Movement Snacks: How do you know you're getting stronger?
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Hey Reader, One of the questions I get a lot is "how do you know you're stronger?" This might seem like a question with an obvious answer, but the answer is a bit more vague to lots of people. When I asked a few folks, many said, "I feel stronger. That's how I know." A few said that certain yoga poses felt easier or they could hold them longer. Others said that difficult physical tasks in their everyday lives felt a little more manageable. These are good things. But they aren't necessarily the best measures for strength. This leads me to my movement snack for the week. Feeling stronger in yoga poses or physical tasks feeling more manageable are useful markers of a shift in how your body is changing. It also probably feels like an accomplishment to do a difficult yoga pose or a hard physical task with greater ease. But again, neither of these things actually tells you if you have gotten stronger because it's largely based on vibes. However, there is something that does measure how strong you are, as well as how that strength changes over time. And that's resistance training. You can see your progress over the course of a few weeks, several months, or a year. That progress isn't always a straight line up. Progress can actually be measured lots of different ways. You can measure how many reps or how many sets you do. You can adjust the amount of weight you're lifting. You can also adjust how you are doing an exercise. There are lots of ways to measure how your body adapts to lifting weights. But the main point is that strength can be measured. I wrote in detail about the difference between feeling strong and actually being strong on my substack. You can read it for free here. I also wrote a piece about how to progress squats from the most foundational version to squats with barbells for my favorite online fitness information platform, Fit Bottomed Girls. You can read it here. If you want to get a taste of that in video form, watch my latest on YouTube: If you have questions about strength training or would like a little support with your own movement practice, respond to this email and let's chat about it! Thanks for being a part of my community this year. I am so grateful for you. Warmly, Naomi Want to stay in touch during the week? Here are a 2 easy ways: Follow me on Instagram, where I share movement inspiration 3x a week as acts of resistance, connection, and strength. Follow me on substack, where I write about the intersection of movement, perimenopause, and the culture that we are all moving through. Or better yet, subscribe so you have immediate access to regular essays, including my most recent substacks. There are many ways to support my writing on substack, which focuses on women's health and motherhood during perimenopause through an anti-diet and pro-science lens: 😍 Become a free subscriber |