Working with women and showing them what they are capable of in the gym lights me up. Over my last 10 years as a personal trainer who has connected with many women, I have found that most of us ladies grew up keeping our voices as small as possible, as well as our bodies.

Fortunately, times are changing. Women seem to be speaking up for themselves more boldly (unless this is a result of getting older :), and they are learning that putting on muscle (coined “the organ of longevity”) and getting physically stronger can help with metabolism, overall health and quality of life.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that speaking up for yourself, putting on muscle and gaining physical strength are often times uncomfortable tasks. If you are not familiar with setting boundaries and saying what you really want, then pushing out of your comfort zone to do so will take some mental gymnastics practice and can be physically unsettling. Putting on muscle and getting stronger is somewhat similar – both tasks require pushing yourself out of your physical and mental limits in order to make progress.

So while these tasks can be difficult to take on, they are rewarding to undertake. Whether it’s gaining lean muscle tissue and/or having a stronger body, each are capable of increasing your tolerance to stress. Life never gets easier, but we can get better at dealing with some of it. Emotions and tough times live on a spectrum, and all deserve a place to be acknowledged. Breakups, deaths, losing jobs, you name it…all result in heavy emotions such as grief, anger, sadness and more. And although these emotions are no fun to feel, it is best that they are felt and not ignored.

One huge reason I am so passionate about strength training with women is because of its potential for better stress tolerance. Essentially, that’s what good exercise programming does. A program that follows what fitness professionals refer to as “progressive overload” (the gradual increase of STRESS placed upon the body during physical activity/training) should teach your body to adapt to specific physical effects of stress. As long as other factors in your life are being taken care of (such as sleep, nutrition, lifestyle, psychology and relationships), the tolerance to deal with increased stress should slowly increase.

Stress is experienced by both the mind and the body, so learning to better adapt to the qualities that challenge the body and its physiology in the gym can have influences on how you manage stressors outside the gym. I have found that when you can tolerate stress more mindfully (MINDFULLY is the key) in the gym, you increase your ability to do so outside of the gym. Sitting with our physical discomfort can expand our ability to sit with mental distress.

As Pat Ogden (creator of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy) once said, “In our bodies, in this moment, there live the seed impulses of the change and spiritual growth we seek, and to awaken them we must bring our awareness into the body, into the here and now.”

Strength training is one outlet that can connect you deeper to your body and your mind, allowing you to live a fuller and richer life.
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Katie Mack is a personal trainer out of Treasure Coast, Florida who specializes in strength training and body composition changes for women. She offers remote customized fitness programming and nutrition guidance. Learn more about her at www.katiemackfitness.com and feel free to contact her at Katie@KatieMackFitness.com

The post Beyond Small Voices and Bodies appeared first on Karjaka Magazine.

AK: If you’re like me you’ve gotten a bit lost in the daily home routine, and have been munching non-stop for the past eight weeks. For some of us, creative cooking has become the highlight of Covid and along with that… an expanding waistline. In an effort to calm our carb chaotic lifestyles, I reached out to Katie Mack of Katie Mack Fitness for some eating and nutrition tips before we run to our trainers at the gym, hopefully in the near future. 

KM: EATING HABITS
Before any meal or snack, try your best to relax and take 10 deep breathes from your rib cage down into your pelvis. Your rib cage is where your lungs are located, and attached to the bottom of your ribs is your diaphragm – also known as your “breathing muscle” that looks like a parachute. When you inhale, think of your rib cage filling up like a balloon and your diaphragm as a jellyfish sinking down into your pelvic floor. As you fully exhale, your rib cage “deflates” and your diaphragm floats back up. Pause for 2-4 seconds at the end of the exhale and repeat 

• After you take a bite of food, put down your food/fork/spoon and finish chewing what’s in your mouth. THIS MAY BE WAY HARDER THAN IT SEEMS! Chewing your food completely will set you up for better digestion and force you to slow down.

• Sip – don’t gulp – your drinks. Try to get in 2-3 liters of water a day.

Enjoy and appreciate your food and drinks. Taste the tastes, smell the scents, feel the textures. Being mindful this way can bring you into the present moment and allow for a calmer experience with better digestion.

NUTRITION 101:

Make sure your diet includes all three macronutrients: protein, carbs, and fat. Unless you have dietary restrictions or health issues, it’s important to know that each macro(nutrient) has beneficial effects on your overall health. Limiting one macro long-term may lead to nutritional deficiencies.

• Try to have some sort of protein with every meal/snack. Protein is usually the macronutrient that I see most lacking in client diets, and protein has so many benefits that our body will thank us for.
• Don’t forget your fruits and vegetables. While some people have issues digesting certain veggies, most people can benefit from eating a wide variety each day. Shoot for a RAINBOW of colors!
• Shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Most foods in the aisles are processed and unnatural. The more real food you can eat the better!

“Messing up”

When you’re stuck in a loop of guilt, shame or punishment for eating “bad”, you are not in a place of love and cannot move on. Forgive yourself if your head is in a negative loop, and make a better decision next. The more you beat yourself up the more self-sabotage and harm you will do.

Katie Mack is a NYC-based personal trainer who uses strength training and fitness in a way that focuses on improving both physical and emotional/mental wellbeing.  Trauma of any sort impacts our mind AND body – through measures and aspects such as blood pressure, heart rate, posture, senses, and self-image. With this in mind, we can use the body as a tool to help restore or improve these factors. Strength training, mindful movement and fitness are ways in which we may improve heart health, get more grounded and energetic, and create feelings of power, strength, stability and resilience. Contact Katie for a complimentary 20 minute Zoom Call today!

The post Observational Eating appeared first on Karjaka Magazine.