them as a person first and that they are responsible for deciding what happens. It empowers them to stay with the status quo or to decide to move ahead and shows them they are not being pulled into that decision.

One Last Thought

You will encounter clients who, for whatever reason, are an energy drain. Maybe it’s not a good personality match, maybe the client needs additional support outside of your scope, or maybe they’re seeking training that is inconsistent with your approach.

If you find you and your client aren’t connecting and you’re left feeling drained after each training session, don’t be afraid to fire a client. Not everyone is a good match and if a person is leaving you in a negative mindset, or feeling as though you have less energy for other clients, yourself or your family, it’s time to say goodbye. If you take this approach, try to offer the client alternative options and of course, be as gentle and clear as you can be.

Compliance struggles are a normal part of the behavior change process.

By getting curious, normalizing the challenges and helping clients work through ambivalence, you can help your clients move closer to the goals they desire.

Joining the pre-sale list gets you early-bird access when enrollment opens (24-48 hours before it opens to the public), you’ll learn more about the certification, and SAVE $200 when you enroll.

JOIN NOW

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Coaching & Training Women Academy Spotlight: Lori Brodie

2018-11-04T07:49:00.001-08:00

Name: Lori Brodie
Age: 46
Location: Amelia Island, Florida

What was your first thought when you learned about the Coaching & Training Women Academy and the GGS-1 Certification?
My first thought was YES!!! I have been following GGS for a long time and have the Modern Woman’s Guide to Strength Training. I knew the GGS certification would be amazing and real. I remember rearranging my workout and work schedule the day it went on sale so I can be sure to be one of the first to enroll. (I would be curious to know if it was the first — probably one of the first ten or so I would guess.)

What do you do?
I am a board-certified mental health registered nurse. I have master’s degrees in psychology and nursing education, and am working on my Doctorate of Nursing Practice. Currently, I teach for two different nursing schools, teaching Mental Health Nursing, Developmental Psychology, and Critical Thinking. I love teaching our future nurses!

Until recently, I was also working as a pediatric psychiatric nurse in acute psychiatric care and with children who have continence issues.

What else do you do?
Working on my doctorate takes up a lot of my “spare” time, but I love going to the beach with my husband, visiting with friends and family, and going to the gym. I look at exercise as a reward, not a punishment, and I really enjoy it. I would say my hobbies are exercise and education.

Best compliment you’ve received lately:
I received two compliments lately that really made me excited. One was that I was a genuinely kind person and the other was that I had inspired someone to make changes in their life.

Most recent compliment you gave someone else:
It is my practice to compliment someone every day — for a genuine reason. If I see a stranger on the street and like what they are wearing, I tell them. Today I told a colleague how much I appreciated her expertise and patience after she helped me solve an issue.

Favorite way to treat yourself:
A 90-minute deep tissue massage and a really good glass of wine afterwards.

Favorite quote:
I have two:

If it’s important to you, you will find a way, if not you will find an excuse.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

Three words that best describe you:
Determined. Passionate. Genuine.

Favorite book:
Does the GGS-1 textbook count?

What inspires and motivates you?
Trying to be a better version of myself is probably my best motivator. For many years I was very overweight and unhealthy, and didn’t like myself. Pushing myself physically and mentally is a huge motivator for me. I actually earned my personal trainer certification over a decade ago to train myself, as I was uncomfortable working with anyone else at that point in my life for a plethora of reasons.

I try not to give my source of motivation to anyone else so that it doesn’t dissipate. It’s mine to own and I can only hold myself responsible for it.

With that said, I have a lot of wonderful extrinsic factors that contribute to my motivation! I have two very young grandchildren and I want to be able to run and play with them for many many years, so I am motivated to stay healthy and strong for them!

I am also always inspired by women helping other women, and people just being kind to others. I am a huge believer in paying it forward.

Kindness inspires me more than someone yelling at me to work harder.

Describe a typical day in your life, from waking up to bedtime:
I honestly do not have a typical day or schedule anymore. What I love about my jobs is that I have flexibility. I wake up anywhere between 5 and 6:30 a.m. I usually go straight to the gym (after coffee of course) to start my day, but some days I work first and then go to the gym at lunch.

I have learned that the best thing for me is to set myself up for success, meaning that I have a plan before I go to bed each night (with a written list for the next day), but then I also have a backup plan. This way, if I planned to get up super early and go workout but I wake up tired and need more sleep, I can do plan B (like sleep a little longer and workout in the afternoon) and still get my goals of the day accomplished.

Regardless, I always have a written list of what I need to do in the day, and I always make a new list before I go to bed. I have found this system of writing things down keeps my mind from trying to remember all those “to-do” items in the night and I sleep so much better! And who doesn’t love crossing things off a to-do list throughout the day?

What situation in your life lead you to enroll in the GGS-1 Certification?
I am working on my doctorate in nursing practice and considering do my dissertation on a topic related to women’s fitness. I thought this certification would be the perfect supplemental knowledge to my existing knowledge base as well as possibly inspire me to narrow down a specific thesis statement.

How would you describe your women-specific training knowledge before enrolling in the GGS-1 Certification?
I think the combination of nursing school, being a woman, earning my personal trainer certification through the American Council on Exercise, and having my own struggles with health and fitness over the years gave me a fairly strong knowledge of women-specific training. I have done a lot of independent research on women’s training, too, which I think expanded my knowledge in this area.

What’s been the best part about going through the GGS-1 Certification?
There were so many things I enjoyed about this program. I loved that there were actual books, which might sound crazy but for whatever reason the e-book thing just doesn’t have the same effect for me. So the course materials themselves were so great.

Having a background in psychology, I was so impressed with all the behavior and psychological information weaved throughout this certification. Understanding clients’ motivations, obstacles, and thought processes are essential to a successful and collaborative working relationship. And is absolutely necessary for clients to achieve their outcomes! This program reiterated this throughout the book.

The chapter regarding the difference between the social construct of gender and the biological determination of sex had me saying “Yes!” aloud more than once. I have worked with teens who have struggled with identity challenges, and I think GGS did an amazing job on presenting this information.

The section on measurements really stood out to me. I can recall having my measurements taken with criticism and inappropriateness more than once. I also thought it was a great reminder to those who take measurements that even though it is something a professional might perform as a routine task, it is so important to not go on “autopilot” when doing so. Taking time to explain the process, keeping appropriate distance, being sensitive, and remembering you are measuring a person are all so important. This information made me think of how many times I have taken vital signs, and weight and height on patients, and probably didn’t take the time and care I should have.

This program increased my self-awareness and motivated me to be better in my future practice but also to be kinder to myself.

Now that you’re an official GGS-1 Certified Coach, what impact are you hoping to have?
I am hoping to use this information to help with my dissertation. I am sure I will be citing the textbook as one of my evidence-based practice sources! I also hope to one day work in the fitness field in some capacity. I have considered online coaching with a focus on self-esteem issues in young girls or women in general.

How has your thinking about training women changed since completing the GGS-1 Certification?
It reminded me that so many women struggle with a variety of weight, self-image, and health issues. Taking the time to recognize each person is an individual with individual needs and desired outcomes is so essential. There is no one size fits all strategy, but there is a need for consistency in empathy, support, and encouragement.

What would you say to someone who’s on the fence about enrolling?
Just. Do. It. Seriously, I can understand the hesitation because it is an investment both financially and time wise. However, I am a firm believer in never underestimating the value of quality education. The GGS-1 certification can only help trainers, regardless of where they are in their careers or experience. There are educational and motivational elements throughout the entire course that will benefit anyone (and everyone) who wants to train women.

You can connect with Lori on Instagram here and here.

Joining the pre-sale list gets you early-bird access when enrollment opens (24-48 hours before it opens to the public), you’ll learn more about the certification, and SAVE $200 when you enroll.

JOIN NOW

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259 Things Women Do Daily to Avoid Being Assaulted

2018-11-01T06:19:00.001-07:00

With sexual harassment and assault all over the headlines in Hollywood, sports, politics, and fitness, I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic and having lots of conversations about it lately.

In a recent Instagram story, I asked women in my community what things they do daily in an attempt to stay safe, and avoid sexual harassment and assault.

Within 24 hours, I had 259 answers from women. Let that sink in for a second: hundreds of women reached out to me with all the ways they alter their lives trying to avoid experiencing harassment and assault. I’ll share some of the most common answers below.

This is not surprising considering that 81 percent of women in the U.S. experience sexual harassment [1], and at least 33 percent of women globally will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime [2].

Note: While our article focuses on the experiences of women and uses the language of men as aggressors and women as victims, other marginalized populations at high risk for sexual violence share these experiences and alter their lives accordingly well. Please remember that sexual violence affects people of all genders, and that trans folks are at a higher risk than cisgender people [3,4].

What Is a Rape Schedule?

The concept of “rape schedule” is used to describe the conscious and subconscious ways women place restrictions on themselves and alter their daily behavior as a result of their constant fear of sexual assault.

Organizing one’s life according to this “rape schedule” takes a lot of energy, and tends to start early on: from a young age, women are taught all the thing that they should do to avoid assault. Be it in school, in families or in media, the focus is still on women’s behavior — on what women and girls can and should do to avoid being harmed — instead of educating men and boys on how not to harass and assault women.

So what are some of the things women do daily to avoid harassment and assault? Here are some examples.

Women Change Where They Go and What They Do

Women reported removing themselves from situations where they simply don’t feel safe, such as:

Avoiding certain areas, including certain subway stations or streets, where they’re more likely to be catcalled.
Changing gyms because their walk there passed by a construction site where they were constantly harassed.
Switching gyms after being on the receiving end of countless comments about their body from the manager (those are often framed as “compliments” and women don’t feel anyone will believe them if they speak up because it’s coming from someone in power).
Not going to the workouts where men are coaching, only going to the women-led classes.

Women Alter Their Schedule

In order to avoid harassment and assault, they:

Avoid working certain shifts so they don’t have to be out in the early hours of the morning.
Try to go to the gym when it’s not busy so the guys don’t leer at them in the weight room.
Change their gym schedule to avoid another creepy gym member.
Not schedule night classes in college so they don’t have to walk alone at night.
Make sure they’re not working late at the office when they know a particular male coworker who makes them uncomfortable is also working late so they don’t have to be alone with him.
Never go for a run when it’s dark out, and having to find times that are less convenient but feel “safer.”

Women Change What They Wear

When it comes to their clothing, the women in our community have reported:

Refrain from wearing tight or revealing clothes to the gym to avoid attracting attention.
Wearing track pants over their gym shorts when they walk to the gym to decrease harassment.
Choosing their clothing carefully when they know they have to walk on the street more than a few blocks.
Wearing bulky clothes and put their hair up to make it less obvious that they’re a woman.

Women Are in a Constant State of Vigilance

Among other things, the women in our community told us that they will:

Only wear headphones in one ear to maintain awareness when in public.
Look men they’re passing on the street directly in the eye with a very stern expression.
Avoid making eye contact with men on the street.
Repeat to themselves three times what any man passing them on the street is wearing, so they can remember identifying characteristics.
Call their partner/mom/friend anytime they’re walking at night and let them know their location so they can call for help if needed.
Check other stalls in washrooms to make sure no one is hiding there.
Check the back seat of the car before getting in every single time.
Lock their car doors as soon as they sit in the car.
Park in well-lit areas and refuse to park and walk in dark areas.
Never drink alcohol unless they’re in the presence of trusted friends.
Never get on an elevator alone with a man.
Ask a male manager to walk them to their car at night when they leave work.
Constantly have their keys between their fingers or their pepper spray ready when walking alone at night.
Systematically make exit plans wherever they are in case they need to get away from a man.

Women Inconvenience Themselves

There are many instances where women find themselves quite inconvenienced in order to avoid feeling unsafe, for example:

Altering their workouts to avoid at all costs having to deadlift or hip thrust when the gym is busy.
Avoiding rest stops and gas stations at all costs when traveling alone, and often holding their pee for hours until they get to a place they feel safe to use the restroom.
Quitting the gym altogether because they had bad experiences at three gyms in a row, choosing to work out at home instead even though they can’t train in the way they’d like.
Wearing their headphones on their walk to the gym so they don’t hear catcalls.
Smiling or laughing off unwanted advances in order to de-escalate any potential threat.
Changing routes if a car behind them makes the same turns as they do.
Spending money on taxis or ubers instead of walking even though they would have preferred to walk.
Never telling taxi drivers their actual address.
Staying quiet about sexism, racism or ableism when they’d rather not, to remain safe.
Refusing connecting rooms when traveling alone
Lying and saying they have a friend who will join them at their hotel later so the staff doesn’t think they are staying alone.

Why This Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story

Women are spending tons of their valuable time and energy changing where they go and what they do, altering their schedules, carefully choosing what they wear and inconveniencing themselves — often at great cost — and the worst part is that it’s not even necessarily protecting them from the people who harass and assault them.

Even worse, the misconception that harassment mainly happens on the street, and that assault happens in a back alley at the hands of a stranger is actually preventing women from understanding that what has been done to them is harassment or assault.

Why? Most often, harassment and assault happen at the hands of someone we know.

Yes, the guys we know, those who we think of as “one of the good guys,” those we can’t imagine could hurt us, even maybe guys we have a crush on, or are in a relationship with (in the U.S. marital rape wasn’t illegal until 1986 on a federal level, and many states didn’t repeal marital rape exemptions until 1996 or later) [5].

And much of the negative experiences women will go through won’t happen in a back alley, but in much more familiar environments: at work, out with friends, at the gym, or even in their own homes. According to RAINN, 7 out of 10 rapes are committed by someone known from the victim [6].

What You Can Do

You may read all this and feel dismayed. Maybe you had no idea. Or maybe it feels all too familiar. Regardless, you actually have a chance to be part of the solution — even if you don’t know where to start.

Much of the work needs to be about really grasping the reality of sexual harassment and assault, even if it means radically changing your understanding of these issues. To guide you in this, we’ve put together a FREE 5-day course about what you can do about sexual harassment and assault in the health and fitness industry.

When you sign up, we’ll teach you:

What to do if you witness or suspect sexual harassment.
What to do if a woman confides in you that she was harassed.
What to do if you personally experience harassment.
How to identify behaviour that seems OK (but really isn’t).
How to avoid common mistakes men make (even when they believe they “get it”).
How to create a safe environment for women.
How you can help women and be part of the solution.

Now’s the time to make the commitment to create change.

Want to support women? Check out this FREE Course.

Women are being sexually harassed and assaulted in and out of the gym — and we need your help!

Interested in helping? If so, we’ve created a FREE course just for you!

→ Get access now, and start whenever you’re ready:

Get Your First Lesson

References

Stop Street Harassment, 2018 Study on Harassment and Assault, http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/resources/2018-national-sexual-abuse-report/
World Health Organization, Violence Against Women: Key Facts, http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women
The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, An Overview of 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation, https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/cdc_nisvs_victimization_final-a.pdf
James SE, Herman JL, Rankin S, Keisling M, Mottet L, Anafi M, The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. Washington, DC: National Center for Transgender Equality, 2016, https://www.transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/USTS-Full-Report-FINAL.PDF
Bennice JA, Resik PA, Marital Rape: History, Research, and Practice, Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, July 2003, https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=201457
RAINN, Perpetrators of Sexual Violence: The Statistics, https://www.rainn.org/statistics/perpetrators-sexual-violence

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The 5 Biggest Mistakes Coaches Make When Training Female Clients

2018-10-29T17:43:00.001-07:00

Effectively coaching and training women is about more than understanding the anatomical and physiological differences between men and women. It’s also about understanding the psychological and emotional differences, including what women are conditioned to believe and say about their bodies and how it relates to their worthiness.

With a community of over 600,000 women from more than 70 countries around the world, we have been able to glean really powerful insight from our community members about their experiences working with a coach or trainer, and how these experiences have impacted them personally, as well as the effect these have had on their relationship with that professional.

In 2017, we surveyed the Girls Gone Strong community and asked women about negative experiences they’ve had with their coach or trainer — here’s what we’ve found.

Of the women we surveyed:

97 percent eventually fired their trainer.
16 percent left that gym all together to avoid seeing their trainer again.
Only 3.5 percent shared the truth about why.

What Does This Mean for You As a Health and Fitness Professional?

It means that you are often on the front lines of this conversation about women and their bodies and you can have a profound impact on how they feel about themselves, their fitness journey, and their potential. It also means that you have the opportunity to be a tremendous force for good.

To be clear, you cannot make someone feel a particular way about themselves. We are each in charge of how we feel, how we respond, and how we react to others. What you can do, however, is work to a creative a welcoming, inclusive, safe, and body-positive environment that encourages your clients to develop a more positive body image.

Here’s a list of the top 5 mistakes women reported their trainers making.

1. Making Comments That Leave Women Feeling Embarrassed or Ashamed

Some examples of comments made by trainers were:

Telling a woman who pulled up her shirt to wipe off sweat, “Wow! There are abs under all of that.”
Telling a woman struggling with an exercise that she was too weak to do it.
Referring to a client who has competed in endurance sports as “skinny fat.”

Reported impact:

71 percent of clients reported feeling unworthy, discouraged, and that they should not be at the gym.
68 percent of clients of clients reported this shaming left them feeling vulnerable and like the gym was not a safe place for them.

2. Not Relating to the Client’s Situation

Some of the reported examples:

A trainer trying to force his client on the scale, despite her repeated refusal to do so, when she came to him seeking nutrition advice.
A female coach telling a client that she could never gain any muscle or lose any weight while eating a vegetarian diet, and that Paleo was her only option.

Women who felt that their trainer could not relate to their situation reported feeling:

Unmotivated
Angry and upset
Ashamed of not being able to meet the trainer’s expectations
Ignored and devalued by the trainer

3. Over- or Underestimating Clients Based on Their Appearance

Here’s what this can look like:

Acting shocked when a client isn’t able to do certain exercises because she appears to be “in shape” (overestimating).
Telling a client “I didn’t think you’d be able to do that” (underestimating).
Crushing a client with intense HIIT workout because she appears to be “fit” (overestimating).
Assuming that because a woman is overweight, she must not exercise or is a beginner (underestimating).

Reported impact:

When underestimated, women felt insulted, angry, frustrated, upset.
When overestimated, women felt apprehensive and unsafe.
86 percent of women who were judged by their appearance felt that they did not get a chance to reach their potential.

4. Ignoring Clients’ Requests

Here are some examples:

A well-muscled male trainer consistently telling his client that she “wouldn’t look like him” if she lifted weights,” when she repeatedly told him her goal was hypertrophy/muscle gain.
Repeatedly discussing nutrition or weighing your client when she isn’t interested.
A trainer refusing to modify exercises for a client with prior knee injuries, and then when finally relenting, offering “less effective” exercises from the client’s perspective.

Clients were more likely to report feeling:

Ignored
Unmotivated
Angry
Defeated

Clients also often reported that when the trainer did not listen to them, it:

Discouraged them from achieving their potential
Led to or exacerbated injuries

5. Pushing an “All or Nothing” Approach

Some reported examples:

A trainer refusing to give alternative exercises — insisting that particular exercises are a “must” — after being told by their female client that the original exercises made them uncomfortable.
Calling a client 8 weeks post-abdominal surgery to tell her that she needed to take responsibility for herself and would never see results if she didn’t start upping her training (the trainer felt he was “motivating” her).

How this was received by the clients:

The trainer was often pushing weight loss as a goal (even if unwanted), and it always ended up with clients feeling unworthy and feeling badly about themselves.
Clients often felt that it was impossible to meet the goals set by the trainer and felt defeated.
These trainers were more likely to shame the client.

When reading through these scenarios, it’s easy to roll your eyes and wonder who in the world would say these things or behave this way with the clients, but the reality is, this stuff happens all the time.

And even if you’re not someone who would treat their client or patient this way — many health and fitness professionals do. That means there’s a good chance that your client or patient is entering your space with some level of trauma or “baggage” related to their experience with another health professional.

What You Can Do

If these are the things we aren’t supposed to do with our clients, what can we do? Lots of things! You have the opportunity to profoundly impact your client’s life in a positive way. Here’s a specific, actionable list of things to do, and things to avoid when working with your clients and patients.

DO: Listen to Your Client

Ask questions about their background.
Repeat back to them what they say and follow up with meaningful questions that show you’re listening.
Take notes during your meeting.
Make sure your client is comfortable performing certain exercises and/or in certain places.
Have progressions, regressions, and variations available if their program needs to be modified on the fly.

DON’T

Interrupt or talk over your client.
Assume you know what your client is going to say.
Allow yourself to get distracted by your phone, yourself, or other gym-goers during your session.
Push them or make them feel awkward if they request a certain exercise or location be changed.

DO: Assess Their Ability Level

Have them fill out a medical history questionnaire in addition to a questionnaire about their previous experience with training and/or nutrition.
Review the questionnaire with them to give them an opportunity to talk more in-depth about what is important to them.
Dig deeper, ask more/different questions based on their responses.
Take them through an appropriate physical assessment to evaluate their abilities.

DON’T

Tell them what is “wrong” with them during their assessment.
Suggest that they may/should be in pain.
Put them through an intense workout as an assessment tool or to “prove how good of a
trainer” you are.
Spend a lot of time talking about what they can’t do (from your perspective).

DO: Give Them The Space To Determine Their Goal

Ask them what they would like to accomplish working with you.
Help them get specific with their goal if they aren’t able to do it themselves.
Ask more questions to determine if their goal is really their goal.
Help them determine what is realistic.
Validate their goals and discuss how you can help (or not).
Ask more questions and educate them gently.

DON’T

Say things that may invalidate their particular goal.
Assume you know what their goals are based on their appearance.
Push your personal preferences on your client.

DO: Identify and Respect Their Individual Situation

Learn as much as you can about their individual situation.
Ask questions to learn about what their life looks like outside of working with you (family, work, sleep, stress, etc.).
Ease into some of these questions as they might be sensitive.

DON’T

Make recommendations that are insensitive to their situation (culturally, morally/ethically, financially).
Make them feel badly about their individual situation.
Compare your client to another client in a negative way.

DO: Consistently Evaluate, Check-In, and Assess

Regularly ask what they have going on in their life.
Pay attention to their body language, mood, and energy level.
Have a backup plan if they seem “off” and take advantage of when they are feeling great.
Work with them to determine a strategy when stuff hits the fan.
Learn what motivates them (e.g., compliments, competition, results).

DON’T

Diminish how major life events affect their training.
Blindly push them harder when they seem less motivated.
Make fun of them or ridicule them for expressing their concerns.

DO: Validate What Your Client Says

Validate your client has to say by rephrasing it to show that you’ve been listening.
Normalize your client’s feelings.
Recognize their body autonomy.

DON’T

Dismiss what your client says.
Systematically agree with what they’re saying if it goes against your views (you can communicate your knowledge in a way that demonstrates your humanity instead).

DO: Be Mindful of Your Behavior and Communication Toward Your Client

Sexual assault is far more common than one would suspect, and one in four North American will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime [1], the majority of whom are women of color (especially Black, Indigenous and mixed-race women) [2]. An overwhelming 83 percent of disabled women will be assaulted in their lifetime [1].

With this in mind, be extremely mindful of:

The language you use
The way you touch your client and the manual cues you give (remember to always ask permission before touching them)
Your descriptions and verbal cues
Your physical proximity to the client
How you make eye contact, and where you are looking
The physical environment you’re creating (music, pictures, culture, location, etc.)

Above all, it’s important to recognize that while you cannot make your clients feel a particular way — we all must be responsible for our own reactions and feelings — you can cultivate an environment that encourages clients to feel welcome, safe, included, and good about themselves, their potential and their body.

References

Sexual Assault Statistics in Canada, A Numerical Representation of the Truth, https://www.sexassault.ca/statistics.htm
Women of Color and Sexual Assault, Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, http://endsexualviolencect.org/resources/get-the-facts/woc-stats/

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Why Therapy Can Be Beneficial for Everyone

2018-10-24T19:49:00.001-07:00

If you’ve ever had an issue, experienced intense feelings, or otherwise felt human at some point in your life, you’ve probably wondered, “Should I go talk to someone?”

For many of us, the follow up to that initial thought is something like:

“But what would talking to someone actually do?”
“How is seeing a therapist going to help anything?”
“What’s the point of paying someone to just sit there and listen to my problems?”

If one of those latter thoughts convinced you to just let it be, and then the issues, feelings, and human-ness of your situation continued to cause you trouble, you may have escalated reasons not to go talk to someone with one of the following thoughts:

“I’m just being lazy.”
“I can handle this myself.”
I need to stop feeling sorry for myself.
“All I have to do is just cut it out. Suck it up. Get focused. Then everything will be fine.”

Here are some answers to your questions about therapy. And hopefully some reasons to change your thinking, and get yourself an appointment…

What Is Psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy is the provision of health care via talking — or, as Sigmund Freud called it, “the talking cure.” Psychotherapy is often called therapy for short.

In most basic terms, it is a conversation between two people, focused on one of those people. Therapy is also called counseling, and the two terms are interchangeable.

How Does Psychotherapy Help?

There is no magic involved. Our thoughts and feelings, the meaning that we assign to our experiences, and the judgments we make, all occur “up there” in our minds, authored by our brains.

These processes are internal, and when we do not share them with others, we leave it up to ourselves to evaluate the accuracy, rationality, and reliability of our thoughts and feelings. This is a set up for misinterpretation, over- and under-valuation, and worst of all, isolation.

For example, let’s say you have anxious thoughts. You think that you’ll “never amount to anything,” or that “people don’t like you.” If you keep those thoughts to yourself, they can (and often will) start to seem true.

Once accepted as true, you act on those thoughts and appraisals, withdrawing from others, avoiding social situations, and then feeling even more isolated and anxious. A nasty snowball of anxiety, avoidance, and negativity gets going, and the longer it continues, the bigger, more irrational and intractable it feels.

Psychotherapy is a collaborative process that allows you to openly name and express your thoughts and feelings, pinpoint what you want to be different, and explore how to create change.

Psychotherapy is confidential, non-judgmental, and growth-oriented. When you are an active participant in psychotherapy, you collaborate with an educated and objective healthcare professional to examine problematic thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and identify goals in a supportive environment.

Psychotherapy helps because we often get “stuck” when attempting to make internal change on our own.

Which Issues Can Psychotherapy Help With?

You name it! Psychotherapy can help with any and all of the following:

Stress management
Relationships
Career questions
Depression
Anxiety
Trauma
Negative thinking
Negative feelings
Procrastination
Grief
Motivation
Sport or exercise performance
High achievement
Spirituality
And countless other aspects of life

There are mental health specialists for all kinds of issues. For example, there are counselors who specialize in working with people who have been diagnosed with genital herpes, or in working with people from a specific religious faith, or who are facing problems with infertility. Aside from seeking financial counseling or nutrition counseling, therapy can help you with just about any other “issue” you are facing.

Is Therapy Right for You?

Probably. If you’re verbal, intelligent, and growth-oriented, definitely. If you’re not any of those things (or at least you don’t think you are), it can still be right for you. It’s just a matter of finding the right person: the right “fit” for your communication style, comfort level with challenge, and willingness to step outside of that comfort zone.

For example, if you are an organized, in-your-head, Type A, list-writing, check-marking type of person, you might gravitate toward Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). On the other hand, if you’re a contemplative, artistic, philosophical deep-thinker, you may love existential psychotherapy. But, even more important than the style of therapy is the therapist themselves.

How Do I Find the “Right” Therapist for Me?

Think of finding the right therapist the same way you might think about finding the right romantic partner, or even the right tennis partner. You need chemistry, ease, open communication, and a general tendency to like that other person.

Remember that going on one date doesn’t mean you’ve met the right person for you, and that calling one therapist doesn’t mean you have to work with that person.

Shop around online, and then talk to that therapist on the phone before meeting them in person.

Remember that your first session is an opportunity for the two of you to say hello, and to see if a productive working relationship is possible. Even though it can feel uncomfortable to talk to a stranger about your innermost thoughts and feelings, you want to find a therapist with whom you can be able to feel as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.

If it feels like you can talk about whatever you need to, and you feel free from judgment, it’s a match. But if not, keep it moving! There are plenty of therapist-fish in the counseling sea, so to speak.

But, I Have a Very Valid Reason Not to Go!

Let’s unpack those reasons into two main categories: feelings, and facts.

Feelings

This is typically stigma about mental health and mental health treatment. For example, feeling like going to counseling is a weakness, or means defeat, or will be embarrassing if others find out about it. Stigma can also manifest itself as believing that your symptoms “aren’t real,” or that you are just “being lazy” or “feeling sorry for yourself.”

Facts

These are concrete barriers, including:

No health or mental health insurance coverage
Inability to pay for the cost of mental health care out of pocket
Lack of licensed mental health professionals in the area where you live or work
Lack of time outside of work and family obligations to see a therapist
Lack of therapist availability on nights, weekends, or times when you could actually go to therapy

If your reasons for not going to therapy fall under feelings, please click here for more reinforcement and education about the realness and consequences of mental health issues, and information about specific mental health concerns.

If your reasons fall under facts, there are workarounds for most of those barriers.

No Health or Mental Health Insurance Coverage

Research online to find community clinics, graduate schools of psychotherapy, and spiritual counseling clinics in your area. There may be practitioners in these settings that offer a “sliding scale,” which means they will adjust their fee based on what you are able to afford.

This will require some digging on your part, but there are practitioners out there who will adjust their rate to work with you. Also, some psychotherapy training programs offer free or extremely inexpensive sessions for working with students (under the supervision of at least one licensed mental health professional).

Inability to Pay for the Cost of Mental Health Care

As mentioned above, there are practitioners who will adjust their fee so that you can afford their services. In addition, if your insurance doesn’t cover behavioral health care, but includes a flexible spending account (FSA), you may be able to draw from this account to pay for sessions.

If you have mental or behavioral health benefits, but cannot find a therapist who accepts your insurance, call your insurance company to find out if you have “out-of-network benefits.” If you do, your insurance company may reimburse you some or most of the cost of seeing a therapist.

Lack of Available Therapists

If you’re struggling to find a therapist in your area, or one with availability when you can be seen, look into remote services. Tele-mental health is a new and growing field within mental health care. If the therapist is licensed in the state where you live and provides tele-mental health services, they would be able to work with you.

Although many therapists feel that seeing each other in person is best, tele-mental health treatment is far more effective than no treatment. Clients of tele-mental health like the convenience of not having to make time to travel to an office location.

Lack of Time

If you’re busy during the day, or all week, you may have trouble finding a psychotherapist who has weekend or evening hours. But they exist! Keep searching for “off-hours availability.” There is a demand for providing psychotherapy services outside of normal business hours, and if you keep looking, you will find a practitioner who can work with you during a time you can be available.

If necessary, talk to your loved ones to identify a good day and time for you to have a weekly appointment. When you have a specific day of the week and time of day in mind, it can help both you and prospective therapists identify possible times to meet.

I’m Convinced — How Do I get Started?

Yes! This is the first step: leaning into the idea of talking to someone, and then taking action steps.

You can get started by doing a little research to find a therapist in your area. If you have a trusted primary care doctor, they may have a referral they highly recommend and can put you in touch with. Sometimes doctors who work within a healthcare system or hospital can make this referral for you directly.

An added benefit of this kind of referral is that the therapist will most likely accept your healthcare insurance, if you plan to use it, because your primary care is most likely someone who already accepts your insurance.

If you’d like to search on your own and you’re located in Canada or the U.S., PsychologyToday.com has an extensive database, which is free to use. You can enter in your location, as well as your health insurance type, gender preference (if you’d prefer to work with a male or female therapist), and issues you want to address in therapy. Your search will provide profiles with photos and information regarding fees and location.

Mental health care practitioners come from a variety of educational backgrounds, and therapists listed on this site may include social workers, psychologists, licensed mental health therapists, and marriage and family therapists. In the U.S., the American Psychological Association also offers a directory for psychologists in your area. You can find this on their Psychologist Locator page at APA.org.

Good luck! Remember that behavior change is hard, and so if your motivation wanes a day or two from now, read this article again. If, once again, you start questioning whether or not you should go to therapy, re-read this article, or talk to a friend who you know goes to therapy.

If you’ve read this, or that more than once, the answer to your question is:

Definitely. You should definitely go to therapy.

The post Why Therapy Can Be Beneficial for Everyone appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

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What Does It Mean to “Find Your Voice”?

2018-10-23T03:46:00.001-07:00

What does it mean to “find your voice,” and more importantly, how does someone actually do that? How do you put beliefs and values into words and then take it a step further and have the courage to express them publicly?

If you have ever found the concept of “finding your voice” difficult, I understand. For a long time, I didn’t share a lot of my experiences or truth online. The main thing holding me back was fear.

I was terrified to share my views on fitness (and the need for more inclusivity), race, and feminism because the last thing I wanted to be labeled as was another “angry black woman.” As a recovering perfectionist, I found the idea even more difficult because I really wanted people to like me.

Over time, I grew increasingly discontent because I found myself saying all the things I thought I should be saying and less and less of what I wanted to be saying.

Although I wanted people to like me, I realized that people could only like the real me if I showed them who I really am.

Where to Start?

Where do you start with “finding your voice”? I suggest asking yourself a few questions.

What am I are passionate about?
What are the things I’m scared to say?
Am I worried about what will people will think?
Am I fearful that I won’t communicate my feelings well?
Am I worried that I don’t have enough expertise?
Am I dealing with imposter syndrome?

If you answered yes to any of the last four questions, don’t be alarmed. I was riddled with fear, doubt, and worry for quite some time. The idea of using my voice and sharing my thoughts publicity seemed unfathomable.

However, finding your voice and speaking your truth is so important. The world needs the message you have to share, and no one else can share it quite like you.

“Speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have.” — Oprah

Here are four tips to help you begin the process of “finding your voice.”

1. Be Authentic

Unapologetically own who you are. There is nothing less satisfying than pretending to be someone you are not. Your quirks, your personality, your point of view, your experiences — those are the things that make you who you are.

Don’t be afraid to show people the real and vulnerable sides of you. In the world of social media, where everything seems perfect and polished, being yourself is a breath of fresh air.

2. Be Clear About Your Message, Your Values, and What You Stand For

Take the time to think critically about what exactly you stand for:

What are your core values?
What is your vision for your life?
What kind of impact do you want to create?

Take the time to discover your values for yourself. Once you have given yourself the space to do this, you can begin to consider how to communicate this information to other people.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Draw a Line in the Sand

As scary as it might seen, drawing a line in the sand about the things you do or don’t stand for is incredibly freeing.

As an intersectional feminism, I take a hard stance on issues of racism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and sexism, among others. Staying neutral is an option that no longer feels comfortable for me.

4. Take Action

Once I stopped being so concerned with what everyone else would think or say, I found the liberation to not only “find my voice” but to actually start using it. Finding your voice ultimately comes down to just doing it. The analogy of ripping off a bandage is quite fitting here.

The first time I shared something that really scared me, I pushed published and hid from the internet for the next four hours.

Doing it afraid is OK. Do it in the face of your fear.

Tips for Navigating Difficult Conversations With Friends, Family, and Clients

While finding your voice is a very gratifying process, the truth remains that it takes a ton of courage, and inevitably there will people in your life who may not enjoy or agree with everything you say or share.

Most people don’t enjoy upsetting the people we care about. However, it’s quite possible that this will happen at some point.

While it will likely never be perfect, there are a few things we can do to make these conversations as productive as possible.

Acknowledge That There Will Be Discomfort

As much as I would love to tell you that one day this will all feel easy, that’s most likely not the case. In fact, there will likely always be some level of discomfort when you draw a line in the sand about your values and decide to share them publicly.

I challenge you to embrace the discomfort and to take it a step further and lean into it. There’s beauty on the other side of discomfort. Finding your voice and having the courage to say hard things is one of the benefits.

Resist the Urge to Make Personal Attacks

It can feel easy to condemn people and get really easily frustrated when people don’t see things our way, particularly when it comes to issues related to politics, race, or sexuality. One of the best things we can do it remain calm.

Resist the urge to make personal attacks or resort to name-calling. I always like to remember that everyone is at a different place in their journey. Many of the views I had in my younger years are not reflective of the person I am now.

Give people the space to grow and change.

That doesn’t mean we have to continue supporting their work or turn a blind eye. It means we can hold people accountable while acknowledging that we should attempt to keep our discourse respectful, even when we are certain they are wrong.

It’s also really important to listen without the intention of attempting to win the argument or debate. So much can get lost when we don’t take the time to actually listen to one another.

Accept That People Will Disagree

As much as we wish all of our friends, families, and clients were as socially conscious as we are, that simply won’t be the case. The sooner we can accept that people will disagree with us, the easier it will be for us in the long run.

At painful as it may sound, there are times where we have to reevaluate our relationships. People change and sometimes our values no longer align with the values of other people in our lives. Sometimes that means the nature of the relationship changes as well.

Don’t Be Afraid of Losing Followers or Subscribers

No matter what you choose to do or not do in life, someone will be unhappy with you. That’s totally OK. Life is not a popularity contest. Losing followers or subscribers as a result of find your voice and speaking your truth is to be expected. But the beauty is that those individuals will be replaced with people who love you for who you are and will appreciate your voice. We aren’t for everybody, and it’s okay if someone doesn’t like us.

When I found my voice and began sharing about struggles with body image and my experiences as a black woman in an industry that lacks inclusivity, I began receiving dozens and dozens of messages from people who not only related to my feelings and experiences, but also appreciated that I put words to things they had been struggling with for years.

My desire to help other people outweighs the fear that comes with sharing my experiences publicly. It has become my responsibility instead of just an option. Finding my voice has become not only an outlet for myself, but a tool to help others as well.

In the words of Audre Lorde, “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

Our collective voices have so much power to create change in the world. The days of silently sitting by the sidelines are over.

Now, more than ever, the world needs us to show up, to put our privilege on the line, and to use our voices to spread awareness.

Let’s choose to be on the right side of history.

The post What Does It Mean to “Find Your Voice”? appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

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