Member Spotlight: Strength Training with a New Runner

May 12

Erika is one of our most hard working, dedicated clients with an amazing energy. In her words (and we agree wholeheartedly) she is one tough mama! She is a runner, mother of 2, and through her busy work week, she makes the time for running and strength training with the Run Rx (she even squeezes in a normatec session when she can!) It has been such a treat to work with and watch Erika gain confidence in her strength and running since she started with us in July 2022.

When Erika first started with us, she was a brand new runner, running 2.5 miles 1-2x/week and doing some home strength workouts with lighter dumbbells or bodyweight. Her goal was to just be able to run healthy 2-3x/week, stay generally strong and deal with some of the mild lingering issues she was dealing with from having her 2 baby girls.

The first few weeks and months we worked on basic and foundational movements, breaking bad postural habits that came along with pregnancy and early childcare and used mostly free weights.

In August of ‘22 she was just starting to deadlift with a 20lb kettlebell and doing 12lb thruster squats. She was slowly adding mileage each week as she was feeling good!

Fast forward to now (not even 1 year later!), she just completed her first half marathon in April! She is up to 105lbs deadlifting with the hex bar (!), goblet squatting 45+ lbs and doing single leg squats with ease.

Erika continues to load plates up on her deadlift each week and running with the Trailblazhers run crew. We love seeing how proud it makes her to go home and show her girls how strong she is. Her girls, who have now been so inspired by Erika that they are getting into running themselves. She is an amazing example of a strong woman to both of them! We feel lucky and honored to work with such a dedicated runner, and we can’t wait to see where 2023 takes her.

Her next goal: running the 26.true marathon in 2024!

Is there anything better than wathcing small goals being achieved and turned into bigger ones?

Big shout out to Erika, her big progress and big goals!