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She told me, “I finally bench pressed 95 pounds! That’s been my goal for a long time and I finally hit it. But, I know it’s not that impressive since there are lots of women who lift much more than that.”

My response: “No, what you mean is, ‘I bench pressed 95 pounds and I’m proud!’ It doesn’t matter how much anyone else is lifting — this is a big personal record you earned. Be proud! There are no qualifiers needed for you relish your achievement.”

Originally published here.

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Anyone who has tried to improve their eating and workout habits knows what it feels like to become overwhelmed by the abundance of information, all the possible workout and diet options, and all the conflicting information.

Sometimes food and fitness can feel annoyingly complicated.

Originally published here.

How the health and fitness industry is causing harm by attaching morality-based judgments to food and fitness.

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An unfortunate union has formed: Health and fitness has entwined with morality.

Originally published here.

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One potential reason for feeling beat up after workouts is from pushing the intensiveness of the exercises too far. Done with many exercises for several consecutive workouts (or weeks of workouts), pushing each set to the near limit may lead to that “beat up” feeling.

The trend I’ve noticed with some trainees (certainly not all) is that they may feel “beat up” or overly fatigued from working out because they incorrectly applied a guideline commonly used in strength training programs.

Originally published here.

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Getting back into a workout routine can seem more challenging than starting one for the first time.

Depending on how long the break from working out was, the results you worked so hard to achieve may have diminished; the momentum you built may have vanished. Rather than having “nowhere to go but up” like when you started working out the first time, it feels like you’re starting from a point of regression, and this can be frustrating.

Originally published here.