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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.

Steff Someda is an indoor cycling instructor in Perigon. She started taking indoor cycling classes in 2018 and has been hooked ever since, to the point that she became an instructor herself.

Growing up as a dancer, she has always been drawn to fitness that involves music. She joined dance competitions back in college, as well as in medical school and residency, and developed a sense of discipline when it comes to training for dance routines. During medical school, she also got hooked with pole dance classes as her regular workout and “her time” to get away from all the studying.

When the pandemic started in 2020, her daily workout routine consisted of YouTube videos. The strict lockdown implemented in the Philippines prevented everyone from going to gyms and fitness studios, so home workouts became very popular. It was July of 2020 when she got her indoor cycling bike as a birthday gift from her fiancé and parents and her first Zoom class with Perigon was, of course, on her birthday. Since then, she has taken cycling classes online almost every day. In 2021, Perigon announced their audition for new instructors and she signed up. The rest is history.

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.

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!

 

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.

 

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.

 

Tara Jenkins is from Melbourne and has been in the health & fitness industry for the past 8 years & has been a high-level athlete since the age of 10.

She began her fitness career in track & field. She traveled all over Australia competing in 400m, 800m, discus, race walking & the odd pentathlon. She realized at the age of 10 that if she works really hard at something & dedicates herself to it, she can go places & achieve some great things. This cemented her mindset in life & still has that same work ethic to this day.

Once she became tired of track & field, she learned Gridiron & bodybuilding simultaneously as they complemented one another. She represented her state as a full back & running back & also gained sponsors within the bodybuilding industry as her athleticism & physique were in good shape to help promote these companies.

Towards the end of her gridiron career (she was about 28), she dived headfirst into CrossFit as she loved that it was so hard and there's so much to learn. She became obsessed with getting fitter, stronger & perfecting the movements. She focused all of my energy on becoming a better athlete every day and by the age of 31. She also represented Australia in the CrossFit Games.

She has been working on her strength & mindset every day in my garage & holding back until we get it all clear and she can refocus on competing again.  

 

 

Alyssa Lombardi is a Certified Running Coach, Certified Personal Trainer, and a Clinical Exercise Physiologist. She has been involved in sports all her life and has been at every level from beginner to college stand out and conference champion and this is how she did it. She started out playing soccer as a young child and loved it but found herself loving the running part of it the most. When she got to high school, she did both soccer and track but had a clear love for running. Even though she had a love for running, she wasn’t always the best. She started out running 2-3 miles at a time around 12 minutes per mile during practice, but she always raced pretty fast. She got down to running 5:15 for the mile and under 19 for a 5k.

She then decided to quit soccer and just focus on running so that is what she did. She got to college and she focused only on running. She started out her freshmen year one of the slowest ones on the team, barely being able to keep up with the team on practice runs.

Social media started as her own journal. For the first 2 years, she didn’t tell anyone she had a fitness profile. She felt a little embarrassed by it. But, as time went on, she saw she was connecting with more people so she thought of using her growing platform to help people just like she wanted to from the beginning.

From then, she started posting more educational posts. She has found that many people have learned a lot from her posts so her small social media page that she was keeping a secret has turned into a page where she helps runners succeed and hit goals they never thought they would.

Runner's knee has been a problem for many athletes and runners. In this article, we will talk about what a runner's knee is, how to identify if you have it, what the symptoms are, and how to get relief from your pain.

Hot/cold compression wraps can help relieve some of the pain that comes with the runner's knee by applying cold therapy or heat therapy when needed to stabilize your temperature and reduce inflammation in the area.

Remember that a good recovery run should leave you feeling refreshed and ready for more hard work on the track. Contrary to common belief, it shouldn't leave you exhausted, sore, or in pain. The goal is to recover from previous workouts without doing any damage to yourself! So how can we go about achieving this goal with our running? 

Recovery runs are a fantastic sometimes underutilized tool in any runner's training arsenal. It's all too easy to feel that each training run has to be done at a high intensity for the needle to move when you're focusing on performance, especially during events like marathons. Recovery runs, when done correctly, can be very strategic they may assist you to recover from hard exercises while also increasing your overall running mileage and generally improving your running game.