Mary Spencer's Blog

So you’ve decided to hire a coach. Congratulations! This is a significant step in your fitness journey, and one that you may take several times over as you progress in your goals and in your abilities. While exciting, this can also be a very confusing time. How do you know who a “good” coach is? What should you look for? How do you know if your coach is the right fit for you? Decisions like these don’t often come with a manual, and it can be difficult to know where to start. I’ve coached hundreds of clients over the years, and one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is to listen, drop my biases (as much as I can) to be present in the moment, and coach each client as an individual, partnering with them on their fitness journey to help guide them to that to which they aspire. After hours of listening, I’ve learned that when first hiring a coach, many people go with the first trainer they find without giving it too much thought. Unfortunately, sometimes this experience doesn’t go...

Name: Melissa Butler Age: 46 Location: Nashville, TN How did you find out about Girls Gone Strong?  While trying to figure out what kind of program to follow, I began to read community posts in My Fitness Pal, where I found several groups specifically for women who lift. Several threads mentioned Girls Gone Strong, and I began to check out the GGS website periodically and follow the group on Facebook. I continued to stumble around for a while longer, until, fortunately for me, I saw a post about the 5-Day Get Results Jumpstart program. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try out GGS and see if it was what I was looking for. What does being a part of the Girl Gone Strong community mean to you?  GGS offers everything that I was missing in my strength training practice. From the very beginning, I loved that the workouts incorporated all kinds of movement and offered substitutions and adjustments for my ability level. The video library has proven invaluable, a...

Do you know the bird dog? While, at first glance, this bodyweight exercise may not seem very challenging, its magic is definitely in the quality of the execution! Want to know why and how you should add this exercise to your own repertoire? Read on! What Are the Benefits of the Bird Dog? The bird dog’s benefits are numerous, and the exercise can be used to do any or all of the following, depending how it’s used in the workout (more on that later): Warm up the body before performing more advanced exercise variations, or as part of a general warm-up. Increase core strength, including the anterior core, the posterior core and the glutes. Even out asymmetries and imbalances between the left and right sides. Reduce the risk of injuries, particularly any that may result from a weak anterior core and the subsequent pelvic and spinal stability issues that may follow. One of the best things about the bird dog is that it can essentially be performed anywhere, as it requires no equipmen...

While we as a culture work to confront the crisis of sexual violence, we have witnessed waves of survivor disclosures via movements like #MeToo , #TimesUp , and #NotOkay . For the health, safety, and emotional wellbeing of survivors of sexual violence, it is critically important that support providers — including friends and family members — be prepared to provide positive, helpful reactions to survivors who come forward. This article aims to outline the difference between positive and negative reactions to sexual violence as identified in the fields of clinical psychology and criminology. Our hope is that this piece will better prepare readers to provide loving, compassionate support to the survivors in their lives who choose to disclose, and to contribute to a safer culture for survivors regardless of their disclosure decision. Positive and Negative Reactions Social reactions to disclosures of violence have a significant impact on health outcomes for survivors, and are commonly ch...

My mother never taught me how to be physically strong. Sure, she showed me what it meant to be mentally strong, emotionally strong, and transcend strength into my work, education, and personal aspirations — but being physically strong was not something I learned from her. I wish it had been though. Sure, she brought me to soccer practice five days a week and watched my games on the weekends. She made me go to conditioning for swim team when I definitely did not want to. She supported my dreams of becoming a starting center on the basketball team only to have those dreams thwarted when I didn’t grow past 5’1”. And she did it all with a smile on her face while making extensive sacrifices in her own life, and for that I thank her endlessly. But I wish she had been the one to show me how to work with weights. I wish she had been the one to put a dumbbell in my hand. I wish she had showed me how to wield a barbell, instead of thinking a man had to be the one to do it. Knowing what I kn...

Note: for the sake of this article, the terms “victim” and “survivor” will be used interchangeably, as individuals who experience sexual violence often feel a connection to one or both of these terms. Sexual violence — defined as any sexual act committed against someone without that individual’s freely-given consent — is a critical social problem; one that social movements including #NotOkay , #MeToo , and #TimesUp have recently brought to the forefront of media discourse surrounding violence, gender, sex, safety, and health. One need only look at the Vox.com list of 252 celebrities, politicians, CEOs, and high-profile individuals recently accused of sexual misconduct — including the President of the United States and newly-appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — to grasp the scope of this crisis [1]. This problem has surfaced across social contexts, and survivors are coming forward in droves to share their stories, seek justice, hold perpetrators accountable, and lead th...

Name: Maria Lara Age: 42 Location: San Antonio, TX What does it mean to you to be part of the GGS Community? Girls Gone Strong is an amazing and diverse community of ladies I’m proud to be a part of. There are so many different types of ladies on their own journey, and we can support and cheer each other on. Having like-minded friends and support is always great to have. How long have you been strength training, and how did you get started? I have been strength training on and off since I was in middle school. For several years in my 20s, during college, a friend and I were consistent enough to lose some weight, but we didn’t maintain it, and soon parted ways. Around 2009 I discovered kettlebells, and I was amazed by this incredible tool. I tried to use it with little instruction, but I knew something wasn’t right because it would make my back hurt. In 2013, I was in introduced to Lean & Lovely by (GGS co-founder) Neghar Fonooni. This beautifully muscular lady had create...

Due to intuitive eating’s rise in popularity over the last few years, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of it before. Perhaps you’ve seen a personal trainer dismiss intuitive eating as an excuse to gorge on junk food and never exercise. Or maybe you’ve read a blog post from a nutrition coach heralding intuitive eating as an amazing weight-loss method. No matter how the phrase came into your vocabulary, it’s likely that you’re confused about what exactly intuitive eating is and whether or not you should care. Intuitive eating is a non-diet approach to eating and living that centers on eating in a way that makes you feel good (as opposed to eating to look a certain way). Where a diet might say, “This diet is the answer to your problems,” intuitive eating would say, “You have all the answers you need inside of you already.” The practice of intuitive eating teaches you how to tune into your body’s innate wisdom around food and movement to figure out what and when you should be eati...