Back in the day, before unsubscribing from the “no pain, no gain” notion, I worked out every day and having stiffness in my lower back was a regular post-workout thing. Having a pinch in my hip was a constant during heavy lunges. But I push through anyway because I’ve been told, “no pain, no gains.” I couldn’t sit on the ground, let alone crossed-legged; I thought stretching could help. Still, nothing had sustainably
After my car accident in 2018, strength the way I knew it was no longer accessible to me for a long time. I learned to build up my resources and begin again after experiencing setbacks. It was a constant dance of choosing to slow down over showing up and the other way around. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned in gaining my strength back ↓ Lesson 1 The first lesson is how
Nowadays, we are too busy catching up with the newest and coolest exercise trends that we forget the value of going back to basics, aka basic human movements. Walking is one of them. When I start working with 1:1 clients, one of the first things I ask them to do is to add regular 30-minute zone 2 walks to their routine. What is zone 2 cardio? It tends to be the lowest
In this blog, I share how to build stronger hamstrings for better pelvis stability. When your pelvis stabilizes better, your posture holds itself so much more easily without putting strains on the rest of your body. Train those hammies, because they matter. Why? Your hamstrings (the ones that connect your butt to your knees) are an essential muscle group for stabilizing your pelvis and helping you move forward efficiently and effortlessly. So many
In this blog, I share how to transform your posture through the lessons I have learned from my recovery post car accident. It was an early summer morning. I opened my eyes I gently moved my neck from side to side. Something I have gotten used to since my car accident to check the intensity of my neck tension. To my surprise, there was no pain but ease of movement.
Ditch quick fixes, PLEASE! There is no quick fix or perfect answer. There is no one explanation for your shoulder or lower back pain; get yourself assessed by a professional first. In my work with clients, I find it’s never one thing that needs attention; it’s an accumulation of changes that leads to moving beyond pain, unique to you and your body’s story. Some may believe that if you have lower back
Let’s understand grounding through feet sensory awareness! You perhaps heard about the concept of grounding/earthing, i.e. activities that electrically reconnect you to mama earth. Today though, I want to talk to you about the concept of grounding through the lens of your feet’s abilities to grip the earth. Over the years, one of the most common things I’ve seen among my clients has been the lack of sensory awareness of their feet. And it always
In this blog, I teach you how to improve your balance by deepening your understanding of your overall posture and breathing mechanics. I stopped thriving for balance and replaced that with harmony in life, and the way I teach movement today I learned {balance} in our bodies wouldn’t happen if there is no harmony. Harmony between left and right Carrying weight on one side as we shift gears to another Trust both sides enough to
In this blog, we talk about how to activate your butt muscle effectively. Sometimes transformation lives in small details. In my work, small movements make all the difference I often see how people combine a bunch of exercises on social media, thinking they will get more out of their time which is one way of looking at it, but that may take so much out of the efficiency and intentionally of
The number one secret to improve your posture is to build a stronger core! You may roll your eyes at me and tell me this is not anything new. Take a moment to see the photo below and the impact your midline has on your overall posture ↓ However, the way I teach it to you is uniquely different. It’s less about doing all the crunch variation in the world; it’s about bringing
One of the topics that I’ve dived in deeply this year was various breathing techniques. I began experimenting with what I learned from my mentor, Ian Markow, in my body for three months before bringing it into my client work. Here is how I used to breathe: https://hedishah.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Personal-Insta-Posts-18.mp4 Here is how I breathe now: https://hedishah.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Personal-Insta-Posts-17.mp4 And, this shift made the most significant change in my body 👇🏻 → My posture
When I began changing the way I worked with clients from only focusing on strength coaching to incorporating foundational training (ie joint health, breathwork, neuromuscular control, etc.), one of the hardest things I had done was de-conditioning myself from what the personal training and fitness industry had taught me. I continuously caught myself wondering what if my clients preferred the old way. The way that promotes “the heavier, the faster, the sweatier, THE BETTER.”
I wish I could tell you all you need for healthy living is to eat healthily and exercise regularly, but this is far from the truth. The quality of your inner landscape, how you process your emotions, and how safe you feel inside could contribute to your overall health a lot more than just a healthy lifestyle. I battled with anger and unbearable rage for years; I smiled in one minute and lost
Inner Cravings! Meet your inner desire, friend! You crave progress You crave to get to where we want to be You crave to have the body you want You crave to be pain-free You crave to feel even more confident in your body You crave to feel free in your body You sit with those cravings for so long that your cravings become something far-fetched. Something that causes you more pain than a direction