🏋🏾‍♂️ How I Lifted 2.3 Million Pounds Since 2021

Since October 20th, 2021, I have lifted 2,307,222 pounds. The internet tells me that’s the equivalent of 5 Statue of Liberties, 8 blue whales, or 4.6 million cups of coffee (to be fair, I’ve probably accomplished that last one separately, too).

I’ve done it in my bare feet with messy 6:30 a.m. hair, under the incandescent haze of a 60 watt bulb in the winter and basking in the glorious golden glow of the sunrise when the months are warmer. I’ve pushed, pulled, chopped, deadlifted, pressed, and hoisted those pounds over 218 different movements, under the guidance of 12 different coaches. (Fellow endurance athlete Kristina Centenari is hands down my favorite; her mobility work is outstanding and absolutely one of the reasons I can stay healthy when my running mileage climbs.)

And here’s the thing: I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t have done half of it if it wasn’t hanging on my wall in the little extra bedroom off my office.

Just under 5 years ago, we installed a Tonal there when I was writing about them for Runner’s World and other outlets. And it completely changed how I show up to strength training. I wrote all about those early impressions–and about how Tonal and digital weight works–in a blog post that November, if you’re unfamiliar and curious to learn more.

This isn’t a paid post. Tonal doesn’t sponsor me, this newsletter, or my Hit Play Not Pause podcast. This is a post about what happens when you finally find a way to do the thing you know you should be doing—and actually want to do it. Because for years, I struggled to practice what I preach: strength train consistently and do mobility work. This is the thing that made it stick. The thing that gets me up and done by 7:30 a.m., without a battle of willpower.

Some women in our community find that inside a CrossFit box that doubles as their social hub. Others sing the praises of their favorite YouTube trainers that take the guesswork out of programming and let them train with what they’ve got wherever they are. I have friends who tried their hand at powerlifting on a whim, and next thing I know, they’re doing competitions.

What they all have in common is this: they found a way to remove the friction and keep the reward.

For me, I don’t love lifting for lifting’s sake. So this worked because it removed the barriers: no commute, no leaderboards or comparisons, no programming decisions, and coaching that was specific to my needs. For someone else, it might be community, competition, or variety. The tool matters less than the fit.

Because when it comes to doing something that is good for you–even something that is super important like strength training for muscle, bone, overall health–just knowing it’s good for you isn’t going to motivate you long term. Finding a way to actually kind of love it–or at least the stuff around it and how it makes you feel–is what makes it stick.

Once you do that, you can move mountains.

Or at least a couple million pounds.

👟 Finally, a Shoe Designed for Women's Feet

If you’ve noticed your feet feeling different in your 40s and 50s — new discomfort, shoes that used to work suddenly don’t — you’re not imagining it. Hormonal changes affect how your tissues respond to load. And if your shoes were never designed for female physiology in the first place, that gap gets bigger over time.

Hettas built the Alma specifically around women’s anatomy, physiology, and biomechanics — narrow heel cup for secure lockdown without Achilles pressure, a midsole tuned to the female force profile, and a female-specific last that finally gives your forefoot room to move. Backed by SFU’s Run Lab. Built for real women at every stage.

Use code STAYFEISTY for 20% off at hettas.com.

🔥Badass Athlete of the Week Goes To…

Hands up for ultrarunner Suzan Brydon, 56, who set the Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Eastern segment of the American Discovery Trail (ADT) last month. The segment travels across Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, West Virginia, and Ohio, touching a small portion of Kentucky in just over 1,000 miles with a total of 65,368 ft in accumulated elevation gain.

Suzan covered the challenging mixed terrain route in 32 days, averaging 32 miles a day. Awesome job, Suzan! Thanks for the inspiration.

👉Want a chance to be featured? Click here to share your badass story

Join Me At FeistyFest 🙋🏻‍♀️

September 18-20 in Lehigh Valley, PA, Wahoo FeistyFest brings three days of movement, learning, and community.

🏃🏽‍♀️‍➡️ Move: Group rides, trail runs, swimming & running skills workshops, lifting sessions, and yes, pickleball.
🧠 Learn: Sessions with experts and leaders like Zwift's Kate Veronneau, Selene Yeager, and Erin Ayala.
💟 Connect: Solo travelers welcome (most attendees are!) — come alone, leave with a community of women cheering you on.

Tickets include all sessions, 3 days of entry, 2 dinners, and Feisty swag. Plus, the first 100 registrants score a free Feisty crew.

LEARN MORE: Grab your ticket at feisty.co 🫶

👩🏻‍🔬 Hit Play Research Round Up

We spend a lot of time scouring the latest research for news you can use to stay strong and feisty forever. Here’s what’s making waves this week:

🏋🏾‍♂️ Lifting is good for your heart. In a massive study of more than 117,000 U.S. women followed for decades, those doing at least about 2 hours per week of resistance training had roughly 20% lower risk of major cardiovascular disease and about 40–45% lower risk of heart attack than women who did none—even after accounting for their cardio habits and couch time—suggesting that strength training adds its own layer of heart protection on top of aerobic exercise and less sitting.

💉 Tirzepatide isn’t just turning down appetite—it may be turning up brown fat. In a small mechanistic study on women, the share of participants with “switched‑on” brown fat went from 41.2% to 64.7% on tirzepatide, with no similar change in the placebo group, suggesting more people activated this metabolically active, heat‑producing fat on the drug. The researchers also reported that tirzepatide increased brown fat volume and showed early signs of nudging ordinary white subcutaneous fat toward more metabolically active “beige” fat, hinting these meds could boost energy expenditure as well as reduce intake.

🍲 Eating with others boosts wellbeing, according to a massive Gallup World Poll of over 150,000 people in 142 countries. People who shared more meals reported higher life satisfaction, more positive emotions, and less negative emotion, even after accounting for income, education, and employment. How often someone shared meals explained as much variation in wellbeing as income or unemployment, and Americans who ate all their meals alone on a given day reported lower life satisfaction and more sadness and pain than those who shared at least one meal. Break bread with family and friends when you can!

What's On My Mind...

Women’s health reporting. A couple of weeks ago, the Guardian ran this headline: Bending forwards a lot at work in early pregnancy may increase miscarriage risk, study suggests. The article also noted that “Each additional hour in an eight-hour working day of bending forwards, particularly at a 30-degree angle, was associated with a 36% higher risk of miscarriage.” It’s 100% observational with SO MANY POTENTIALLY CONFOUNDING FACTORS–smoking, shift work, type of job, on and on–that it’s wild to just toss it out there, making women afraid of literally just bending over (and who the heck knows what angle they’re bending over at??) or being on their feet. Women deserve better.

Listen to this week's episode of Hit Play Not Pause - Frozen Shoulder, Cranky Tendons, and the Musculoskeletal Syndrome of Menopause with Tara Findlay, RMT

Feisty 40+ is written by Selene Yeager. Editing and ads by Ella Neumann.

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