It’s Emily. And I spent years avoiding the weight room entirely.
Group fitness classes, cardio machines, anything that kept me moving and sweating. That was my definition of a good workout. Strength training felt like something other people did.
People who wanted to get big. People who belonged in a weight room.
That wasn’t me. So I tried everything else.
With Josh’s encouragement and guidance I eventually picked up a barbell. And what happened next surprised me.
The 25lb weights that used to feel heavy started feeling light. Movements that seemed impossible became familiar. And one day I hit a combined total of 500lbs across my deadlift, squat, and bench press. Numbers I couldn’t have imagined when I started.
I held my head higher after that. Because I knew I was strong.
Hearing Josh tell me I executed a movement well, or that I lifted a weight most people couldn’t, landed differently than any compliment I’d received before. It wasn’t about how I looked. It was about what I was capable of.
I started to realize that being strong made everything else easier. Not just in the gym. Hard things outside the gym felt more manageable too. Because I knew what I was made of.
And then the physical changes started showing up in ways I didn’t expect.
My body composition shifted. Clothes that used to feel tight started getting looser. I stopped reaching for baggy clothes to hide behind and started actually liking what I saw. The compliments started coming and for the first time in a long time I didn’t deflect them.
The things I already loved got easier too. Hiking. Skiing. Paddleboarding. Getting to the top of a 14er without feeling completely destroyed. I wasn’t training to look different. I was training to live better. And it worked in ways I never anticipated.
We see this all the time. People stuck in the cycle of endless cardio that seems to get them nowhere. And it genuinely bothers us. Not because there’s anything wrong with cardio. But because we know exactly what’s waiting for them on the other side.
More energy. Better movement. A body that actually responds to the work they’re already putting in. And a version of themselves they didn’t know was possible.
We get excited about this every single time. Because the moment someone who has only ever done cardio discovers what their body is actually capable of is one of the best things we get to witness.
You’ve already proven you can show up consistently. That’s honestly the hardest part.
Now it’s just about pointing that effort in the right direction.
