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As spring blooms, our bodies awaken from the winter slumber, often eager to engage in outdoor activities and exercise. However, with increased act...

Strategies for shaking off the winter blues and taking care of knee joints and muscles during spring. By following these tips, you can embrace the rejuvenating spirit of spring while caring for your knee joints and muscles.

Igor Anic is a professional Handball player for the last 15 years. He's 34 years old and a former French national player, world and European champion. He's currently living and playing in Nagoya, Japan.

He likes to share his life and experiences on social media. He uses Instagram and YouTube where he shares his journey about moving to Japan, living on the other side of the earth, and all the challenges his family and I are facing with coming from France and now living in Japan.

Julianne Hodges likes to participate in almost all things physical activity. She used to play softball, swim, golf, and cross country and now regularly exercise in a variety of different ways. Sports and fitness have always consumed a large part of her life and after she quit playing competitively, she had to shift to recreational and lifestyle fitness. She used to do a lot of running, swimming, and biking because that’s what she was comfortable with but within the last year, she’s taken up lifting and calisthenics while still doing cardio. She likes to participate in a variety of different training styles to prevent boredom, burnout, and to stay healthy overall. She's been able to build muscle while still being able to maintain a consistent running pace and flexibility. She thinks it’s so important to find an exercise that you enjoy rather than participating in the exercise you feel like you have to do simply because it works for others.

Luke Dulac performs with his Cyr Wheel. He started doing it when it became apparent that the pandemic and lockdowns were going to close gyms and conventional sports for an unforeseen amount of time making his traditional fitness routines impossible. He was spending more time online than before and at one point he ended up going down a YouTube rabbit hole where he found out about a Cyr Wheel. It is a giant steel hoop that is used for circus acts. You get inside it and spin around similar to how a coin spins on its edge when it is dropped.

As soon as he saw it, he knew that not only would it be a very intense workout and that he could continue to get stronger during quarantine, but also that it would be one of the few things that he would find more fun than pole vaulting. After a lot of convincing his parents, they have finally agreed to order the Cyr wheel. They ordered the wheel on Etsy. When the wheel arrived, they did some rearranging of the furniture. Their house had an addition put on and is bigger than it was originally, leading to a unique large open space. They cleared out this area of the house and it was big enough for him to do the wheel in. He's been using the wheel there ever since then.

Shannon Mackey is a personal trainer at Northern Illinois Combat Club and she also trains online! She loves helping her clients and she wouldn't trade this job for anything in the world. For her, being a fitness enthusiast not only helped change her life but others as well!

In her teenage days, she made sure she stayed very active. She was in track, cheerleading, and she took multiple dance classes from hip hop, Latin, ballroom etc. She didn't get into bodybuilding until she was in her early 20s. She met a great coach that saw potential in her right from the start. She always had a very high metabolism so it was easy to maintain her weight. She started doing bodybuilding competitions and she raised a ton of eyebrows instantly. With her very first competition, she placed 2nd taking home 2 trophies. This was such a huge highlight of her life. She was hooked on competing and wanted to win so after that she kept moving until her next show came. Next competition, she won! She placed first in Greenbay Wisconsin in 2020. She can't explain how happy she was to have this achievement.

The next thing she wanted to accomplish was passing a course for fitness instructing. She wanted to teach group classes aerobic dances. She went from various schools and gyms to teach elementary students and adults. Every time they came in, she just wanted them to enjoy themselves. For her, being fit is supposed to be enjoyable!

 

Amanda Essen is 26 years old. She's an EHFA & FISAF Personal Trainer, model, blogger, and IFBB bikini fitness athlete. She lives in Finland but she has followers around the world. She blogs daily and is active on Instagram too. Right now, she has over 51,3k followers.

Her Instagram username is @Svagtillstark which means from weak to strong in Swedish. She recovered from a weak and anorexic, sick, depressed, and burned out person, to a strong both mentally and physically, happy and inspired individual that wants to help and motivate people to get healthy. A lot of the recoveries that she does are with the great help of strength training that she found in 2012-2013, and the interest to start building herself up instead of breaking her down.

She also won the Miss Model of the World 2013 in Finland, but after that, she decided to take a step back from the modeling industry because she understood that it is not the healthiest lifestyle after a couple of model trips to Japan, France, Turkey, the United States, and the Nordic countries.

She's also been in Finnish radio, television, sports magazines, and even interviews, magazines, and media on the web. She also participated in the Swedish book. She became a Confidenza (a book to help and strengthen young women's confidence and self-esteem).

For her, it has been a long road but it's been worth it. Today, she helps with the knowledge and experience and wants to be more than happy to inspire and convey a wholesome and healthy lifestyle. She also competes in the bikini fitness category, works as a Personal Trainer worldwide, Fitness model, and Social Media Influencer.

 

Kerry V. is a 38-year-old middle school counselor, mom of two, and an avid runner. She's been married to his best friend from middle school for almost 12 years and resides in Orange County, CA. She's been active her whole life growing up as a dancer and owning a fitness studio at one point, but running wasn’t on her radar until she got older. She hated running when she was younger and complained at any time and had to do it! But after she got married and knew they planned to have kids soon, she got the itch to run a half marathon. She loved it but vowed to never do it again because 13.1 miles is just way too far to run.

Fast forward 6 years later, she has given birth to both her kids and the idea of running another half marathon came into her head, but she wanted to do it faster than the last one.

She finished her first full marathon at the end of 2018 in 4:26. She's gotten her half marathon time down to 1:43 and her marathon time to 3:47, with her 5th full marathon coming up on 11/13 where she’ll attempt to BQ for the first time. The time goal for her age group is under 3:35.

 

Victoria Tapp is a NASM certified personal trainer. She's always been active. She grew up playing tennis, basketball, track, cheerleading, volleyball, etc. Once in college and graduate school, her athletic life slowed down like most. She needed to find something to keep her active and something that she also loves. That's where bodybuilding came into her play.

These days, she is traveling around the world a lot. Due to that, she only does online training now. It is a blessing for her to be in this digital age. She's able to obtain more clients and work with people from all around the world. She's also pursuing fitness modeling which is her other passion.

 

Andrew Khaw's sports are Rock Climbing, Ninja Warrior, and Baseball. His accomplishments are making it to Australian Ninja Warrior and winning his very first rock climbing competition. He watched Ninja warrior with his family each year and trained for it, and given the opportunity to compete in it.

He decided to compete in his first Rock climbing competition without any expectations and he ended up having a blast and taking out the gold medal.

Baseball was the first-ever sport he played and still loves it. It has helped him with his life when he needed a bit of a reset.

 

Nikki Bowman is a self-proclaimed athlete and women's nutrition specialist. She loves all things related to fitness, food, and spirituality. Growing up as a kid, she didn't always have the best approach to a healthy lifestyle and as a result, she struggled with many body image issues. When she was 13, her dad introduced her to the gym and began taking her on the weekends with him. Instantly, she fell in love with how weight training made her feel and how it was beginning to change my body. She also began to look at her nutrition more closely and educated herself on the constituents of a good diet so she could support her training. By 15, she made up her mind that the health and fitness field was where she belonged and where she should establish her career. She achieved her Bachelor of Science in human nutrition from the University of Guelph in 2018 and currently working in a health food store where she assists customers with nutritional guidance and supplementary support. She loves her job because it is so rewarding to help someone find empowerment in their own health. According to her, it also allows you to see the incredible impact that good nutrition and natural health supplements can truly have on one's life. She hopes to continue building her knowledge of nutrition and eventually open her own practice to assist individuals who may struggle with their body image or who wish to improve their relationship with food and exercise as this is a matter very close to her heart. 

 

Ashleigh Feltham is an elite gymnast and rock climber and has represented Australia for 5 years. Now she teaches BodyPump, BodyBalance, and BodyAttack and is also a personal trainer. She has been working in the fitness industry for over 15 years.

She's an Accredited Practicing Dietitian and owner of Feed Your Future Dietetics. She believes everyone deserves to live a life of health and wellness. She's passionate about helping people achieve their highest quality of life through nutrition, mental health, and exercise.

She holds a Master of Nutrition and Dietetics and a Bachelor of Human Nutrition. In addition to being an Accredited Practicing Dietitian, She's also a qualified personal trainer and group fitness instructor and has been working in the fitness industry for over 15 years. She was an elite gymnast as well as an elite rock climber.

She's the owner of Feed Your Future Dietetics. It's her mission to help all her clients achieve their goals as well as optimal health and wellness for life.