Many people blame injuries and pain on their age. However, I'm here to tell you that you don't need to give up sports just because you're growing older. Sports themselves do not cause your injuries, either. Sports are not bad! We are designed to move and play for all of our days. Sadly, the...

Is athletic toughness pushing through the pain and possibly compromising your body for future sports participation to compete in a race?

OR

Is athletic toughness having the integrity to listen to your body, make self-respecting choices and think beyond today’s game? 

Depending on when...

Did you see it? Professional golfer Tiger Woods pulled out of the first round of the Farmers Open last month due to back pain. Why? Because of a lack of glute activation. In an interview, he actually acknowledged it.

“My glutes are shutting off and they they don’t activate and then...

Body awareness is the first step towards a pain free body.

One of the initial things a client often experiences while working with me is enhanced postural awareness. Prior to our session, they rarely thought about how they held their body. After our time together, my clients become aware of how...

“Pain is part of the body's defense system, producing a reflexive retraction from the painful stimulus, and tendencies to protect the affected body part while it heals, and avoid that harmful situation in the future.”

This is the evolutionary and behavioral role of pain as described...

Balloon Letting go is hard. In my experience, it is much more difficult to coach someone to postpone participation in an event than to continue ahead with strenuous training. I've also struggled with this personally. Consider this . . .

July 15, 2011 - It is the day before cross-country...

As I neared the top of the initial 1.5 mile climb on the Caldera 10 km run course, I found the aid station. I slowed to take a cup of Gatorade. And that's when she passed me. Oh Crap! I had no idea another woman was so close! But I had to hydrate. The next section of the run consisted of...

It has been over a decade since I've been backpacking due to injury and fear of pain. I am happy to say that my husband and I went out for a successful night last weekend to celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. Backpacking can be added to my list of can do activities, Yeah!

Although my body...

Can you...

Complete 50 abdominal crunches in one minute?

Squat 2 times your body weight?

 After reading those two sentences, are you feeling unfit right now? Well, I am! These, however, are just a few of the assessments that some people  commonly use to determine fitness level. If you...

It's ski season, in some parts of the country anyway, which means Nordic ski racing for me. As I am about to embark on the biggest ski race of my career this weekend, the American Birkebeiner, it is good to remember to keep perspective. Please enjoy this piece I previously wrote on the topic.

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It's never too early to start planning for your next athletic season. Sometimes it takes years to build up the fitness for an event. You also need long range planning in order to peak for an important competition.

As a coach, I help athletes develop a realistic season calendar. Here's what I...

Why do you race? I have been asking my friends, teammates and clients this question for years. Yet, I have not heard a satisfactory answer. Recently, I had a conversation on this topic with a client. This caused me to write this blog.

Let me elaborate. There are many motivations that may be...