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What Made Me Fall in Love With Fitness… and Why Everybody Belongs in the Gym

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I grew up in a pretty sleepy small town that didn’t have a whole lot of fun activities to offer kids. It was beautiful, though, and quiet and spacious. My parents gave me the best gift in the whole world, which was a house on land with a barn and horse in the back yard. 

Kathryn riding a horse at the barn circa 1991
Little me taking riding lessons. Yep, it’s a picture of a picture because, 1991.

I spent a lot of time outside, and remember watching my dad play around with some old weights. They were old Sears weights, my mom tells me, and they belonged to her brother when he was growing up. My dad would use this old barbell and curl them, and occasionally press them on a bench he had made.

Dad and Maverick
My dad and Maverick playing in the backyard. They were big buds and had so much fun.

Somewhere along the way, I got the itch for lifting, and asked to go to the gym. I wasn’t allowed until I was 12, which was the minimum age at the only gym in town. But when I turned 12, my parents bought me a membership, and I tagged along with my big sister. From then through the end of high school, I ended up just kind of being a gym rat, soaking up the experience and knowledge people had earned along their fitness journeys. I asked a million questions and received an outpouring of genuine advice in return. 

I Fall in Love With Fitness

This was my first experience with the amazing supportive environment that gyms produce. It breaks my heart when people think gyms are full of critical, judgmental beautiful snobs, because the truth is that the core members of a gym usually provide the best support a person could imagine. I LOVE the support groups gyms provide.  People truly would be so pleasantly surprised to realize what a great environment gyms make for personal and physical growth. 

Anyway, here I am. Many the best times of my life and many wonderful relationships have formed in a gym.

I encourage you to try joining a gym. If you can, find a neighborhood gym, or at least one that is not a huge chain.  You’ll find the regulars to be hard working people who understand that everybody has to put his or her time in. Truly, try it!  It’ll be more rewarding than you can imagine!

I’d love to help you fall in love with fitness and a gym too! Please message me if you have any questions, qualms, or are trying to get started. kathryn@kathrynalexander.com

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

The Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS

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I'm holding a picture of my dad for the Ice Bucket Challenge.  He lost his life to ALS in 2007.  Stupid disease.

I’m holding a picture of my dad for the Ice Bucket Challenge.  He lost his life to ALS in 2007.  Stupid disease.

One thing people typically discover about me fairly quickly is that I am rarely short on opinions, and given a polite opportunity, I will share them.  This comes much easier when the topic of conversation is exercise, fad diets, and calluses on my hands.  At least with the science stuff, I always have facts, studies, and other research to back up my plan of action regarding.  Seriously, every thing I factor into a workout program is by careful design, and I love this stuff!  I can blab about it all day.

ALS Sucks

One thing that I don’t discuss as much, because it’s not about exercise, and because it SUCKS, is ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.  Lou Gehrig’s disease is the worst disease in the world.  Hands down.  No one has ever persuaded me otherwise, because I watched my dad fight . for. his . life for 6 years with this disease.  In ALS patients, a motor neuron dysfunction causes the muscles of the body to atrophy, leading to eventual paralysis until death.  That means paralysis of the inspiratory muscles and muscles of the throat, making breathing, talking and swallowing harder.  This means paralysis of the throat, hands, legs, face.  It means that even though a few times my dad asked me to please scratch his nose because he had an itch he couldn’t reach, the truth is that hundreds more times, he probably didn’t even ask.  And then he couldn’t walk, couldn’t breathe comfortably, couldn’t communicate as well.

And then he passed away.

I know everyone loses their parents.  But he was ripped away.  He was made to suffer his last years, and I’ll miss him for all my years now.  So will my mom and sister, and his grandbabies whom he never met.  I excuse myself at every wedding’s father-daughter dance because it’s not cool to be that weirdo sobbing on a happy occasion.   I have often thought that should I marry, we should elope so there will be no aisle to walk down alone.  Selfish, I know, but so much was ripped away.  He was 60.

I didn’t tell many people when my dad was sick because I was in college at the time, and it was easier to focus on all the good things in my life, which was everything else.  But now, I have no excuse not to tell everyone I can about it and encourage people to help support fundraising and increasing awareness.  Even on a lifting blog.

ALS is More Common in Military and Veterans

ALS is more common in military veterans and athletes.  Diagnoses seem to be more and more common, with someone new diagnosed every 90 minutes.  Every 90 minutes!!  Lou Gehrig was diagnosed in 1939 – 75 years ago! – and there is still only one treatment option, a $1000 a month drug that extends life in patients by 2 months.  2 months!!  WTF, people?!

How can you help?  If you do one thing, please go to alsa.org and sign up to be an advocate.  This means you get an occasional email asking you to email your lawmakers when something on their ballot could allocate more funding to our cause. And if it is in your budget, please donate!!  Research will find the cure!  It will, it will! Thank you so much for reading and please reach out to me if you need ALS resources. kathryn@kathrynalexander.com

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

Why You Should Lift Weights

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Exercise really is the fountain of youth. It is THE secret. That “one trick!”. Truly, it is! It’s the magic pill, it does everything. It makes every cell in your body healthier, down to the smallest lining of your blood vessels. It makes you more capable, productive, and happy. There are endlessly documented cognitive, physical, and emotional benefits to exercise, and making better fitness choices can help every single person on this earth! Why you should lift weights is an easy question to answer because there are so many great benefits that come with lifting!

It can pick your butt up, make your clothes fit better, and make your high school friends wonder how you made time stop. It seriously is the secret to slowing down time. It’s really no secret anymore, though. It takes a bit more effort than swallowing a pill, but is well worth the effort!!

Why Not

So why don’t more people do it? Millions of reasons. Fear of effort, fear of failure, complacency. And, unfortunately, exercise is front loaded with the problems, as one of my professors used to say. You have to start by finding a gym, workout clothes, making time in your day, and actually showing up and doing it. It is harder in the beginning.

Worst yet, some people do all those things, sweat away, and don’t see results. Why? Because they’re not working out smart. Hard maybe, but not smart. They’re slaving away on the elliptical, which is boring. They’re doing steady state cardio to meet recommendations which specify minutes of workout goals, but not intensity. Boooooring! And time consuming. And ineffective.

What Happens When you Start Lifting Weights?

This is why I love lifting weights. Besides the fact that its way more fun (which we can all pretty much agree on, right?), it does more for you. Yes, it works harder for you. It’s like compounding interest on your IRA! You lift weights and build muscle, which is more metabolically expensive. You burn more calories post workout. Muscles takes more calories to maintain, so you find that it is easier to stay leaner as you get stronger. Win win win! Lifting can make you more powerful, which steady state cardio will not do.

Lifting will reshape you, which cardio also will not do. If you are a pear shape, you will only become a smaller pear after sweating away pounds on the elliptical. If you’re an apple, you’ll just be a more oblong shaped apple if you lose weight via jogging. Me, I’d rather ditch the fruits and become an hourglass. Or an X, for you men out there. That’s right, boulder shoulders, and strong glutes and hips. Tiny waist.

Why you should lift weights
I’d rather ditch the fruit and become an hourglass…

Don’t get me wrong. Steady state cardio has its place, and I do some conditioning. Walking is easy, cheap and peaceful. The elliptical is kinder to your joints than running. I even had one summer where I regularly got “runner’s high”, so I don’t think all you runners are crazy. I get it.  Besides that, if you enjoy a specific exercise mode, you should absolutely keep doing it. If you compete in or simply enjoy running, biking, or swimming, of course you should keep doing those things.

My point is that weight lifting really makes you the driver of your progress. If you’ve never lifted, try it! You won’t have to quit your other activities, contrary to popular belief, it won’t adversely affect them either. Start lifting now and let me know how it goes!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

Welcome to my new training blog!

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Hey y’all!  Welcome to my new web site!  This is a blog about lifting and training, and what it can do for you.  Yes, you.  Everybody.  Lifting is good for everybody!

If you read my About page, you know that I am admittedly a gym rat.  Yep, I am pretty one-dimensional.  I joined a gym when I was 12 because that was the age requirement in the only gym in my little town.  By the way, thanks Mom and Dad, for paying gym dues all those years!

Kathryn Alexander personal trainer Austin
Kathryn Alexander personal trainer Austin

When I went to college, I didn’t know what to study, but I knew I loved exercise.  So, I worked at the Rec Center and learned everything I could from my supervisors and coworkers, and before I knew it, I had a degree in kinesiology from LSU.   Fastest 5 years of my life.  I knew my education wasn’t over, so I moved to Austin and earned my masters in exercise physiology from UT.

Along the way, I had jobs and second jobs in gyms.  I’ve worked in shiny chain gyms, female only gyms, racquet clubs, community centers, and LSU’s rec center.  I’ve taught anatomy lab to undergrads, group exercise classes, one on one workout sessions, and exercise lectures.  I’ve met amazing friends and bonded with hilarious people over workouts.

I do love Texas dance halls, odd fashion, college football, and pretending I know what the heck is going on with the stock market, but really I don’t.  All I can say is exercise physiology is my area of expertise.  Not only the science of exercise, but also the nutrition, business, and psychology of training individuals and athletes.  I absolutely love designing specific programs for people so that they feel better, move better, and look better. 

Life is short, yall!  You might as well feel good, and be strong!  Remember, gyms are for everybody!  Find one and get started on your goals today!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.