I can’t remember what year it was that I started teaching fitness. I know I got certified by AFAA in 2000 and waited two years to teach. I wanted to make sure that I knew my stuff before I stood up in front of a crowd and claimed to be knowledgable. The joke was, of […]
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Tags: alignment, big box gym, exercise science, fitness, joy, movement, restorative exercise, science, wisdom
Posted in Movement • 3 Comments »
One of the coolest parts of my job is figuring out why people move the way they do. Our bodies are living, breathing, moving monuments to our history of experience. Take me, for example. I took ballet for thirteen years and have worked very hard for the past seven to rid myself of the automatic […]
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Tags: abdominal, alignment, ballet, band, bodies, dance, feet, gait, marching, military, movement, posture, ribs, walking
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I’ve mentioned a few times that I am reluctant to bid summer farewell. I love the heat, I love the freedom, I love the long days. But, as it does every year, fall arrives and when it does I am reminded that Atlanta is at her finest in autumn. We got a little taste of […]
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Tags: adaptation, climbing, exercise science, hanging, progression, swinging, trees
Posted in Movement, Raising Kids • No Comments »
Twice a week, I teach an hour-long class at a big box gym. The goals of the class, as outlined by the national headquarters are: strength, core, range of motion and caloric expenditure. We use hand weights, and I walk the class through about forty minutes of mainly compound movements, coupled with some body weight […]
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Tags: energy, exercise, fitness, group fitness instruction, living fully, movement, weight loss
Posted in Movement • 3 Comments »
The more I’ve learned about the human body, and the longer I’ve lived in mine, the more I’ve come to reject our culture’s notions of what it means to be “fit” and “healthy.” I could explain it a lot of ways, but it can be easily summed up by saying I no longer look at pictures […]
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Tags: cardio, culture, fitness, gym, gym culture, mirror muscles, paradigm shift, paradigms, resilience, robustness, vitality, wellness
Posted in Movement, Wellness • 4 Comments »
I’ve been swimming once a week for the past few months. Last week, as I finished, another patron was waiting for my lane. We exchanged hellos and he asked if the water was warm. “I don’t usually swim. I’m a runner.” But, this,” he said, motioning to a very swollen, purple ankle. Turns out, he […]
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Tags: compensation patterns, FMS, Functional Movement Screen, injury, movement, Neurokinetic Therapy, NKT, pain, recurrent injury, running
Posted in Alignment, Movement, Pain • No Comments »
In my post Compensation, And Not the Money Kind, I wrote about how the body gets around deficiencies in strength and mobility by recruiting other parts of the body to accomplish the task at hand. While I am not trained sufficiently to identify many individualized compensation patterns, there are recurring ones I see in my […]
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Tags: alignment, compensation, compensation patterns, momentum, movement patterns, muscles, pacing, speed
Posted in Movement, Uncategorized • No Comments »
Regular readers know that I am studying to be a Restorative Exercise Specialist through Katy Bowman’s Restorative Exercise Institute. Not surprisingly, I incorporate much of what I learn into the classes that I teach. Both through my RES studies and the work I’ve done independently, I’ve become fascinated by the compensation patterns that the body adopts. […]
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Tags: back pain, compensation, compensation patterns, FMS, Functional Movement Screen, hip, hip flexion, lumbar, lumbar spine, movement, Neurokinetic Therapy, NKT, restorative exercise
Posted in Mobility, Movement • No Comments »
This isn’t going to be one of those posts where I tell you to put down your cellphone because “they’re only little once.” I have three kids, and sometimes the first eight minutes on the playground represent the only chunk of the day that I have to return phone calls, emails and texts without someone screaming, […]
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Tags: cardiovascular, climbing, exercise, hanging, kids, movement, movement patterns, parenting, play, playground, raising kids, resistance training, variability
Posted in Movement, Raising Kids • 5 Comments »
Critical thought. It’s probably the unifying theme to this blog. I apply it to the subjects that interest me the most: nutrition, wellness, emotional well-being, parenting, birth and pregnancy, breastfeeding, movement, relationships, the media’s perspectives on women and mothering … and more. I thought it would be fun today to share with you a list […]
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Tags: alignment, biomechanics, critical thought, instructors, movement, thinking, yoga
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