I wanted to help strong women & men learn how to approach lifting in a way that supports their life and builds durability in their joints (instead of destroying them) without sacrificing their health or sanity in the process, and while having FUN doing it.

So when I gained 30 pounds during college, I vowed to do whatever it took to lose weight - dieting, phentermine, running 1/2 marathons and a marathon, HIIT training... you name it, I tried it. It all worked... for awhile.

Until I burned out.

Until I got injured.

Until I hit plateaus that wouldn't budge.

Something would happen that would prevent me from doing my diet or fitness regimen perfectly. And I'd be thrown completely off track for days, weeks, or months.

Gaining all the weight back.

Losing all my progress.

Feeling so heavy, blah, & guilty for failing so hard.

Until I began again.

This cycle of start - work hard - results slowed - work harder - get knocked out of the game - (time passes) - feel gross - start again happened more times that I care to admit.

It was insanity.

Then one day my brother invited me to try CrossFit. I picked up a barbell for the first time. And was hooked on strength.

When I graduated college, married, and moved back to my hometown of (tiny) Camden, Tennessee, the closest CrossFit box was a 40 minute drive. I still did CrossFit at home and ran some bootcamp classes out of my mom’s basement, but the foundation was strength training. Specifically, powerlifting a la Mark Rippetoe. 

When we moved to Boston in 2012 I decided to pursue strength training over CrossFit. I thought I wanted to compete in powerlifting, but when I heard about Strongwoman, something clicked.

Strongwoman is what happens if powerlifting + CrossFit had a baby. It incorporates powerlifting but the reverse is not true. So I forewent the singlet in favor of the constant chaos + uncertainty of Strongwoman.

In Strongwoman I found my place. You had to be strong and powerful, but also have speed and endurance. Literally anything could happen with changing weights or implements on the fly. It was #AdaptOrPerish and I loved it.

The best part was that there were women just like me who were chasing bigger, faster, stronger instead of tinier, weaker, thinner, smaller, quieter.

I spent the next several years training and competing in Strongwoman. Along the way I interned and coached at an exclusively powerlifting/strongman gym in Boston.

The Turning Point

In the Spring of 2017 I took a road trip to Long Island, NY to get trained by a couple of Chiropractors helping CrossFitters get out of pain without missing the gym and often, without going to the doctor

I learned how to identify and address weak links in an athlete’s foundation - whether from joint, strength balance, strength endurance, or absolute strength needs.

So many confusing tidbits in the industry came together as I began to see the underlying principles working in all “methods” of fitness. Other assessment-based processes expose “dysfunction” and create dependency on specific warm-ups, bands, balls, “distractions”, or “correctives” for the rest of your life. Other systems are built around “if it hurts don’t do it” or “if it hurts, stretch it”.

The Active Life’s process is about clarity. Identify needs. Address them. Move on from them (i.e., you don’t have to work on this again like this). Period.

I learned how to:

• Assess flexibility + strength balance needs
• Address flexy + strength balance needs in a way to “build it once” and “keep it for life"

Do you even need specific flexibility training? Assess it. If not, why waste your precious time on it when it could be for other things?

Is the pain you are experiencing related to limitations in flexibility, strength balance, or something else? Assess it.

Is that nagging pain in your hip because your hip flexors are tight? Or related to the fact that your ankle dorsiflexion on your left is 2” shorter than your right? Assess it.

Are you plateaued in your training because “your engine” isn’t conditioned enough? Or because you need more strength to take you to the next level? Assess it.

This model became the foundation for individualizing programs to specific needs and eliminating the rest, giving them more time back to work on other things or live their best lives.

Most importantly it redefined how I engage with the experience of pain in an athlete.

Before, if something hurt, like overhead pressing, we stopped and avoided that movement until it didn’t. Or stretched it out. The problem was that while we avoided pressing because it hurt, we continued to train other movements that did not, like horizontal rowing. It bothered me that A) the pain never resolved (it came right back when we pressed again), and B) it limited the freedom and confidence of my athlete (“If I press overhead I’ll hurt myself. If it hurts I’m injured. If I’m injured, I’m damaged.” or “I have a bad shoulder.”).

Now I knew that continuing to build strength with rowing while not pressing contributed to the pain my client experienced and the narrative of brokenness they had in their head. No, I didn’t make the pain worse in the session, but I didn’t help resolve it either. I could do better.

From the Active Life, I learned to nuance good pain from bad pain. When can we keep going? When should we stop? And when should I refer out?

This depth of knowledge helped me take that same client and help him press a 24kg KB overhead pain-free! Better than the weight, the joy on his face was priceless.

The Active Life helped me think bigger and deeper. It gave me a system for screening for most-likely issues, a way to address those issues in the context of a strength + conditioning program, and a means of communicating with empowerment (rather than defeating) language with my athletes. It also helped me synthesize all the training, tools, and methods I’d learned over the years into one big picture that was useful for my athletes.

Strength training is a potent tool for facing, embracing, and overcoming challenges at the bar(bell). And it translates to every other area of life.

Life is about finding joy in and getting better because of experiencing hard things.

Thus the Joy of Lifting was born.

How I help strong women.

I want so much for you:

• The freedom that comes from a strong, flexible body and a strong mind.
• The ability to jump into any adventure, any hike, any ski weekend, any competition without wondering if your joints can handle it.
• The pure joy that comes from challenging yourself + prevailing.
• The growth that happens when you show up for yourself, develop a tolerance for discomfort, and deepen an awareness of your patterns and weaknesses.

In everything I do at The Joy of Lifting, my intention is to be the clear and unequivocal choice for strong women who want to stay strong for the rest of their lives without destroying their joints or wasting time in the gym.

I am delighted you are here. #letsgrow

What's next for you?

I hope you got everything you came here for and I hope to keep growing together every single day.

If you’d like to learn how to stay strong for your adventurous life without destroying your joints or having a part-time job training, click here to schedule a Discovery Call to see if we are a good fit to work together 1:1.

If you’d like to get a taste of how I work first, enter your email in the box below to access Module 1 of StrengthTriggers absolutely free. You’ll learn how to use your breath to trigger more strength, more power, more flexibility, more endurance, and faster recovery with 22+ follow-along drills.