There’s lots of folks out there who want to be stronger and build muscle. Only a small percentage of them can commit to 4-5 training sessions a week, an hour more at a time, doing the most effective, optimal exercises year in and year out. Barriers include, but are not limited to: So, here’s aContinue reading “Can Intuitive Lifting Lead Us Towards a More Inclusive Lifting Space?”
Category Archives: Lifting
Lifting with Tigers in the Room
I have PTSD and lifting weights can trigger me. I love lifting weights, and I’ve spent the last half year or so trying to figure out how I can keep lifting in my life. What I have learned is that lifting, for me, for now, requires that I practice radical self-acceptance–listening to all the subtleContinue reading “Lifting with Tigers in the Room”
How much do genetics define our physique results and how much should we care?
At 16, I dreamt of becoming a geneticist–that or the lead singer/songwriter for a band. Genetics was a new and exciting scientific frontier (whereas my songwriting admittedly didn’t mesh with the then-current Pacific NW grunge scene). Back in the Nineties, we believed that we could unlock the genetic code of anyone and read each ofContinue reading “How much do genetics define our physique results and how much should we care?”
“Don’t make it about weight loss,” Barbell Medicine Ep. #194: September 2022 Research Review
Imagine two scenarios: in one, a patient goes to the doctor and exhibits high blood pressure, and the doctor prescribes a medication and says in passing, “oh, and it wouldn’t hurt to start exercising.” In the second scenario, the doctor sits the patient down, discusses the pros and cons of starting medication right away andContinue reading ““Don’t make it about weight loss,” Barbell Medicine Ep. #194: September 2022 Research Review”
Moving towards a more compassionate lifting culture
I have this vision. I want to believe we can create a space that marries two worlds–on one side, the world of bodybuilding and strength training and on the other side, the compassionate, values-driven world of habit-based nutrition and wellness. Bodybuilding and strength training have so many wonderful things to give–empowerment through literal increases inContinue reading “Moving towards a more compassionate lifting culture”
The Importance of Inclusive Examples
How do I color like a 4-year-old? The question perplexed me. I was fourteen, working my first “real” job at a daycare center, and I’d been given the instruction that when I join them for creative tasks, I was to protect the children’s self-esteem by not working too far ahead of their abilities. So, asContinue reading “The Importance of Inclusive Examples”
The Value of Resilience and Lazy Metaphors
What do you do when life throws you a curveball?(1) Do your systems collapse? Do you rigidly adhere to what you think is best or most optimal and hope you can hold it all together until things settle down? Or do you practice flexibility and self-compassion, allow things to change as they need to butContinue reading “The Value of Resilience and Lazy Metaphors”
Fitting Lifting into Life
I love lifting; it is not my life. Lifting is something I do to enhance my life. It’s a means to an end, not an end of its own. I think it’s important to know these distinctions for ourselves so when the times come that we must make priorities, we are able to more accuratelyContinue reading “Fitting Lifting into Life”
“There’s more to this bodybuilding thing than getting jacked and tanned,” 3DMJ Ep. #203: The Unexpected Ways Bodybuilding Makes You Stronger
What is the deeper learning that can come from healthy relationship with bodybuilding? Lifting weights consistently, learning the skills that allow us to push hard, to be organized and committed for years at a time, to play the long game, these are some of the wins that can transfer from bodybuilding to the rest ofContinue reading ““There’s more to this bodybuilding thing than getting jacked and tanned,” 3DMJ Ep. #203: The Unexpected Ways Bodybuilding Makes You Stronger”
My Take on the Sumo Debate
Is the Sumo deadlift cheating? There’s a lot of discussion in the evidence-based space and once again, it’s a discussion being had between elite strength and physique athletes who are men. So, what’s missing from this conversation? Rather than debating the relative efficacy of sumo versus conventional, limb lengths, angles, which is quad dominant orContinue reading “My Take on the Sumo Debate”
Progressive Strength 