Jessica Sharpe

By: Reagan Rupard

In addition to back pain, hip flexor discomfort is a common complaint for coaches and clients on the FierceFormer®. The hip flexors are a group of muscles that span the front of the hip and are responsible for bending the hip as you do when you pull your knee in towards your chest. This motion is also happening in a lot of core moves like plank to table top where you move from an extended hip joint in plank to a flexed position in table top, fierce crunch, kneeling crunch, and flying table top, as well as many others.

The problem begins when our brain chooses to use our hip flexors to do the work instead of our abdominal core muscles. The hip flexors are part of our stabilizing “core” that often turn on to do more than their fair share of the work when the body feels overwhelmed by a difficult exercise. Over time, the brain automatically turns on hip flexors in core moves as a sort of muscle memory, and over time our core exercises are primarily hip flexor exercises! If you’re someone who cannot seem to turn off hip flexors during the core blocks, this might be the problem you’re dealing with. Not only are our abdominal core muscles missing out on strengthening opportunities in these exercises when the hip flexors take over to do the work, but this puts our hip flexors at risk for overuse and stress that can cause discomfort during class. 

To undo the muscle memory, we’ve programmed our bodies to use, I’ll ask that you give yourself patience, because this will require modifying quite a bit! You’ve got to find the level of challenge in each move that ignites your core, but is not so difficult that your body turns on your hip flexors to help. We can also utilize slight position changes that will tend to turn on our core more than our hip flexors. I’ve outlined three rules you can apply to your workout to, over time, relieve hip flexor overuse in core exercises. Use the photo below for anatomical references to help you build the mind-body awareness that will guide your modifications in class. Though it only shows a superficial layer of the core and doesn’t include the obliques and transversus abdominis (our real focus in Fierce45), the anatomical landmarks apply to those important muscles, too. I’ll be focusing on the most common triggering move: Fierce Crunch.

1. Find your posterior pelvic tilt: belly-up core moves like Fierce Crunch or Bicycle Crunch are typically the most triggering for hip flexor discomfort. Make sure you’re sitting in a posterior pelvic tilt with your tailbone tucked slightly underneath you and your weight back on your sacrum (the flat upside-down triangle in your low back) instead of your sit bones (ischial tuberosities – the bony part of the bottom of your butt). This posture in itself facilitates core activation and decreases hip flexor activation. Not sure what this looks like? Ask your coach next time you take class!

2. Start the crunch with your core: Reference the anatomy photo above. The top of your abdominal core starts at the ribcage and runs down to your pubic bone – the front center of the bottom of your pelvis. Rather than starting a crunch up by pulling your knees in, think about pulling these two parts – ribcage and pubic bone – closer together. You should already be in a posterior pelvic tilt as mentioned in the last point, so from there focus on rounding your torso as much as possible from tailbone all the way up the spine. The result is a slight tailbone tuck at the beginning of full range that ignites your core and inhibits your hip flexors. Also…. SO HARD.

3. Decrease intensity! Our priority in any exercise at Fierce45 should not be getting the biggest range of motion, but rather tapping into that range that challenges the target muscle group. Having the lowest Fierce Crunch or moving through really large ranges in something like plank to tabletop will typically rely on hip flexors to make up the work that the core can’t. So – think small. In a Fierce Crunch, find your Fierce Wrap before you even lean back into the range. As mentioned above, make sure you’re in a posterior pelvic tilt, then lean your torso back until the first moment you feel your core ignite. As you move through full range, go lower as long as you’re able to maintain the Fierce Wrap (no doming!) and stop if you feel any hip flexor discomfort. You can also eliminate the movement of your legs in Fierce Crunch to stay focused on what your core is doing. For many moments of your next several classes, finding the balance between targeting core and not over engaging hip flexors may mean that you just hold! And that is OKAY! You are retraining your body to utilize your abdominal core muscles in a way that will make you stronger on and off the machine and will eventually allow you to take class without hip flexor discomfort. As you build core strength and mind-body awareness of which muscles are working, you can slowly increase this range of motion and, over time, move through a full range using your abdominal core. Though this may seem like a less intense version of this exercise, using only your abdominal muscles makes these exercises SO HARD! I promise you will not be without a challenge.

As always, if you’re experiencing pain or discomfort in Fierce that cannot be managed with modifications or your pain lasts for a significant amount of time after getting off the machine, go visit a physical therapist or your doctor to tackle injuries and get you back on the machine feeling 100%.

By: Arnica Lande

The perfect balance of family, work, personal care, and social life can seem an impossible achievement. A glorified lifestyle, “balance” is deceivingly experienced when life feels like it’s on the up, but that feeling is usually never experienced for long. The downs then come which can jettison us out of the high and into a spiral of confusion, wondering when we will find the balance again. Instead of searching for balance in life, a better way is to learn to flow with it! Finding fluidity during turbulent times is nothing short of a challenge, but it’s through such challenges when we find our Fiercest selves and come out the other side stronger. Here are some tips for finding fluidity in your daily life:  

1. Perspective. Remember that no matter how low you go, the opposing high will feel incredible when you get there! It’s like a mountain – once you get to the top, it was worth the journey from the bottom. The higher the mountain, the more rewarding the view.  

1. Surrender. You know those times you can’t fall asleep, and the more you try the harder it is to sleep? It’s not until you surrender to the thoughts and relax into the racing mind that you find it. Surrendering to the challenge is the only way out, and that serves for anything in life. To truly grow, you must experience the hard times. We can’t skirt growth by going around the problem: we must go through it.  

1. Everything is temporary. This goes for the highs, too. Ultimately, staying humble is one of the best ways to find fluidity in life. Appreciating and embracing the highs when they come but understanding that you wouldn’t experience them without the lows is key to feeling a sense of peace.  

1. Routine. Having a daily routine is like having a framework for your day. It doesn’t have to be the same hour by hour, but something as simple as a morning practice that involves journaling and a workout, or an evening routine with a book and tea, will provide structure to help you feel balanced and achieve a sense of fluidity.  

1. Fierce45®. We say it all the time, but Fierce is an amazing mental challenge as well as a physical one! The mental stamina required for the workout is like no other modality and practicing positive self-talk in hard movements helps us better handle stressful times off the machine. Also, understanding that our bodies may require different things each day on the machine allows us to tap into a sense of fluidity and understanding of our bodies and minds. 

Whether you’re on a high from a weekend of sunshine, only to feel shocked by the snowfall the next day (otherwise known as “False Spring and Third Winter”), or you’ve settled into that new job and it doesn’t feel so shiny and glorious anymore, ultimately you are in control of your life and there are amazing ways to build fluidity into your days. So, the next time you’re faced with a challenge, create a new daily ritual, jump on the FierceFormer®, and remind yourself that this too shall pass.   

By: Reagan Rupard

In my last blog, I wrote about how strengthening our slow-twitch muscle fibers not only builds long and lean muscle that looks great in your yoga pants while you work from your home office, but also strengthens the deep stabilizing muscles of our body that are then better equipped to stay strong in moments where our stability is compromised and we might otherwise injure ourselves. This especially applies to athletes who find themselves with chronic overuse injuries; strengthening our stabilizing muscles can help to improve or eliminate compensation patterns that are causing that injury. But that’s not the only way that you’re getting stronger on the FierceFormer® that will make you stronger in everything else that you do, whether that’s skiing, running, cycling, carrying children or going to work in a physically-demanding job.

I was lucky to have the experience of attending PT school while I was coaching at Fierce45®. As I learned the core tenants of injury rehabilitation and recovery, I was floored by how much of that we were already doing at Fierce. It makes me so proud to coach here, knowing that we are doing the things on the machine that are going to prevent you from having to learn it from scratch later in life after an injury.

We’ve extensively covered how slow, controlled movement strengthens your slow twitch muscle fibers for more deep stability and strength, but the other piece of that message is the importance of the control itself. Remember your first class, where all of the movements felt so foreign and out of control to you? Think of how far you’ve come, and acknowledge that you’ve strengthened the connection between your mind and your body to be able to produce refined movements that are constantly challenging your strength and your balance. You’ve learned (and we are always ever-learning on the machine) exactly what a right oblique contraction feels like, or how deep to go in a lunge to maximize the work of your hamstrings, or how to make slight adjustments in your plank to ensure the work is happening in your core rather than your shoulders. This is also happening subconsciously off the machine – you’re better at making hard turns on skis, or hiking downhill, or controlling your balance when you’re walking on ice.

The other cornerstone of Fierce45® that makes a huge difference in injury prevention is that we work sides of the body individually. Limb dominance is a risk factor for injury in sport, especially after a previous injury to one limb. When you work on one leg, arm, or side of the core at a time, you are forcing one side of your body to strengthen without help from the over dominant side. Creating improvement in an individual limb’s ability to balance, stabilize and move against resistance means that you’re working to prevent that moment when planting on your “weak” ankle causes a sprain or overuse of your “strong” leg causes an overuse strain.

Take it from me: the body awareness you gain to be able to square off your hips strengthens the muscles that prevent knee injury. Using your core to maintain a neutral spine in everything from a sprinter’s lunge to an overhead shoulder press is laying the foundation to prevent back injury and pain. Letting your ankle wobble a little bit in a carriage lunge but keeping your balance is strengthening the muscles that prevent ankle sprains. The mental toughness that you build in every burning and shaking minute to stay in it with good form is making you stronger for everything else the world may throw at you off the machine.

Instagram handle: @monimonster4

Spotify name: Monica Lucas

Teaching schedule:

WWP: Tues. 5:30/6:30 AM & Thurs 5:30/6:30 PM

RINO: Sat 8/9/10 AM every other

LOHI: Sun 7:30/8:30/9:30 AM every other

1. How long have you been teaching at Fierce45? FOREVER … Kidding 5.5 years!

2. Three words to describe your classes? Intense, Inspiring, and Invigorating

3. Who/what is your spirit animal? MISSY ELLIOT – ALWAYS AND FOREVER

4. Favorite workout/class music? I am so music-driven when I work out. Any kind of music that SLAPS (kids say that nowadays). Love me some R&B, Hip Hop and a great oldie remix

5. Favorite move on the machine? Man… I have so many favorites and a favorite for each body part/block but overall I will go with a newer one… WELL LUNGE/WELL LATERAL LUNG! Instant burner🔥

6. What is your favorite thing about the Fierce45 community? I love connecting with people on and off the machine. The Fierce45 community has so much to offer and is truly resilient – getting through 2020 proves it!

7. Why do you love teaching at Fierce45? I love being a part of people’s day, spending their 45 minutes of uninterrupted THEM time with them. I strive to make people laugh, dance, and sweat in each and every class!

8. Why do you love Fierce Movement as a method? H U M B L E… This machine is harder today than it was when I took my 1st class 6 years ago. EVERYONE can relate to being new, coming back from injury, modifications and so much more. Whether you are at your first 10 classes or 800… the story remains the same and consistent. I am a stronger person inside and out from this method and that is a gratitude I will never forget!

9. Tell us a fun fact about you! Pshhh – in the words of my mother ” I am an over-sharer” so most things, secrets, or embarrassing stories are usually told in class 😂 FUN FACT: I will be marrying the BEST human out there on NYE (thanks a lot COVID for making me wait another year 😄)

Instagram handle: @kecomer

Spotify name: Kristina Comer

Teaching schedule: Hilltop Tuesdays 5:30/6:30/7:30a + RiNo 4:30/5:30p

1. How long have you been teaching at Fierce45? a little over 2 years! I took my first class 3 years ago 🙂

1. Three words to describe your classes? empowering, intentional, challenging

1. Who/what is your spirit animal? I am a cat lady through and through, so I would have to choose a cat. They are happy chillin’ out & getting cozy at home, but they also love to hang with their favorite people. They’re curious and particular and that also resonates with me.

1. Favorite workout/class music? def have more of a pop and upbeat vibe in my classes

1. Favorite move on the machine? carriage sprinters is still an all-time fave – so much balance and stability but still heavy pushing!

2. What is your favorite thing about the Fierce45 community? With the smaller class sizes, we really get to know our clients! It’s so fun to see people week to week and know what’s going on in their lives. I also love that we have spread out to have so many studios, and every time I sub I get to meet new people. All the coaches & management team here are amazing and I always am learning from them.

3. Why do you love teaching at Fierce45? I love to teach and motivate others to live a healthy lifestyle and find their best selves. I also get to meet so many people in the community, hear about their lives, and connect.

4. Why do you love Fierce Movement as a method? It really changes how you think about movement – it’s powerful, difficult, and you get sweaty, but without moving full speed ahead. It forces you to slow down, connect with your body, and understand that change can happen with the tiniest adjustments.

5. Tell us a fun fact about you! I am definitely more of an introvert, and teaching fitness classes is something I ALWAYS aspired to do, but it took me several years to get the courage to jump in. I started out teaching barre and found my home at Fierce45, it’s been such a learning experience and a step out of my comfort zone in so many ways.

By: Arnica Lande

The New Year is the perfect time to set new goals and reflect on previous ambitions, habits, and achievements. Resolutions are created to make us feel better about the endless possibilities the future holds, and then shared in hopes of long-term accountability and success. Oftentimes, though, these resolutions are formed out of regret and negativity. So, this year, instead of making a resolution derived from the need to fix something that isn’t necessarily broken, we challenge you to set an intention, or multiple intentions, to help you reach your goals.  

We write our intentions on the chalkboards at Fierce to remind us throughout class of our “why” – what motivates us, what inspires us, what keeps us going when things become challenging. Our intentions provide the steppingstones to help us reach our bigger goals. Rather than something that seeks to fix, an intention is a more creative and positive means of reaching our desires.  

It all comes down to reframing the thought process behind bigger goals. Intentions allow a productive and mindful way to scale back larger goals and make them attainable over time. Whether it’s more self-care, speaking kindly to oneself, or increasing your Fierce classes to 4 times per week, all those intentions will have a domino effect in life, ultimately creating even more positive changes down the road! 

Kick 2021 off with the usual motivation of a New Year, but with lasting intentions that won’t let you down by mid-February. Choosing a positive mindset to move through each day will not only leave you feeling better but will make those tough days feel so not tough!  

By: Arnica Lande

The year 2020 will forever go down as the year of the COVID pandemic: of loss, of growth, of revitalized friendships, and new ways to connect virtually. The year of remote work, of masks, of social distancing and isolation. The year of new normals in hopes that we can go back to old ways once more. The year of social change, of collective social education and recognition of racial and gender disparities, of self-reflection. The year of a new definition for the word “hero”. The year that people learned to sit with their thoughts, and most importantly, learned how to surrender to what life has in store. Amongst the chaos of 2020, calamity has been found by surrendering to each moment, living presently, and embracing life as it is.  

You hear your Fierce coach preach it all time – “presence” – and no, we aren’t talking about presents you receive this time of year, but the act of mindful living and being “in” the moment. It’s hard enough to be present without a disease affecting everyone’s day to day life, however, clearing the mind and surrendering to each moment so you can fully experience it can help us appreciate even the tough times. A few ways we think are helpful to living life in the present:  

1. Exercise. It may be cliché, but you’ll never regret a workout! Exercise is a great stress reliever, not to mention an amazing way to challenge yourself and surrender to something that may feel uncomfortable. We practice this at Fierce45 every day, finding comfort in discomfort, because we know that’s when our bodies and minds begin to change. Surrendering to the challenge, being present in each moment of the 45 minutes on the machine, can help us better handle tough situations off the machine!  

1. Meditation. For many people, the simple practice of sitting in silence for a few moments each day helps to quiet the mind, discredit doubts, and feel grounded. Sometimes the brain can feel so cluttered, and meditation provides tools for handling the clutter that may bring on stress and anxiety. Think of it as a workout for your brain! Meditation apps like Calm and Headspace have boomed this year thanks to 2020. 

1. Talkback to insecure thoughts. Ever get caught up in your head, only to pull yourself away minutes later and realize how much time has passed? Rather than listening to any negativity or self-doubt, talk back to yourself! You’d never let someone else speak to you that way – so why do it to yourself? In noticing thought patterns, you can begin to live more presently in each moment.  

1. Routine. For many of us with our pre-COVID routines, this year has definitely thrown a wrench in our day to day lives. We see the social memes and hear it in-studio, how people feel they’ve lost control over their nutrition and have consumed more alcohol since they did in college. It’s important to remember that this year is different from any others. For most, we are trying to cope with loss, change, and a new life, so give yourself some grace and be kind. We are all living through wild times and surrendering to this year can help us enjoy each moment a little more thoroughly.  

When it feels like there are so many reasons to be down, when you feel down because sometimes, life is just plain hard, practicing presence and truly surrendering in that moment can ultimately lift the spirits. A lot of it comes down to perspective and the mental mindset, a huge part of the Fierce45 method. Enjoying the present, surrendering to each moment, will ensure we close out our crazy Covid year with a bang.  

Instagram handle: @livingonholiday

Spotify name: Saara – https://open.spotify.com/user/rd2nanzq8efaxlih4alnjytdz?si=WPR-G6FASX-VXypTk5qsIg

Teaching schedule:

All at Lohi –

Monday 6/7/9 am

Tuesday 4/5 pm

Friday 10:30/noon

Sunday 7:30/8:30/9:30 (every second week)

1. How long have you been teaching at Fierce45? My 1 year anniversary is on Dec 11th! Same day as my wedding anniversary ha

2. Three words to describe your classes. Challenging, energetic, and cheeky

3. Who/what is your spirit animal? Swan

4. Favorite workout/class music? Poppy Princess

5. Favorite move on the machine? Any version of lateral lunge!

6. What is your favorite thing about the Fierce45 community? Meeting a load of new pals – the fierce community is so open and friendly

7. Why do you love teaching at Fierce45? Love connecting with clients and taking hard classes

8. Why do you love Fierce Movement as a method? It’s always hard!

9. Tell us a fun fact about you! I order my chocolate from home (Scotland) and have it every day as my Lunch Dessert with tea

By: Arnica Lande

Gratitude may be the theme of the month at Fierce45, but it’s arguably the theme of the year. We are living through a pandemic, something most of us never thought to see in our lifetime, and with stay-at-home orders being enforced worldwide, social lives turned social less, jobs lost and nationwide unrest, we are forced to carve out a new way of life. It can be easy to fall into a pattern of negativity but seeking out gratitude each day in the things that might bring us back to a sense of normalcy, or a new way of doing the things we love, can help ease some of the communal stress. Given the state of the world, we at Fierce are more grateful, now than ever before, for our Fierce community and having a safe mental and physical space to show up in for our workouts. 

Returning to the studios in June was exciting and daunting. The Fierce team worked hard to create a workout space that adhered to city and state social distancing guidelines, but how would wearing a mask affect the workout? What about those studios that no longer have lobbies, the source of conversation and connection before and after class? How do we sustain the core value of community while rushing clients in and out the door? We quickly were brought back to what Fierce is at its core: a kickass workout delivered by incredible coaches, surrounded by badass humans (a safe 6 feet away, of course). The amount of gratitude that poured in from clients and coaches alike fueled our mission to keep our doors open and provide a workout that was not only a physical release, but a mental one as well.  

In a time when one can feel socially isolated, mental health concerns are at an all-time high. Fierce has provided a safe opportunity to be around and feel the energy of other people while in the room working out together. According to the US National Library of Medicine, “Exercise improves mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, and negative mood and by improving self-esteem and cognitive function. Exercise has also been found to alleviate symptoms such as low self-esteem and social withdrawal.” To put it simply, in the words of Elle Woods, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.” So yes, coming to Fierce can alleviate any at-home remote work tension with your partner or roommates, and you’ll definitely feel better afterwards.  

Even while living through a pandemic, it’s comforting to know we can find a new normal with our old faves, all the while taking care of our health and seeing friends. So, this month, we practice gratitude: gratitude for our clients, a workout that is truly Hard Every Time, and our seriously badass team of coaches and management.

EVERY MONTH WE ARE EXCITED TO BRING YOU “PT CORNER!” OUR RESIDENT STUDENT PHYSICAL THERAPIST AND FIERCEMOVEMENT® COACH REAGAN RUPARD IS SHARING HER INSIGHT ON HOW THE BODY WORKS AND HOW IT RELATES TO THE MOVEMENTS WE DO ON THE MACHINE. UTILIZE REAGAN’S INSIGHT TO KICK YOUR CLASSES UP A GEAR!

BY: Reagan Rupard

At Fierce45®, we think a lot about our “why”. And for me, as a (6 weeks from graduating but who’s counting) student physical therapist, my “why” isn’t just about what I emotionally bring to the table when I coach a class. I’m asking myself why over and over as I plan my classes each week. That’s how I ensure that I have a reason behind every inch that my clients are moving on the machine. I always want the sequence of class, the moves I choose, and the variations I add onto them to be purposeful. 

A big part of bringing purpose to my classes and challenging clients of every skill level is largely built on a basic knowledge of how our muscles work. This month, I want to share some of that knowledge with you so that you more fully appreciate our physical “why”, and you can use it to challenge yourself next time you’re on the machine.

A few definitions, first.

concentric contraction: muscle contraction where the muscle length shortens because muscle fibers move closer together (think, bicep curl in)

isometric contraction: muscle contraction where muscle length does not change (think of a 10s hold in the bottom of your squat)

eccentric contraction: muscle contraction where muscle lengthens because muscle fibers move apart from each other (the down phase of a lunge, where your hamstring is still on fire, but lengthening as you lower)

What makes Fierce special?

Have you ever been to a gym and seen someone throw weights up into a bicep curl then passively drop them, letting gravity do the work on the way down? This type of momentum-driven exercise means that a huge amount of potential work is being missed out on. And by work, I mean the work we show up to do when we exercise: overloading the muscle so that we cause microscopic damage in muscle fibers that then spurs the body to build back new, stronger muscle. We spend equal amounts of time in the concentric/eccentric phases of contraction at Fierce45. That’s especially important because the eccentric phase of contraction (down in a lunge, out in bicep curls, those last two inches out in hero) are especially good at making us stronger.

How can I apply this in class?

Up-level every single class you take by staying more present in each move. Don’t let the eccentric contraction be a break where you allow gravity, cables, or springs to do the work for you. Hold on to the intensity you’ve built in the concentric phase – that burn in your biceps, along the smile of your seat, all along your core – and keep in through the entire movement. Challenge yourself to really control the descent in lunges, creating a little bit of your own resistance all the way down. This not only helps to fatigue the muscle, but encourages us to stay in our most active range of motion. Overall, that means less breaks, and more soreness. As coaches, we’ve been focusing on using eccentric contractions to challenge you more, so be on the lookout for those opportunities in class to get that sweet, sweet shake.