How to Get Your First Handstand

Hey everyone! This week I wanted to do something a little bit different and post a tip.  In my sheSTRENGTH group, each week we focus on a new skill to practice. Each of these skills work toward a bigger goal.  For example, many of my gals have a goal of doing a pull up.  So some of the skills we work on are: grip strength, bar hand hold, hollow rock ab strength, upper back strength, bicep strength, etc.  There are exercises and progressions we practice to improve upon.

And there is something about the progression and skill practice that keeps people fighting.  It keeps them showing up.  Wanting more.  It creates a discipline to the daily workouts outside of the normal motivations like "looking good" and "losing weight."

So this week's skill practice was handstand progressions.  Many of my gals have a fear of kicking their feet over their head. OR, are unsure whether they have the upper body strength to maintain their handstand hold.  So the video I'm going to show below is a progression to that.

1) My first suggestion is to lay over the back of your bed or couch and slide your head off the end like a child does facing toward the bed...and just hang out there for a few seconds at a time.  Press your hands into the floor and work on holding your head and shoulder weight while your body is supported.  This will help you get a feel for being upside down.  I'd practice this a few times a week.

2) My second suggestion is to then practice kicking over from the position mentioned above, only this time lay on your back on the bed with your head facing away from it. Walk your feet in close to the end of the bed where you are laying and kick one leg over and then the other.  While you are doing this, press your hands into the floor really hard and tight. Lock those shoulders to your ears.  This will help you maintain a strong position to hold your body weight while you kick over.

3) Next, move to a wall.  Practice walking your feet up and down the wall in a prone plank position.  This sort of helps you gauge your core strength and abilities to hold your bodyweight a little more than with the full support of the bed.  As your progress in this, like in the first part of this video, practice walking your hands in closer and closer to the wall.  Until you can hold it for a good 10 seconds before coming down.

4) Lastly, expect FULL shakiness! hah!  Your body is working hard, it's OK to shake.


For more tips and tricks like this one, check out my 4-week template to strength training tips and safety in movement here, I will email you daily with workout tips and tricks to improve your strength with a few sets of dumbbell or a band.  Great for beginner's learning how to lift weights for the first time!

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How NOT to get Sick over the Holidays!

Just wanted to share a tidbit from my LIVE video on Facebook last night, in case you missed it!

HOW NOT to get Sick Over the Holidays.

You all need to pay attention to your bodies this time of year. Stress is high. Junk food is horrible and tempting. Sickness is prevalent.

Therefore our bodies are running a notch lower in energy and immunity. Don't let your fitness be the one contributor you can control that sets you up for weight gain, and over-stressed body these next few months.



1) Drink lots of water. Eat lots of vegetables. Vegetables help keep your gut healthy and LESS acidic.  The more acidic your gut health from eating high sugar foods and highly processed foods, the better your chances of getting sick.  So eat those veggies to help keep the gut pH more alkalinic.

2) Increase Vitamin C.  Vitamin C will help with EVERYTHING. Muscle recovery. Broken down immunity. Energy depletion.  It is a great way to give your body a little buffer when it might need one.  So find a way to supplement this into your daily food or supplement intake.

3) Rest.  Most people do NOT realize the rest days are when your body actually does the work.  It is when your muscles are building and growing and replenishing.  You actually are NOT building muscle in the gym or during your workout at home.  You are actually creating micro-fiber tears in your muscles and on the rest days the body says "whoa! I wasn't strong enough to maintain the stress imposed on me yesterday, I better use this quality food, hydration, and rest day to rebuild those tears stronger for next time!!"  

So give your body a chance to rest.  Especially during a season where your energy is also being spent fighting off stress, viruses, and maintaining your will power to not eat every chocolate bar and cookie that has made its way into your office this week.

4) Maybe consider cutting down on workouts a week and focus on being really intense a few days a week instead of tired/fatigued 6 days.

5) This applies to those of you ONLY who are working hard and maybe feeling frustrated with lack of fat loss...
hah, not those of you barely getting 1 day a week in.


If you are a person who does NOT like vegetables or is NOT good at preparing them, I highly suggest the superfoods shake, Shakeology.  You can order this product HERE, and try it out for 30 days and if you don't like it--send it back for a full refund.

How to Overcome a Weight Loss Plateau with Nutrition

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 Hey!
Just wanted to make sure you didn't miss my live video's this week addressing the issue of hitting a plateau with your weight loss efforts. Today I discussed the important of your diet and a few key things I do weekly and monthly to help keep my metabolism firing.

1) Intermittent fasting.  One weekends or after a day of heavy eating, refeeding...I will fast.  I will eat supper, then not eat again until the following day about 1-2 pm.  This allows my liver and gut to catch up with processing all the extra food I ate. It gives it a chance to recover.  And it also allows my insulin levels to reset a bit back to normal or lower. 

2) 3-Day Refresh.  I will also take 3-days out of a month or every few months and complete a 3-Day Refresh.  This is a specialized gentle cleansing plan that helps reset my tastebuds from craving sugar. It helps my stomach soothe and de-bloat, and it helps my insulin levels return to normal again.  It involves a vegan diet plan, strict timing of foods. Shakeology superfoods for breakfast every morning.  And great super-vegetable and fat filled, delicious meal plans the rest of the day.  It also includes a high protein vanilla drink and a fiber sweep. 

PS-My team of coaches and I just finished a 3-Day Refresh this past weekend and we are down 15 pounds total as a team!  We are excited to maintain these healthy habits over the next few weeks until we complete it again post-Thanksgiving!

Click HERE to purchase your 3-Day Refresh to join us post-Thanksgiving! 

Then email, when you have ordered, and I'll send you the private team link as well as the meal plan information ASAP.

WHY I work So hard to Help You!

I went LIVE on Facebook this week, sharing my heart on why I am so passionate about coaching fitness, and helping YOU all be a better version of yourself.  And part of this process in helping you all is finding a balance of "who am I?"  And "why am I doing this?"  We all have someone we love. And people are more valuable than things. So improve your health for yourself, for those you LOVE.  It is a lot more motivating on those days of struggle than doing it for "something."

1) My "why" to pursuing this fitness business and coaching you all...is to set an example for my girls.  And my son.  My girls I want to set an example of the idea that they can be whatever they want to be even if it means creating their own business for it to be possible.  And I want my son, who has Down Syndrome, to see there is a world out there that needs him and he can be an example for people like him to live a healthy and meaningful life.

2) My "why" to pursuing strength training and my program www.sheSTRENGTH.com is to help redefine the fitness industry's view of "fit."  I want women to realize they don't have to be controlled by the scale.  They can determine and define their fitness and self-approval in their own way...and that is subjective to each woman!

3) My "why" is to empower other women, real women, those who don't look or feel like the typical fitness instructor or super model that they can experience and fall in love with being strong.  Being real.  And owning who they are and who are they meant to be in this world by aspiring and living out a better version of themselves...NOT chasing the fitness industries view of what we should aspire to look like.

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️Real Women. Real Strength. My desire to represent real women aspiring to be strong in an industry where vanity and comparison rules.

I am a wife and special needs mom of 3. I've been a fitness trainer and business owner for 13 1/2 years. I have an extensive background in weightlifting, CrossFit, adaptive fitness, and athletics. But my heart falls my heavily on adults with special needs and how important strength training is for them..WHICH serves as a reminder how important it is for us young women. And is the idea behind my newest home fitness program that I'm hoping will redefine the name of the game. Throw out the scale and empower women to seek strength... inside and out!

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 Email at: anna@shestrength.com

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