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Misc.

How to Stay Healthy During a Air Travel

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Kathryn Paris.JPG

Summer travel season is upon us! Air travel literally broadens our world but it can be extremely hard on the body. Follow the tips below to be a fresh and happy traveler!

Stock Up on Sleep Beforehand

  • At least a week before you travel, aim for getting an extra hour of sleep in your routine.

  • This will help you feel more refreshed and energetic, and ease all the little minor inconveniences that come with even smooth air travel.

  • Beginning your travel rested will also help you more easily adjust to jet leg when you arrive at your destination.

    I did this to the extreme and it worked like a charm. Read about it here.

Strategically Pack Your Luggage

  • Pack a manageable amount of luggage, so you won’t be exhausted and frustrated hauling around too much stuff on your busy travel day.

  • It is tempting to try to stuff everything in your carryon to avoid checking a bag, but remember you’ll be fighting with a heavy, overflowing bag all day. When you change flights, you’ll have to drag it around and hope it fits into the overhead bin if you have a smaller plan for one of your travel legs.

  • Make it easy on yourself and just check a bag and take a simple carry on. Wallet, passport, phone, makeup, and a good book make a quick, easy carry on. As a bonus, you’ll have more room for shoes in your luggage, which men and women can get behind.


The wishing hole in Istanbul.

The wishing hole in Istanbul.


The Bosphorus Strait separates Instanbul’s European and Asian sides.

The Bosphorus Strait separates Instanbul’s European and Asian sides.

Get Up and Move!

  • Move around before and after the flight. If you get to your gate early, do some squats, stretch, or make an extra lap through the terminal.

  • If you have a long flight, walk to the restroom and back every couple hours. I know you don’t want to disturb your fellow passengers to get to the aisle, but that’s the reality of air travel. They signed up for it, and it’s worth it for your health.

Strategically Use Caffeine

  • Don’t drink more caffeine that you would on a typical day.

  • If possible, drink caffeine on a schedule that is in line with the time zone you are landing in. For example, if you traveled 6 hours west and now have 6 extra hours to stay awake, your evening coffee would be more like afternoon coffee.

Drink Water and Minimize Alcohol Intake

  • While caffeine can be a strategic indulgence, alcohol is really a comforting indulgence. However, it can make travel much tougher if you drink too much.

  • For smoother travel, remember to hydrate with water, and maybe save the alcohol for when you land.

Acclimate to the Rhythms of the New Time Zone

  • As quickly as possible, try to adjust to the new time zone. This refers to your sleep, exercise, and eating schedules.

  • If you land during dinnertime at your new time zone, eat dinner.

  • If you are a morning runner, get up and run in the morning there, even though it’ll feel strange at first.

  • Likewise, do your best to catch up to the sleep schedule to minimize jet lag.

  • These rhythms help our body adjust to a new time zone quicker, so you’ll have a more fun and energetic trip.

Where is your next flight adventure? Let me know, and try adding some of these tips in your next flight for healthy and carefree air travel!


Still the best place.

Still the best place.


This one was in Galveston, so it really has nothing to do with air travel except there’s a plane in the background. I just thought little Kathryn and my dad are adorable.

This one was in Galveston, so it really has nothing to do with air travel except there’s a plane in the background. I just thought little Kathryn and my dad are adorable.

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.

San Antonio Highland Games 2018 with Athletic Director Ed Cosner

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Throwing and the San Antonio Highland Games

I have always loved watching throwers in competition. The strength behind the shot puts, the precision of the spin, and that moment of anticipation while watching the implement fly through the air are so athletic, yet poetic to me.


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Some throwers may have a little bit more of an inherent ability, but all successful throwers spend many hours practicing. Maybe this is why the throws are so satisfying to watch: the culmination of many hours of work is evident in the briefest of moments before the implement lands.


Ed Cosner preparing for a stone put.

Ed Cosner preparing for a stone put.

The San Antonio Highland Games and Celtic Music Festival: Paint the Town Plaid!

If you are like me and enjoy watching throwing, sport, competition, or maybe have a thing for kilts, you should head to the Highland Games in San Antonio April 7 and 8. 

The San Antonio Highland Games and Celtic Music Festival brings Scottish Games, music, cooking, and Highland dancing together for a celebration of Scottish heritage. Over 30 clans represent their people and culture in a weekend that is fun for all ages. 

The Scottish Athletic Games

The Games are obviously my favorite part. Men and women compete over 2 days in the caber toss, sheaf toss, hammer throwing, stone put, and weight over bar and weight for distance. These aren’t just weekend warriors, either; world records have been set at these games. 

Ed Cosner, Athletic Director 

I talked to Athletic Director and former Highland Games champ, Ed Cosner, about the games, his experience throwing, and what you can expect at the games this year. 


Ed and his wife, Sally. "Sally, the key to holding the weekend together." 

Ed and his wife, Sally. “Sally, the key to holding the weekend together.” 

Kathryn: How did you begin working with the Highland Games?

Ed: I started competing in 1995 and have traveled the world competing. I was never a pure thrower and was still competing in powerlifting and strongman until 2000 when I went full time as a Highland Games Athlete. I really began to win championships when I became a Master’s Competitor (40 years old). 

Kathryn: So at that point you were a successful multi-sport athlete (Highland Games, powerlifting, and strongman). How did you transition from athlete into Athletic Director for the San Antonio Highland Games?  

Ed: I went to a meeting for the San Antonio Highland Games and the rest is history!!!! I was asked to take over the games in 2004, when there weren’t too many athletes competing. I was a champion and respected among my peers, so the men and women I competed with stepped up and came to my games.

I brought out my coach and training partner, James Parman, to judge and announce the games. People got excited to see real athletes out there, and to know what’s going on out on the field as well. James is awesome at that. His being a World Champion Professional Highland Games athlete himself and knowing all of the traditions and history behind the events makes it a fun experience.

Sidenote from Kathryn: I can attest, James is very informative, and humorous! The games are fun to watch even for someone who knows nothing about the games, since James does such a great job entertaining and informing the crowd. 


Ed steadies the caber.

Ed steadies the caber.

Kathryn: What is your favorite event? 

Ed: I love the heavy implements especially the caber and heavy weight for distance and height.

Kathryn: What else do you love about the games?

Ed: I love training for the games as it requires a beautiful blend of maximal strength to maintain positions while spinning/moving with heavy implements (like the 56# weight for distance, 56# weight for height, 23# Braemar Stone put or a heavy caber), explosive strength to throw these implements big distances to win, and the explosive power to throw the lighter implements (like the 16# open stone, 28# weight for distance), run and turn with a long caber, or the flexibility to wind a Scottish Hammer.


Ed prepares for the weight over the bar event.

Ed prepares for the weight over the bar event.

“Big, Strong & Powerful is what a Scottish Heavy Athlete is.”

Paint the Town Plaid!

Come on out to the games! It truly is a lot of fun regardless of your age or ability level. Check out the crowd getting involved in a caber toss in this video.

You can buy tickets online here for $10, or $11 at the door. Senior, military and children’s rates are $6. (This is not an affiliate link.)

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.

ReadyUp Podcast, talking shop about Max’s Ride and Lifting

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ReadyUp Athletic Podcast

Hey hey guys, I recently had the honor of sitting down to talk with my friend Zack on his podcast, ReadyUp Athletic Development.

Before the podcast, I posted this video on Instagram explaining Max’s Ride for ALS, a fundraiser I am part of. Shortly after, Zack invited me to be on his podcast.

Max’s Ride

Max’s Ride is a motorcycle ride and concert that raises money to support finding a cure. It is in Austin, TX, on April 21 this year. It is fun, family friendly, and welcomes all riders and non riders. Visit Maxals.org to learn more, and please join us!

ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, strikes people in every demographic, but with a greater frequency in the military population. It is always devastating, expensive, and fatal.

I know, because my dad had ALS. He passed in 2007. ALS will always be my biggest fight, but that is to be expected. When people like Zack, who haven’t had a familial link to ALS, support our cause, I can never properly express my gratitude. THANK YOU Zack and Readyup for both giving us a voice, and becoming a sponsor of Max’s Ride!

We had a great conversation covering lifting, gyms in Austin, TX, the fight against ALS, and fun things we are getting into next.

Listen here, and check out the ReadyUp podcast. It has central themes on lifting, athletic development, and great music, but covers many other topics.

ReadyUp Podcast Episode 6 with Kathryn Alexander


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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.

What’s So Special About the New Year?

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It’s a Friday. Fridays are pretty fun even when they aren’t January 1, but there are 52 Fridays in a year. What’s different about this one? 

Why is it filled with hope and unbridled optimism and the promise of #bigthingstocome?

It’s a Friday. 

It’s different though. It’s not like any other Friday. It’s the first day of a new year! It’s different and it’s special just for that. 

It’s the first day called 2016, it’s a clean slate, a blanket of fresh snow. And sometimes that in itself is the last little bit of motivation we need to start a new habit. 

New article: what I think of fitness New Year resolutions in 2024.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

Take a minute and think of them right now. 

I’m going to guess:

  • lose weight
  • exercise more
  • be a better husband or wife
  • spend more quality time with your kids
  • enjoy life more fully
  • save more money and pay down debt
  • get organized

Are those new thoughts? Did those goals just come to you this morning? No! Absolutely not! They are things you’ve wanted many times before. How many times have you looked at that piece of cake at the office party and thought, “I shouldn’t eat this.” 

How many times have you tucked your kids in bed only to realize that the day was another exhausting blur of carpools, practices, and homework. You’ve wished you had put away your phone, your kids’ homework, and spent more quality time with them. 

You’ve wished you actually committed to that workout. You wish you actually used your gym key tag.

Why didn’t you do that already? Well, many reasons, and they are all okay. You are human. You are busy, you are obligated to people and tasks, but you have the best of intentions. 

Forgiveness

Consider the act of forgiveness. It is an immensely kind act to do for yourself, when you can acknowledge and release others’ transgressions. It doesn’t require any specific formality or documentation. No attorneys, witnesses or notaries. It is simply an shift in your mindset. 

The new year presents us a similar opportunity. It gives us an occasion to put away the old guilt and failures, the missed workouts, the regrets for time lost. It gives us an occasion to start anew, making healthier, kinder choices that will truly fulfill us. 

So take this opportunity to make resolutions. Everybody else is! Gyms are bustling. Vegetables are flying off the grocery shelves. You are practically globally supported! Make your resolutions fun, do-able, and specifically beneficial to you. Sounds silly, but doesn’t “lose 11 pounds of fat” sounds better than “lose weight”? “Go to the gym 3 times a week” will guide you better than “exercise more”. 

The key to resolutions is to harness the energy of the new year, but remember that these goals are set up to become new lifelong habits which aren’t attached to any particular calendar date.

Here are some suggestions for resolutions in case you haven’t come up with any. Don’t pick all of these, but choose and adapt 1 or 2 if they will help you.

  • Drink 64 ounce of water every day.
  • Prepare a healthy breakfast every day.
  • Go for an exercise walk or jog 3 times a week.
  • Write in a gratitude journal 3 times a week.
  • Set your alarm, then put your phone on Do Not Disturb by 7:00 pm every night. (This is my favorite! Love you all, but I need my beauty sleep!)

Here’s to a Brilliant 2016!

One more thing: email me and tell me your resolutions! Let me know how they progress. I want to know if you have success with them, if you modify them, if you can positively influence your family and friends through them. 

kathryn@kathrynalexander.com

Let me know!

Bring it, 2016. 

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.

Should I Use Weight Lifting Gloves?

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You can be a lifter and have pretty hands and a pretty posterior. Sure, you’ve got to do work with your hands in the gym, but it doesn’t mean they have to get torn to shreds. That’s a common misconception.

Often I hear women say they don’t want to get calluses, and this is usually expressed before they’ve even develop calluses or curves. Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

I don’t mean to be insensitive; I hear you! Feminine, well kept hands are important to many women. I just want you to give it a try first and see that massive rough calluses don’t develop overnight.

The Case Against Gloves

What’s so bad about gloves, you ask? They make it a little tougher to grip the bar, because they make the diameter of what you have to grip larger. They slide. They are another thing you have to drag around. They get sweaty, smelly and their annoying Velcro strips grab everything in your gym bag.

Ditch the Gloves

So what’s a girl to do? I suggest you forgo the gloves. If you truly want to use them, you can, absolutely. Give it a shot without them first, though. Your grip will get stronger, which is always a good thing. Initial discomfort of grip intensive exercises will dissipate.

Your calluses will protect you, remember. You earned them.

Grip Strength is Always Beneficial

When in life would it benefit you to have softer hands or a weaker grip? I can think of no situation in which that is beneficial. Even if you do minimal work with your hands – no, especially if you do minimal work with your hands – that one time you find yourself really in a bind, you’ll wish you hand a stronger and tougher grip!

Are you shopping for someone? If so, instead of gloves, check out this guide: gifts for powerlifters.

Weight Lifting Calluses

Maintained calluses don’t scratch, rough you up, or tear. Those pictures you see online of people bragging about their bloody hands are usually from exercises like kipping pull-ups, in which the exerciser continued to lift despite signs that their hands were going to be damaged. Ripped, bloody hands are not the result of one or two extra reps; these are situations where the exerciser could have chosen plenty of times to stop. Perhaps they were in competition, perhaps they doggedly went after a goal number of reps, but regardless, it was their choice to continue.  

Callus prevention and smart training choices

When you are doing your own workout in the gym, and your hands have had enough for the day, you can choose to do a different exercise. In fact, I highly suggest that. It won’t help you to be out for days while your torn-up hands heal, so choose your exercises intelligently and be able to work out tomorrow.

So yeah, you will develop tougher hands. While you probably won’t develop giant calluses that rip and bleed, you might have a broken nail every once in a while. That happens anyway. If you ever feel like your hands are a little worse for the wear for your time in the gym, well you might be right.

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.

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.

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.