Do you find it hard to stay on track with your fitness goals or find yourself feeling overwhelmed by everything on your to-do list? Here are 5 key reasons we get burned out, and how you can “all or something” your way forward!

In this conversation, I’m exploring….

⭐️ If you’re stuck in a rut, here’s what to do!
⭐️ Identifying burnout and shifting things to serve you better
⭐️ What to do when results start to decrease in perimenopause and post menopause
⭐️ The way our brain seeks excitement
⭐️ How you can connect more deeply to the reasons behind your goals
⭐️ The choices we make today are setting us up for the woman w

If you prefer to read something motivating today, check out:

5 reasons you may lack motivation (and what to do about it)

Even when you pick the perfect workout program, your body will still have energy fluctuations, both high and low.

So whether you had a poor night’s sleep, are under a lot of stress, aren’t fully recovered from your last workout, or you’re in the luteal phase of your cycle – you may not have the energy to push as hard in your training session, and that’s important to listen to as you won’t get great results pushing your body when it’s already inflamed or under strain.

And conversely, you may sometimes find that you have a lot of energy and the workout feels easier than normal! Maybe you got great sleep, are just in a good groove with your routine, are well rested from your last training session, and you’re not struggling with any hormonal energy lows. You may want to really give your workout more on days like that!

You can make any workout harder by:

• increasing the amount of resistance/weight you’re using. This is an easy way to up the challenge to your body!
• reducing the suggested rep range (which means you’ll likely go heavier with your weight). If a challenge suggests an 8-12 rep range and you’re not as challenged by that, try out a 6-10 rep range, a 5-8 rep range, or even a 4-6 rep range. Typically we build ourselves into these lower rep ranges and heavier weight, so always dial in your form first!
• increasing the rounds suggested for any circuit or superset. If the workout has 3 sets, add a 4th for instance.

You can make any workout easier by:

• taking more rest between sets.
• using any of the modifications shown (or taking your own modifications)
• doing the low impact version of high impact moves (a great way to ease into things)
• going lighter in resistance
• doing less rounds of a superset or circuit than is shown
• doing the first half of the workout (all or something!)

REMEMBER: You will not get “better results” pushing your body when it is stressed/tired/inflamed.

We don’t “get results” during our workout, we get them after we train, when we rest, refuel and recover. If your body’s resources are already allocated to repairing you, or supporting a lowered immune system, they can’t both repair you from your workout and keep up with the other tasks they are on.

Pace yourself, and listen to your body.

In all of my programs, my goal is to always give you a safe and effective starting point with a specified rep range.

• The higher the rep range is, the lighter the amount of weight you’ll need to complete the reps.
• The lower the rep range is, the heavier the amount of weight you’ll need to complete the reps.

A rep “range” gives you space to calibrate how much weight you need to be within that range. For instance, if you are working in an “8-12 rep range” you will use an amount of weight that you can do at least 8 reps with, but that you struggle to do more than 12 with.

Finding this amount of weight for yourself may take a little experimentation at first, and that’s exactly what you want to do. Try things out. See where you’re at.

If you can easily do more than the highest number in the suggested rep range, try adding more weight.

As you get stronger, you will be able to do more reps with the same amount of weight. Once you’re hitting the top of the rep range with the weight you have, it’s time to choose a heavier amount of weight.

You can change the rep range as you get stronger and more experienced, even if the your program suggests a specific amount of reps.

Different rep ranges also serve us in different ways. Higher rep ranges help us build endurance, while lower rep ranges help us with hypertrophy (adding new muscle). If you’re in the peri or postmenopause years, building into the lower rep ranges with your resistance training is a really smart approach that will help you hold onto muscle, sculpt more, and protect and preserve your bone density.

The “end” of your reps is just before failure, or fatigue, or before you lose your form (you could maybe do 1 or barely 2 more reps). Going to total failure is fine, but studies show you get just as much progress from going to just before failure – and you don’t deplete your energy quite as much which is why I find this an ideal zone for training in.

Here are some common rep ranges that you can use at your discretion:

• 8-12 reps is an awesome range for finding your sweet spot, building your strength and dialing in your form. It’s also great for single side moves when you also need to call on your balance and core strength.
• 6-10 reps is the next step up in volume, and in this rep range you want to ensure you have no pain in any moves you do, and can balance effectively if you’re on one limb.
• 5-8 reps takes it one step further, and increases the volume. Here you cannot go past 8 reps with the weight you have chosen, but you can get at least 5.
• 4-6 reps: great for high volume training. When you get to this level,  build into it, warm up well, and begin by prioritizing moves where you are using both limbs at the same time to feel it out, i.e squats, deadlifts over single side squats and deadlifts. You can also use this rep range for single side moves too, just check your form first in a higher rep range.
• 1-2 rep max: I don’t train this way myself without a spotter or friend (usually another trainer or experienced exerciser) nearby. This is a valid and very challenging level and should be used by experienced lifters only.

*Do not go from 8-12 reps to 4-6 reps in one go. Building into these rep ranges is essential for strengthening your body.  There are no shortcuts to getting stronger – we have to put in the work and allow our bodies to adapt progressively. 

It’s always nice to warm up a bit before a workout if you have time! If you would like to warm up prior to any workout, doing some type of dynamic movement that mimics the exercises you’ll do in the workout itself is a great idea. This can warm the joint fluid up around your joints, prime your muscles and brain for action, and get your heart rate up a bit.

If you’re doing a bodyweight/no equipment workout, you can sometimes just get right into it without much of a warmup and just pace yourself as you get going to warm up as you go. But if you have the time and desire, doing a warmup prior to any training session is a great thing to add. It doesn’t have to be super long, and the length can be relative to the training session. If you’re lifting weights, a warmup that opens up the joints and warms the muscles you’re preparing to load is very beneficial. You may also want to build up to lifting heavier loads by starting out with lighter sets, or even a warmup set.

Taking 5 minutes or so to stretch after a workout when your muscles are warm is a great idea. It’s a good way to bring your body back to a calm state, reset your nervous system, and slow (static) stretches that you hold for longer periods of time work really well on warm muscle tissue. You may notice that stretches feel better and better (and are easier to do) the more consistently you add even as little as 3-5 minutes to the end of your training sessions.

As we age, it becomes more and more beneficial to warm up (and cool down) around our training sessions, as it can really support our joints and muscle tissue. As we age, we lose some of our elastin and collagen that helped keep our bodies more flexible. Being a little more proactive with your self care can really support you holding onto (or rebuilding) flexibility in your muscle tissue, and creating space around your joints.

Pliant muscles are healthy muscles, and they respond well to our training and the load we put on them. Muscle attaches to bone via connective tissue, and stretching benefits all of that tissue and takes strain off the joints so they move more freely.

In Rock Your Life we have a huge library of stretching videos for both warming up and cooling down. We often recommend and create specific ones for our workout classes.

• Full Body Stretching Session (20 min)
• Stretches for Individual Body Parts (2-3 min each)

First, are you tracking other metrics than just your weight? It can be helpful to take body measurements (typically around the upper arms, chest, waist, hips, and thighs), or take full length progress pictures every couple of weeks.

The body takes time to “show” what begins happening below the surface, and sometimes we expect to see things faster than they actually happen. If we look at ourselves day to day (or weigh in daily) we don’t always see the changes as easily. This is why measurements or spaced out pics can be helpful for perspective.

Looking for other signs of progress than just weight loss is also helpful. Has your posture improved? Are you less winded taking the stairs? Are you more easily able to do certain moves that were challenging when you started? These are all signs that your body is responding.

As we get stronger, our muscle tissue gets more dense and stronger. Muscle takes up less space in our body than body fat. As we get stronger, we become leaner and more compact, but sometimes our scale weight doesn’t show that much change – even when our body is responding to the training we’re doing. So just weighing ourselves (as the only way to track progress) isn’t telling the complete story.

You might want to try using something like a smart scale, which shows important data about your body composition. Things like bone density, muscle mass, body fat percentage, body water and other things all combine to tell you your overall body weight.

If you weigh 150 lbs and you have a greater percentage of body fat vs. muscle mass, that’s important to note. If you weigh 150 lbs and you have a greater percentage of muscle mass vs body fat, that’s important to note! The number of your weight isn’t as important as the things that it’s made up from.

Weighing yourself at different times of day will skew your data as well. For instance if you ate a high carb meal, your body retains water as it digests and assimilates those nutrients. You didn’t “gain weight,” you simply have more water in your system. If you haven’t had a bowel movement yet, you may get a different scale weight than if you always weigh in after.

It is definitely not wrong to weigh yourself! I am just a proponent of using this as one of many metrics when it comes to seeing your progress.

Your workouts alone are not the only thing that determine the progress you will make. Without the nutrient building blocks, your body can’t optimally repair your muscle, or give you energy. If you sit all day and do a couple workouts as your only activity, you won’t be giving yourself enough low impact daily activity to move the needle on your fat loss (walk more!).

If you overtrain or workout too often, your body can’t repair effectively or reduce the inflammation created from your training. This means you can’t get as much out of the workouts you do, or come back strong for your next session. Pay attention to your training schedule and your daily energy and train accordingly!

You can listen to “The Truth About Your Weight” right here!

You can read about “The Truth About Your Weight” right here!

I do not recommend doubling up on challenges or workout programs. If you find that the workouts you are doing aren’t hard enough, it may be that you need to choose a different program, or increase the amount of weight/resistance you are using (see FAQ about making workouts harder for yourself for some great tips).

If you want to stick to the program you’ve chosen, consider doing the same workout twice, or adding bonus rounds. This helps to fatigue specific muscles on specific days, according to the workout schedule.

A workout program trains your body on different days in different ways. Ideally you will get recovery for the muscle groups trained before training them again.

Muscle doesn’t get stronger when we are training it. During a workout, we break it down and create an inflammatory response that the body has to recover from and come back stronger. Resting and eating well around our workouts is what delivers the results.

Doubling up on programs means you are likely combining different body parts trained and rest days get mixed up – which actually slows down your results.

Taking rest and recovery days is an essential part of seeing great results. When we exercise, we’re creating an inflammatory response in our body. Muscle “breaks down” when we train, and in our recovery period, it rebuilds stronger than before.

If we don’t ever rest, we don’t get the chance to reset and repair. So our body stays in a state of inflammation and strain, which sabotages the level of results we get, and it means we can never go to our full potential in the workouts we do (because we’re not well recovered).

Another aspect of self care that’s often skipped or overlooked is the stretching, mobility and optional yoga. While you can “get away” with skipping this stuff when you’re younger, as we age we lose some of the collagen and elastin that help us be mobile and flexible. It becomes essential to stretch more as we age to protect our joint health.

At any age, stretching helps to improve the health of your muscle tissue and creates space around our joints. This can improve your mobility (your range of motion) as well as your flexibility.

All of this can make your workouts more effective, as healthy, supple muscle tissue and mobile joints make it much easier to load up effectively and practice good form!

So follow your training program, take extra rest days if you ever need them, take time to stretch, and listen to your body!

While I suggest not pairing your program with another program or challenge, it may be fine to do it alongside recreational activities you enjoy, with some potential modifications to the plan (suggestions below).

If you don’t rest enough, you won’t get results – and this is true at every age – but becomes even more pronounced in our menopause years (both peri and post).

If you don’t train effectively (as in “hard”) in the workouts you do, you also won’t get results – and if you come to your training tired or your body is still dealing with the inflammation created from your last session you can’t put out as much energy. Same is true if you don’t eat enough of the nutrients your body needs to rebuild and repair the tissue you break down when you work out. It’s all connected.

When it comes to your recreational activities, I have a few tips:

If you enjoy running (or another type of cardio activity), one option would be to include the running with a scheduled workout day in the challenge. That way your body gets its stimulus on the same days and plenty of recovery in between – like this for instance:

• M: Betty Rocker strength training, your cardio
• Tu: rest, mobility, stretching
• W: Betty Rocker strength training, your cardio
• Th: rest, mobility, stretching
• F: Betty Rocker strength training, your cardio
• Sa: recovery, stretching
• Su: do some food prep!

You could also tone down any cardio included in a given workout, depending on how you feel and replace it with your activity of choice. Or, if a training program includes a dedicated cardio day, you could replace that day with a run/bike/swim/etc instead as another option.

You may want to make other modifications to a workout program schedule depending on how your body feels and how much recreational cardiovascular activity you do –  and how well you recover. If you’re constantly feeling aches and pains, it’s a good sign you need more recovery so pay attention.

If you enjoy hiking or a more low impact type of sport, you kind of have to feel it out to see how well you recover. If you hike all weekend, you may need to take a recovery day (or two) at the beginning of the week rather than diving straight into your workout on Monday. You’ll get better results (especially in the menopause years) when you recover effectively after strenuous activity.

You are not missing out on getting results or messing up your program taking additional recovery days, or changing the calendar to suit your activities. Remember, workout programs were written without any of your activities in mind, so you will need to modify it if you are adding things in.

If you’re a beginner, I created a great beginner’s series for you right here. I recommend doing these workouts 3 days per week for a couple of weeks until you feel confident and comfortable with them and are ready for more.

If you’re coming back after taking some time off, I suggest the Back to Basics Challenge in Rock Your Life as your first step. Beginners can use this as their second step, once you have completed the Beginner series.

Whether you are new or restarting, I encourage you to go through the Foundations of Functional Fitness workshop. These 15 minute videos can be done alongside any workout program, and teach you skills and information about your body that you can apply as you go, and will help keep you safe and get more out of your training.

If you’re restarting after having a baby, use the Post-partum Workshop to help re-establish good core engagement and other great tips to help you rebuild your strength safely!

Congratulations on your pregnancy! Whether this is your first or fifth pregnancy there can be so many questions.

A big question many women have is if it is safe to workout during pregnancy?

The short answer is YES! And in our self-paced pre-natal workshop, you’ll find some video guides to modify poses you may be used to getting into and tips on how to successfully navigate your pregnancy while staying active.

But before you get busy with your squats and curls always consult with your healthcare provider before beginning any exercise program as they will be able to offer you personalized exercise guidelines based on your medical history.

From all of us at Team Betty Rocker, congratulations on your new family addition!

We created this specialized post-partum workshop to help you make the transition back into training safely and effectively.

We’re here to help with diastasis recti testing and correction, breathing, pelvic floor and core work to reconnect and integrate you systemically so you can transition back into exercise in the most supportive way for you.

Before you get started with any of our recommendations, always consult with your healthcare provider, as they should provide you with personalized information, restrictions or guidelines based on your medical history.

All of the workout programs I offer, and all of the challenges in Rock Your Life have specific options for training in perimenopause. 

How we train in perimenopause sets us up for the years to come, and you’ll be able to carry what you learn forward to postmenopause too!

In perimenopause, we want to prioritize 3 specific things when it comes to our training:

• Training volume (meaning the workouts are challenging for you)
• Optimized recovery (getting enough recovery to come back strong for your next session)
• Eating enough protein for muscle recovery and repair, and plenty of fiber to support optimal gut health

Training volume:

In order to get results we need to maximize our training time with specific types of high volume training – including:

• strength training/resistance training: working against a load (you can begin with gravity or your own bodyweight and progress up through heavier amounts of weights)
• explosive cardio: any type of short burst plyometrics, interval training, HIIT, or sprinting

Resistance training strengthens our muscle tissue (the more muscle we have, the faster we burn fat), supports strong bones and improves our capability.

Explosive cardio strengthens our joints, muscle and bone tissue, improves our heart health, and helps mobilize body fat – especially visceral body fat (the deep belly fat that’s especially dangerous in our menopause years).

The types of training and exercise you want to prioritize in perimenopause might look just the same as what you were doing before. The differences include you ramping up the challenge or volume deliberately over time (so your body can keep responding to the stimulus you provide and not plateau), and you taking the recovery you need to come back strong for your next workout.

Optimized recovery:

You may hear that “cardio is bad for perimenopause” because it “elevates our cortisol.” This is not entirely accurate. All high volume training elevates our cortisol, including resistance training. This is part of the natural process our body goes through to get stronger – it responds to the stimulus of the workout by repairing and getting stronger.

In perimenopause, lower levels of hormones mean we’re more sensitive to the impact cortisol has. So if we’re overtraining in any way (cardio included), we’ll more likely gain more body fat and lose more muscle.

We cannot train day after day with no rest and expect to see results. Muscle repairs and comes back stronger AFTER a high volume training session when we recover and refuel with the right building blocks in our meals (protein, carbs, healthy fats).

If you used to train 5 days in a row, now is the time to get more strategic about that kind of schedule. I suggest either a 4 day or 3 day a week workout schedule.

This is going to enable you to go harder in the workouts you do (making them more effective for stimulating your body to respond), and more effective recovery time to repair and reduce the inflammatory response the workout creates. You will not recover as quickly with lower hormone levels. Even if you’re using HRT, your body will still need this recovery time.

If you keep training without taking recovery, your body never gets out of the inflammatory cycle and never fully strengthens you. You also run the risk of keeping cortisol elevated for a prolonged period, which undermines your body’s ability to lose fat and strengthen your muscle.

My workout programs have either been written in a 3 or 4 day split from the start, or have bonus schedules added to them that follow those training sequences to provide a more optimized workout to recovery schedule for you with a couple different options that you can choose from.

Some programs and challenges were already written in a 3 day or 4 day format, simply because this is an ideal way to train for specific types of training programs for us at any stage of life. It just becomes an especially useful and effective option in our perimenopause years, so we use it!

FREE GUIDE: For more specific guidelines for training and eating in perimenopause, go here! 

PERIMENOPAUSE WORKOUT PLAN: 8 Week Strength Training program for women in Perimenopause!

All of the workout programs I offer, and all of the challenges in Rock Your Life have specific options for training postmenopause. 

Post-menopause, we want to prioritize 3 specific things when it comes to our training:

• Training volume (meaning the workouts are challenging for you)
• Optimized recovery (getting enough recovery to come back strong for your next session)
• Eating enough protein for muscle recovery and repair, and plenty of fiber to support optimal gut health

Training volume:

In order to get results we need to maximize our training time with specific types of high volume training – including:

• strength training/resistance training: working against a load (you can begin with gravity or your own bodyweight and progress up through heavier amounts of weights)
• explosive cardio: any type of short burst plyometrics, interval training, HIIT, or sprinting

Resistance training strengthens our muscle tissue (the more muscle we have, the faster we burn fat), supports strong bones and improves our capability.

Explosive cardio strengthens our joints, muscle and bone tissue, improves our heart health, and helps mobilize body fat – especially visceral body fat (the deep belly fat that’s especially dangerous in our menopause years).

The types of training and exercise you want to prioritize postmenopause might look just the same as what you were doing before, or it may look quite different. Some key elements include you ramping up the challenge or volume deliberately over time (so your body can keep responding to the stimulus you provide and not plateau), and you taking the recovery you need to come back strong for your next workout.

Optimized recovery:

You may hear that “cardio is bad for menopause” because it “elevates our cortisol.” This is not entirely accurate. All high volume training elevates our cortisol, including resistance training. This is part of the natural process our body goes through to get stronger – it responds to the stimulus of the workout by repairing and getting stronger.

Postmenopause, our lower levels of hormones mean we’re more sensitive to the impact cortisol has. So if we’re overtraining in any way (cardio included), we’ll more likely gain more body fat and lose more muscle.

We cannot train day after day with no rest and expect to see results. Muscle repairs and comes back stronger AFTER a high volume training session when we recover and refuel with the right building blocks in our meals (protein, carbs, healthy fats).

If you used to train 5 days in a row, now is the time to get more strategic about that kind of schedule. I suggest either a 4 day or 3 day a week workout schedule (options for this are included in every challenge).

This is going to enable you to go harder in the workouts you do (making them more effective for stimulating your body to respond), and more effective recovery time to repair and reduce the inflammatory response the workout creates. You will not recover as quickly with lower hormone levels. Even if you’re using HRT, your body will still need this recovery time.

If you keep training without taking recovery, your body never gets out of the inflammatory cycle and never fully strengthens you. You also run the risk of keeping cortisol elevated for a prolonged period, which undermines your body’s ability to lose fat and strengthen your muscle.

My workout programs have either been written in a 3 or 4 day split from the start, or have bonus schedules added to them that follow those training sequences to provide a more optimized workout to recovery schedule for you with a couple different options that you can choose from.

Some programs and challenges were already written in a 3 day or 4 day format, simply because this is an ideal way to train for specific types of training programs for us at any stage of life. It just becomes an especially useful and effective option in our perimenopause years, so we use it!

FREE GUIDE: For more specific guidelines for training and eating postmenopause, go here!

For guided workouts, post menopause programming, support and more, join us in Rock Your Life!

I am SO sorry to hear you are dealing with an injury or have gotten ill.

🎙️LISTEN: 5 Essential Recovery Tips if you get Sick or Injured

(if you want to know how to get better the fastest way possible, preserve your muscle and lose as little ground as possible during recovery!)

If you’re sick…

When it comes to being sick, it’s usually a good idea to take a step back from training. That’s because exercise is a type of stress to our system, and it does create an inflammatory response. In fact, that’s part of what causes our bodies to build strength! Exercise is a type of healthy stress. But that’s only true when WE are healthy.

Training when we’re sick diverts our body’s resources away from helping us recover from our illness. Which means we stay sick longer, and we might get sicker. The BEST thing to do if you’re sick is to BACK OFF and take some extra recovery days.

If you’re injured…

While I’ve got different fitness levels covered in these challenges and workout classes, I don’t have the full spectrum of training for all the things that can happen to our bodies when it comes to injuries, because those modifications are somewhat custom to you, and depend on when you got injured and how much you’re able to move as you heal.

Usually it’s not ideal to train right after an injury, as healing (and inflammation) are systemic, meaning your entire body is involved. Remember that exercise creates an inflammatory response, and when we’re injured we need all our resources at the scene of the injury. Doing too much inflammatory-provoking exercise when you’re healing can lengthen your healing process.

Very likely at a certain point in your healing journey it will be just fine for you to exercise with some modifications, but since I can’t be with you in person (wish I could!) I’m not the right person to tell you when that is or how to do it. Someone who is working with you in person, whether that’s a physical therapist or personal trainer is going to be the better judge of your rehab.

Please know I’m thinking about you, and that while I advise you to back off til you heal there are some key things you can do to preserve your muscle and heal as fast as possible.

I dislocated my elbow during a bad fall, and in this podcast I talk about that, the things I did while I was healing and some perspective I gained about health habits in general. You can listen right here!

Yes, it definitely is – but I would recommend you do this on a surface with some give to it. The muscles between your toes are designed to absorb shock naturally. In our modern world, we often lose, or never develop that strength because we are always in shoes.

Inside of your shoes, your toes are pressed together, which doesn’t allow for them to spread apart which they do naturally when walking barefoot. That spreading is what allows the muscles to take up the impact.

Additionally, many sneakers and shoes change the way your foot makes contact with the floor. There is arch support, or heel lift, and in stiffer shoes, your foot doesn’t go through the same heel strike-toe off gait that it would if you were barefoot. Therefore, patterns develop in us that sometimes translate up through the ankle, knee and hip – and change the way the bones articulate at varying joints.

For many years I have trained barefoot, or in a toe shoe, or minimal style shoe. My foot muscles are accustomed to this now. While I recommend it, I would not advise going to barefoot all at once if you are used to working out in sneakers. Ease into it.

Never perform high impact exercises on a non-giving surface for any duration of time – for example, it is hard on your joints running on concrete, asphalt, etc or performing jumping motions. While a sneaker may cushion the impact, it is not ideal to do this for a long time due to the way the sneaker can change the way your foot joints articulate (connect).

For more helpful tips about training, your form and alignment, take my free 14-day workshop, the Foundations of Functional Fitness!

Guess what, I have cellulite too! It’s a natural part of our body. If you’d like to read a post or see pictures I’ve taken of how mine looks, click here – I don’t want you to think there’s something wrong with you or abnormal for having it!

Typically cellulite happens as our fascial connective tissue binds to the fat cells, and creates dimpling on the surface of the skin. Here are some things that can impact it:

1: Hydration: Water keeps our connective tissue hydrated and supple.

2: Healthy gut bacteria – which comes from eating a balanced, whole food diet, low in inflammatory foods, reduced stress, and adequate sleep. A healthy gut microbiome impacts your hormone balance, your digestion and absorption of nutrients, your mood and sleep, and is a part of your overall state of health.

3: Sitting excessively. A lot of us experience cellulite in the areas we sit. Poor circulation and blood flow to these areas is a culprit in cellulite. This is why some of the massage techniques you may read about can be helpful because you’re stimulating the area and breaking up fascia and connective tissue that can be stuck.

4: Hormone balance. Estrogen levels being out of balance can play a role. Estrogen regulates your body’s production of collagen. As we age and our estrogen levels begin to go down, collagen production is reduced. Less collagen means weaker connective tissue and thinner skin, which makes it easier for cellulite to appear (Add bone broth to your diet to increase the production of collagen, and/or use a collagen powder or supplement like my brand of Full Body Collagen). Vitamin C is also essential for collagen production, so make sure you’re getting plenty of it in your foods or in supplement form.

When estrogen levels fluctuate it can reduce circulation to connective tissue and affect lymph (your body’s immune fluid) circulation. Stagnant lymph can be trapped in weakened connective tissue and can increase the appearance of cellulite. Try dry brushing to move your lymph fluid, which can make your skin feel softer and smoother, or use a foam roller or self massage tool regularly.

5: Stretching, foam rolling and self care. Being proactive with these activities can help keep your tissue healthy and pliant which is great for your joints and also for the elasticity of your tissue.

6: Building muscle. As we increase the muscle we have, we shift the shape of our bodies and burn fat more efficiently. More muscle can reduce the appearance of cellulite.

Final thoughts from me are that cellulite seems like something natural and a lot of why we dislike it is because we’ve been overexposed to imagery that makes us feel like there’s something wrong with us for having it.

Models in magazines are airbrushed. Many images we see online have been filtered. Some people use light or stand in ways that make their skin appear smoother than it is in real life. Some of us have less of it at certain times, and more at other times. And some people have a job where they are paid to professionally model, which means they may spend more time, money and effort on their appearance, which is not realistic or necessary for a healthy person with a regular job and life responsibilities that don’t include modeling full time.

For me personally, the amount I see tends to fluctuate based on where I’m at in my monthly cycle (so clearly hormone related), how much I’ve been sitting for hours on end, whether I’ve been getting regular massages or doing regular self care, how much body fat I am carrying (though I still have some regardless of how lean I get) and how well I’ve been eating/staying hydrated (so intake related).

Don’t be too hard on yourself for your appearance – most of what we perceive is about other people, not us. Focus on your strength, and on all you are capable of.

Here are some more posts that I’ve written about my body to show you that it moves and acts like a normal body and is flawsome.

1: Bikini Pics

2: Stomach Pics

3: Shorts Pics

The roller is a versatile tool that will help you get more out of your workouts through increasing your flexibility and decreasing the soreness that occurs after tough exercise bouts.

It smooths out and lengthens your underlying connective tissue that surrounds your muscles – your fascia – and if you have one – or have access to one it’s a great tool to use regularly.

When using it, remember to stay aligned, keeping your body straight in a plank position either on your hands or forearms. Stabilize with your other foot and hands. Always relax the limbs you are applying pressure to.

You don’t want pressure on a contracted muscle, it’s just painful and also decreases the amount of release that’s possible. If you find an especially tight or sore area, hang out on it until it’s more tolerable to continue rolling.

Here is a quick video demonstrating how I use the foam roller.