🙌Up Level at Fierce, Level Up Your Life 🙌🏾

By: Arnica Lande

After a long year spent mostly indoors and away from the activities we love, people are now out and about with a new vengeance for life. Patios are bustling as Colorado lifts capacity and mask restrictions, parks are full of children laughing and adults playing drink-friendly kickball, classes are waitlisted at Fierce45, and an overall intense yet happy energy is circulating. With summer and sunshine on the horizon, many are looking to feel their best selves, so it’s a perfect time to take workouts to the next level! 

Whether it be hiking, biking, running, swimming, rock climbing, or any other activity that gives you your Rocky Mountain High, Fierce is the perfect complimentary workout. The method works by building stability and endurance strength through slow twitch muscle burnout, which then creates healthy, strong joints and overall stability around the bones to ensure functional movement. Simply said? Fierce makes strong, healthy bodies that can safely and efficiently do the badass activities Colorado has to offer! And if you feel ready for the challenge, or like you’ve hit a plateau after crushing your workouts all year long (because let’s face it – for many, that was the most outside of our homes activity we could do), it’s time to push yourself a little more on the machine and realize your capacity for change and continued growth.  

It’s easy to become complacent with a workout – maybe a plateau where you don’t feel a lot of change happening in your body, things level out and you're itching for something new. At the end of the day, it’s on us to create our own change, to know what we’re capable of and experience the beauty of what self-motivation can do firsthand! Maybe you add another day of Fierce class to your schedule to supplement your outdoor lifestyle, or maybe you start scheduling your weekly hikes to experience the benefits of your Fierce workouts this past year. Whatever it is, know that each time you show up on the machine, there are some easy and amazing ways to up level your workout and ensure you live your best life outside of the Fierce45 walls! 

  • Increase your range of motion. By doing so, your muscles work even harder to stabilize and support your alignment. Just remember – if your form is compromised (ex. You lunge too low to a 90-degree angle at the knee or dip in the low back during a plank) or you experience painful discomfort; reset alignment, connect to your muscles through engagement, and begin to layer in movement.  

  • Change your placement on the machine. The tiniest shift of placement can make all the difference! When working in a kneeling upper body move on the carriage with the black cables, moving away from the black cable connection point will increase tension. In a Platform Lunge, placing the secondary toe closer to seam line 2 will limit the range of motion from the bottom (so rising a little less) to increase tension and up level the movement.  

  • Change your spring load. Easiest rule of thumb to follow: When working off the front of the machine, decreasing spring load will increase the tension for center core, obliques, and light load legs (ex. 0 springs instead of 1 white). Increasing the spring load while working off the back in these same blocks will make the movements more challenging (ex. 2 white springs instead of 1 white).  

There are tons of other ways to amplify the exercises on the machine, so be sure to listen to your coach throughout class and don’t be afraid to chat with them before or after and ask the best ways to make something more challenging! The FierceFormer is a magical machine, and truly will give you your best and most challenging yet efficient workout each time you show up, allowing you to level up the rest of your life outside of the studio.  

Jessica Sharpe