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Hey Reader,

Back when I was in my early twenties, I lived in New York City. After graduating from college I interned at Rolling Stone a few days a week, worked at a doggy day care during the other days of the week, and worked as a cocktail waitress a few nights a week.

I had a lot of time on my hands and living in NYC was expensive.

But in between all of those jobs, I also went to the gym.

I mostly did cardio, practicing my new yoga moves (I’d just started doing that, too) on the thick exercise mats while I waited to use the eliptical machine or a treadmill.

Occasionally I’d try out one of the weight machines, but I was pretty intimidated by those.

Running I could handle, but trying to figure out how to work a machine that I’d never used before while other sweaty people were watching and silently judging me? No, thanks.

I think this fear of looking stupid at the gym prevented me from strength training for longer than it should have.

In fact, I didn’t really start strength training until more than 1 year postpartum with my first kid. I used fairly light weights and did a lot of HIIT classes online.

They were fun, but I also found that I wasn’t really building strength. Plus, I was getting injured a little more often than I was used to.

It took me another few years and 2 pregnancies to actually start lifting weights in a productive way. But instead of going back to the gym, I stayed at home. I had 3 kids and no childcare. I realized that I could have just as good of a workout at home than I could at the gym. Maybe even better.

This leads me to my Movement Snack this week.

Movement Snack this week:

So many people believe that the only way to have a good workout is to go to the gym, where you can use their fancy equipment and workout for a “good, long time.”

But that’s not true.

You don’t need fancy equipment or a gym.

You just need to dedicate time to move and stick to it.

You might need a few hand weights to start, but you don’t need an entire set.

And you don’t need a ton of time. You can do a solid strength set in under 10 minutes.

Here are 2 examples of quick workouts you can do at home.

The first is a 5 minute bodyweight strength workout you can build on. In the video, I show you the basics on the set. Then I show you how you can add challenge to it, through different bodyweight variations and then with handweights. You can decide how much you want to do and for how long!

The second is a 30-minute bodyweight core strength focused class from my online studio that I recorded live on zoom. I lead a 30-minute strength training class every Monday. Usually we use weights, but this one happened to be without. Still a solid workout that gives you a good warm up, a 12 minute strength set, and a yoga flow at the end that incorporates all of the work we did.

Want to know more about some of the big myths about exercise that often prevent is from working out? I wrote an article about it for the online publication, Fit Bottomed Girls. FBG is an anti-diet, body liberation, feminist media source that promotes movement not for skinniness but for strength. I’ve written 4 articles for them and am proud to be a contributer.

​Read the article here!​

Question of the week:

What is a myth that you once believed about diet, exercise, or your body?

P.S. If you answer me by responding to this email, I’ll share one of mine with you!

I look forward to hearing about your former exercise/body beliefs and hopefully seeing you on the mat soon, too!

Warmly,

Naomi

Want to stay in touch during the week? Here are a 2 easy ways:

​Follow me on Bluesky, where I share daily movement practices as acts of resistance, connection, and strength.

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