Looking a fresh, new take on health, fitness and wellness? Check out the five blogs we’ve been reading this week.
Thrive with Jen Sinkler
Jen’s goal is simple: to make getting strong and living well as fun a prospect as possible, to teach new skills and share great recipes, and to dig into fitness fashion and clean body-care products. She is a highly experience fitness writer and editorial director, trains clients at a gym that she owns with her husband, is a USA Weightlifting Oly lifting coach, and played rugby for 13 years – talk about busy!
With all of her experience, she often writes posts with advice on how to perform certain exercises more effectively; here is what she says about the bench press:
Get a grip, Let the bar settle, Tuck your elbows in (but not too much) on the descent, Get your flare on during the ascent
MindBodyGreen
If you aren’t already reading MindBodyGreen, you need to be! MindBodyGreen is dedicated to bringing together fresh perspectives on a wide variety of topic. They want to help their readers reach their best lives: mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and environmentally – because these are all connected, after all.
In one of their latest posts by Becky LaChance, an avid marathon runner. Becky organized an outdoor strength sequence is featured that will help you get a “marathon-ready body.” Here are the exercises that Becky suggests if you’re getting prepped for an upcoming race:
- V-ups
- Lateral lunges
- Pull-ups
- Lunges
- Side planks
If you’re looking for running advice from anyone, it should probably be from her. Becky has 5 full marathons and 12 half marathons currently on her record.
Neghar Fonooni
Neghar (often going simply by “Neg”) is dedicated to teaching women how to love their bodies and empower their lives. She is a coach, speaker, and writer – often writing about skills, fitness, lifestyle guidance, parenting, and feminism. In a recent post, she confessed to sometimes skipping workouts (and states that that is a-okay). We loved this little nugget of advice for when hitting the gym is the last thing you want to do:
Reframe your reasons: if you’re reasons for working out are too focused on achieving an “ideal” body, it may be beneficial to reframe your reasons for heading to the gym. Try focusing on having fun, moving for the sake of moving, and you may find that your workouts are easier to complete.
Jessi Kneeland
Jessi is a coach, teacher, speaker, and writer dedicated to helping women love their bodies. She is not passionate about helping people change their bodies, but rather about helping them love, trust, accept, and embrace their bodies.
In a post titled, “Dear Self, I Love You,” she talks about how she recently instructed a client to rave about herself.
“This is something I do in my workshops as well– I force beautiful, wonderful women to endure the horrendous torture that is standing up in front of a group and bragging about herself honestly, until the timer is up.”
“The person doing the bragging often learns a lot about how powerfully she has bought into certain social guidelines, and it opens an important discussion on what it would look like to really “own” your strengths, gifts, power, and beauty.”
Take a lesson from Jessi, every once in awhile, brag about yourself (either in private, in-person, or online), you’ll likely find a whole new perspective on your own beauty.
Workout Mommy
Lisa started Workout Mommy in 2007 to discuss finding time for yourself during the 24/7 job of being a mom. “My goal with this blog is to provide motivation, inspiration, and ideas on how to fit in exercise, fitness, and health in your busy day. After all, a fit mommy is a happy mommy! (and for me, it also helps keep my sanity in check!)”
Sometimes a workout can come from an unexpected source – like standup paddle boarding, as Lisa discovered one afternoon.
“The paddling provides a great arm and shoulder workout. Your arms and legs will have to do a ton of work to keep you moving and standing up. Even though you are on the water, you will sweat! The great part is if you get a board leash, you can just jump in to cool off and then get back on the board!”
When given the random chance to get a workout in – take it – you may find a new skill that you really enjoy!
