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Molly is drawn by a Fit2B Studio member in New York, Lynn Andrews, and this one is about our mama needing rest more than exercise. I might be the strangest fitness CEO in the world because I’m quick to encourage resting, but my clients need every bit they can get!

I sure love Lynn’s art! And I’ve so been in Molly’s shoes. Finally get some time to myself, sit down to take care of some “me” things, and fall dead asleep! Can I just say that if this happens to you a lot, it’s your sign – a sign that you’re exhausted and to rest when you can. We all need movement, but keep it gentle if you are already tired. A tough, strenuous “psyche yourself out” routine will just elevate your cortisol (stress hormone) more!

I’m not sure I’ve ever been a fan of “working out” every day of the week if you think of exercise as being 30 minutes of keeping your heart rate up… I mean, isn’t my heart rate as a mom always up and aren’t I always moving? Ha! Well, no… but even sitting and nursing for 11 hours a day (low average for newborn mothers) can be exhausting and use tons of energy. So I applaud my members who listen to their bodies and take a day or even a week off when needed. Hey, and if your house gets hit with the stomach flu, you might need two weeks. At least you know {thank to THIS ARTICLE right here} how to include your core in daily life, right?

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

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Every personal trainer and fitness instructor worth their weight knows about “The Principle of Progression.” It means that you start with small motions and work up to bigger motions. It means you start with light weights and work up to heavier weights. It means that – as a fitness pro – you have to be willing to work with newbies, and it means that – as a client – you have to admit that you are a BEGINNER and a LEARNER…

…And that is NOT a popular notion that sells big in this “make everyone feel good about themselves” world. Think about it: A trainer offers an overweight client two programs, one of which is labeled, “Simple workouts designed to slowly improve your waistline.” The other is labeled “Killer workout to shred that waistline in 6 weeks or less!” If you are desperate to be the biggest loser, which one do you pick?

Here’s a better question: why is the client doing the picking?

I believe my clients are smart, but they are hiring ME to do what I have been trained to do BEST. The client doesn’t have a degree! The client hasn’t been trained and mentored for YEARS… and neither have a LOT of trainers and instructors out there! I know a few trainers who think that giving a client their best means giving them their HARDEST moves. They’ve taught their clients to pursue pain!

But I believe in playing safe, because each of my clients only has one body to ruin.

• Trainers and instructors should have the know-how and education to analyze their clients at a glance (After 6 years of caliper tests and hand-held bio-electrical impedence measurements and 16 years in the fitness industry, I can guesstimate a person’s body-fat percentage within 2% and whether they have a diastasis just by looking at them!)

• Trainers should NOT be training every client the same, yet the average open-all-day fitness center insists on very little real training for their online-certified supplement peddlers! True story, and I’m working on getting one trainer I know personally to write what happened to her on a blog on here.

• Instructors should NOT be forced to teach canned classes where one routine is used for every fitness level in a class for full that one wrong move would result in a black eye! A seasoned instructor can see one person struggling and adapt the whole class without them even realizing it!

The Dirty Story: When I was working for a club – that shall remain nameless because I am scared of the power in the story I am about to tell – I had the chance to start teaching canned “body” classes. I would need to buy the choreography and the music myself and have myself filmed in my bra top doing the moves perfectly, and then that video would be send off for review. If whatever stranger watced my video deemed my body and my parroted moves worthy, then I would be eligible to teach said moves for THREE months before learning the next routine – which didn’t have to be videotaped. I was told I would make up to $10 more per hour! Being the poor college student I was, I started the training… Until a notion I was learning in my UNIVERSITY level fitness courses stopped me cold: The Principle of Progression. Where was it in the choreography? If I couldn’t deviate…  if I couldn’t slow the class down to bring one person in the group up to speed for fear of being thrown off by one beat… if a certain exercise wouldn’t work for the pregnant woman in the back… if the research changed and suddenly I found myself teaching something that no longer aligned with modern facts… If they forced me to teach a “controversial” move… what would I do???

I was told that I would be eventually be “let go” if I didn’t go along with this new group style of teaching. I was told that if I did choose to “buy into” the program … and every instructor has to make an investment in these programs, which sometimes the clubs reimburse a little bit… that if I deviated from the choreography one bit and was reported, I would be demoted and dropped to a lower level of payment and not given choice class selection.

I chose to not buy in. I chose to not sell out. I chose to be my own girl, my own instructor. My classes were smaller, and eventually I was “downsized due to class size.” I was fine with that. Those programs kept the instructors in a constant stress and tizzy trying to keep up. Meanwhile, instead of trying to keep up with a corporate brand’s notion of what would work for a mass of 50 people crammed into one room, I finished my degree and learned how to dissect muscle tissue, read statistics, talk with researchers, manage a fitness club, and THINK FOR MYSELF!

I just had a long conversation with a few trainer gals on linked in who did “buy in,” and a couple of them couldn’t – literally COULD not, did not have the ability to – open their minds to the concept of no crunches and no planks because … well, I’ll let you read it if you care to join the group and follow this link. Notice the people she works for and the brochure she attaches, claiming that it is safe for pregnant women. Notice how I state precisely why three of the exercises in that brochure are NOT safe, and how open the original poster is… but then see who jumps into the fray and what they say!!! I admit I got a wee bit testy at one point… I’m not sure if it’s good that they let me have the final word…

But what is sad and scary about all this, is that garbage like this doesn’t just happen face-to-face in athletic clubs and fitness centers where clients and members are trained by lazy people who have run out of ideas and are willing to take orders from a corporation! It also happens everyday on supermarket shelves selling exercise videos and equipment, and the average Joe or Joe-Mama inevitably picks the workout regime that promises the most gain…even if it brings the most pain. All because the half-naked models on the cover (who were photo-shopped) offered to tear them to pieces with the subtle promise that those rippling, lean muscles are attainable within weeks!?!?

We are NOT about pain here. We want you to say “oooooh, I feel that” not “OWWWW, I tore something and won’t be able to walk right for a week!” Our workouts are relaxing and build upon each other. You’ll start learning about yoga in a chair! You’ll be a real beginner as you discover a few muscles that don’t get talked about in big group fitness classes (unless you’re in one of mine!)

Our members are directed through specific pathways of progression that allow them to track their progress and see how they’re advancing. We start small and slow, and that means we aren’t as sexy in the selling department because we aren’t showing our six-pack and bouncing around, yelling at you in our bra-excuse for a sports top. Because BECAUSE because…

true fitness is NOT about what you see on the outside after six weeks of connective tissue-shredding workouts you don’t care to EVER repeat! True fitness – the kind that starts on the inside and outside all at once and then meets in the middle – leaves you excited to exercise again because it was enjoyable and soothing and fun!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Before I became a mother, I thought fitness would be just as easy as it had been for me all my life. “I’ll just put the baby in the stroller and go for a jog!” I wasn’t accounting for a screaming baby half-way down the block, leading to a let-down that would soak through two sports-bras, leading to a quick return back to the house. “I’ll just put the baby in childcare while I teach at the gym.” I wasn’t accounting for baby getting sick, making it impossible to put baby in said child-care. Well, as a fitness expert, I just adapted my workouts to staying home.

But other moms I talked to weren’t so fortunate. They had simply given up on their fitness, saying they would wait until their kids were back in school and they would have more time to work out! They had no desire to watch home fitness videos that left them hurting and bulging more while the instructor – who has never had a child and doesn’t want children – barely broke a sweat. Me, I sweat right along with you. I crack jokes. I involve my kids. I make this about you and your family.

Don’t put yourself on hold until your kids are bigger, or you have more time, or you look good enough to join a gym (backwards), or your husband says you can, or your best friend joins with you. Start taking care of yourself today! Think of the example you are setting. Think of the kind of mother you want your daughter to be. Think of the kind of woman you want your son to marry. Be that woman. Be the healthy, vibrant, energetic, fun-loving girlfriend that your man fell in love with!

You can set an example of health and get your vibe back with just 30 minutes a day of movement. And it doesn’t have to kill you! I love a good, hard workout like anyone else…okay maybe not everyone likes that sort of thing…but if you’ve just had a baby or you’re just getting back into the swing of exercise 15 years after your last baby, Fit2B Studio is the perfect place to start small. I am working so hard to give moms what they need. You don’t need Jillian Michaels. You need someone you can relate to you, someone who’s been there. Someone who understands the specific needs of a mother’s body, which are VERY different than a pre-baby woman’s body. Email me today at beth@fit2b.us and let me put together a program for you! I promise conversation, connection and steady results – and they will NOT hurt you or make your belly bigger

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Whether you worship the “Universe” or the One who breathed it into existence – or even if you don’t worship anything at all – it seems we all have stages of life where a certain soul-message is continuously weaved through every single situation we experience. Things that happen to us, things we observe and hear – all of life – often seems to find the same rhythm, resulting in a repetitive theme. And after a while we cannot ignore the common thread of recognizable notes humming, pulsing and chanting louder and louder until enlightenment breaks into epiphany…

A multitude of life lessons screamed at me last week as plans unraveled, surprise events appeared on my calendar and unexpected gains and tragic losses became ocean swells growing larger and coming closer, crashing over and over onto the shores of my consciousness. It was little waves like revving the car and the children up for a trip to the library only to find it closed. But it was also huge heart-sweeping waves like the sudden loss of three precious lives: my childhood babysitter to fast-moving cancer, my junior-high camp director to cardiac arrest during knee surgery, and my sister’s father-in-law to a horrific hit-and-run accident.

The undulating message of these events and situations kept washing the same “message in a bottle” onto my shore: Life cannot be planned and bent to our will. We say we will go here and there tomorrow, but we may or may not. The car will come out of nowhere. The cancer will fester into every cell. Hearts will arrest, and the library hours will change. Phone calls will be missed, and the stomach flu will spoil everything, and the pool will get holes, and the summer will be all rain.

Rocks will fall from mountainsides, all jagged and jumbled, and that is how I felt this past week: tumbled down and left in a heap. But if nothing will go according to plan, where do I spend my energy, my love, my time, my heart, my soul … or is that even a choice? Because I was trying to choose how to spend myself last week, yet nothing went according to MY plans … Then I remembered how that the sum of life is to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with my Lord (Micah 6:8).

All I can really plan is to love my family, my friends, my community and my God through every wave that crashes upon my life. We are like those jagged rocks when we first fall, but then wave after wave of experience and epiphany tumble us into smoothness. We cannot choose the waves, but we can choose to trust the Ocean and the maker of that ocean who rolls us and sands us and sheers pieces of our vain selves off to make lighter and smoother … What message is washing up on the shore of your universe?

 ”Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees … ” Isaiah 44:23

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Working out is important, but our fitness usually comes in last when it comes to organizing our schedules. Then again, what mom or dad of little ones really has a schedule? When our children are tiny, it seems like a whole day of diapers, feedings, play-dates, doctor appointments and messes can just fly by without a thought of fitting in fitness. But setting aside time to exercise should be a big rock in your schedule, and here’s why …

First, ask yourself what is REALLY important to you … For me, time to myself for reading the Bible, relaxing and working out, time with my kids and time with my husband are all super valuable “big rocks” in my day. Believe it or not, I see my business as several medium rocks that fits nicely around those bigger rocks. If I were to fill my schedule – my jar – with all the small “sand” items first, then I wouldn’t have room or time for the medium and large items of importance.

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Neatness and fitness don’t usually go together, or do they? Housework is not my favorite thing. Even though the result is a clean house, it still somehow feels like a waste of my time when I’d rather be planning a new workout or editing. Long ago, I took Flylady‘s advice and lumped a bunch of housework together, creating an hour-long routine that got me and the house in shape.

1. Warm-up by dusting, moving about the whole house, giving a quick swipe at anything dusty.
2. Bump up the intensity by getting those cobwebs, reaching high and low with a cloth on a stick.
3. Give every hard surface a good rub-down with a cleaner of your choice. Work those arms!
4. Vacuum to get that heart rate up there! Remember to switch arms several times, and lunge with the legs.
5. Do a little mopping or get down on hands and knees for some spot cleaning. Make big circles and remember to hold your tummy in the whole time!
6. Time to take a cool-down stroll around the house, straightening pictures, putting out fresh towels, and replacing little necessities.

If you do all that back-to-back, you’ll work up a light sweat and burn some major calories, all while taking care of your home. Let the kids join in by handing them their own little dusting cloths and cleaning rags. Multi-tasking at its finest blesses you and those around you!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

I hear Dr. Phil’s voice in my head right now saying, “How’s that workin’ for you?” I’ll admit that it was working just fine until we firmed up the dates for the big family reunion of summer 2011. Two details about the reunion really stood out to me. One: It is my husband’s family, and they are marathon runners and decathletes. Two: It is in Missouri where it will be hot, and the marathon-running decathlete-types and I will all be wearing swimsuits. You get the idea …
 
So with the purest of motives (i.e. Get a hot body fast!) I joined Fit2B Studio. I intended to do some yoga and tell myself that at least I tried, but – I’ll tell you – the yoga has been really fun and addictive. And you’re not going to believe the set of unique “before” and “after” pictures I’ve got to prove it. I’ve been at it for three weeks now, and it quickly went from a midmorning half-hearted-go, to three-times-a-day of something I really enjoy. And I won the bonus prize: Energy! 
 

 
A little more about Traci …
Traci Tyne Hilton is the author of Foreclosed: A Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery available on Amazon. In addition to writing, Traci is a die-hard children’s ministry worker. Story telling is her favorite job in the ministry but she is not at all above making and serving them snacks or leading them in wild games.

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

It doesn’t matter if you are late to my classes, online or in the club. My focus isn’t ruined by your tardiness, and I tell people all the time that, “Something is always better than nothing.” In the physical realm this is true. If you don’t have an hour, then exercise for 20 minutes. As long as you do a few longer workouts here and there, you’ll probably be fine. But the spiritual realm of our faith isn’t like that.

In his amazing book Crazy Love, Francis Chan asks a tough question. “Can we follow our own course while still calling ourselves followers … So can we join the Marines, so to speak, without having to do all the work?” If you grew up in a rigid religion, then the notion of faith might seem very similar to the military, but Semper Fidelis means “always faithful.” Chan goes on to say, “God doesn’t just want us to have good theology. He wants us to know him and love him.”

As a preacher and evangelist, Chan gets questions all the time about how far people can go, how long they can hang onto their habits and still get into heaven. “To me, these questions are tragic because they reveal much about the state of our hearts. They demonstrate that our concern is more about going to heaven than loving…”

I do this. The spiritual journey, my path, my Yoga of Devotion  – or Bhakti Yoga – sometimes seems to ask too much of me. I am a wife, mother, fitness entrepreneur … If I am exhausted at the end of the day and only mutter a quick prayer as I nod off to sleep, isn’t The Divine wise and gracious enough to accept that that’s all I have to give on some days? I will conclude with the following paragraph that caused me to stop pedaling as I read it while exercising on my recumbent (while my kids watched Dora Explorer upstairs…

“When we put it plainly like this – as a direct choice between God and our stuff – most of us hope we would choose God. But we need to realize that how we spend our time, what our money goes toward, and where we will invest our energy is equivalent to choosing God or rejecting him. How could we think for even a second that something on this puny little earth compares to the Creator and Sustainer and Savior of it all?”

Something isn’t better than nothing when God gave us everything: the breath of life, teacher, prophets, his own Son on a cross, heaven… Can I not give my every asana, my every prayer, my every dream in return?

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!

Why has it taken me five years to get it? I had my first child five years ago and went from every workout being paid for and planned as part of my job to having to find ways to fit in fitness on my own. At first I tried to keep teaching aerobics …  Have you ever tried getting out of the house with a crying three month-old, driving to the babysitters, crying as you drive away, working out at the gym for 45 minutes, driving back to the sitters, quickly nursing baby to take some pressure out of the ol’ sports bra, and driving home? No, you haven’t? Well let me tell you: I quickly learned that the money I made teaching one class was not worth the time and effort and anxiety it was costing both me and said baby. So I started doing more stuff at home. I cut my class schedule, only teaching when my hubby could be home with the munchkins. However, this left me with a lot of un-exercised days on my thighs. I would jolt awake in the middle of the night and think, “Dangit! I haven’t exercised in three days!” This also meant I hadn’t showered in three days because I always shower after I exercise. Funny how I was more worried about the exercise than the shower at that midnight hour … After five years, I have finally got it, though. I finally know that exercise has to be a habit. It was a habitual part of my job routine, and it has to be a habitual part of my mom routine. I try to do it after the same event each day. For me, it’s waking up and climbing right onto the recumbent with my hand weights. If I miss that event, then it’s later at night right after I put the kids to bed. If I sit down on the couch, it’s over. It ain’t happenin’! As you begin making fitness a habit, think about your day’s routines. Where would you be able to best fit 15 to 20 minutes of our Fit2B workouts? Is there an activity that would be a good segue into a quick workout? It only takes 21 days to establish a new habit. Make yourself a check-chart and reward yourself when you hit 21 days. If I can do it, so you can you!

Thank you for reading the Fit2Blog today! What are your thoughts about what you read? Please leave a reply or a question, and be sure you’re taking advantage of our amazing TummySafe™ workouts!