Karen Smith

Name: Karen Smith

Age: 40 yrs. old

Location: Dallas, Texas
 

What’s your athletic background? I was active from a very early age. My mom still jokes to this day about how I never walked any place, but I would flip, tumble or walk on my hands every place we went. I did gymnastics and cheerleading throughout my School year. Got back to tumbling with my daughter and decided to set a goal to get my Back Handspring again by my 40th Birthday. Goal accomplished!

What are you currently doing for your own training? Currently I am working on regaining strength in a few area after a long break due to some overuse injuries.
What does a sample workout look like for you? My workouts normally consist of a PULL, PUSH, SQUAT, HINGE and short finisher after my strength training.
 

What’s your favorite exercise or movement? My favorite exercise…well that is a hard one! I’m currently programming Deadlift and OAPU (One-Arm Push-ups). I also love pull ups but have had to take a break from them for about 6 months.

Top 5 songs on your training playlist: Believe it or not…I don’t really have a playlist. I love all kinds of music but mostly tune out the music around me when strength training. It’s more like back ground noise. However lately if I am doing a difficult finisher after a very heavy session I will put on, “Turn Down For What.”

Top 3 things you must have with you at the gym/in your gym bag:

1. SPARK
2. Cute workout attire
3. Extra hair ties
 

Do you prefer to train alone or with a training partner? Why? Alone or Training Partner varies…I enjoy having a training partner most of the time because we can push each other and feed off each other’s energy. However, if I am working on a very HEAVY goal then at times I like to just focus and be in my zone alone.

Most hilarious pick-up line you’ve heard at the gym: I don’t usually get any pick up lines as the only time I am in a regular gym is when I am teaching a workshop or certification.

Most embarrassing gym moment: Most embarrassing moment would have to be having a TRX break while I was doing a demo for one of my classes and I landed flat on my back and knock the wind out of me. But better me than one of my students.

Favorite meal: Healthy – eggs avocado and black beans and Cheat – Pizza or Mexican
 

Favorite way to treat yourself: Massage or ice cream

Favorite quote: Whatever the challenge, whatever the test, whatever you’re striving for….give it your BEST!

Favorite book: Don’t really have a favorite book, and mostly read work related material. But do love all of Nicholas Sparks novels.

What inspires and motivates you? It inspires me to see others reach their goals, and my daughter motivates me to always work toward being my best because I want to be a great role model for her.
 

What does a typical day look like for you? (From waking up to bedtime)

6:30am – Wake, normal routine (brush teeth, wash face, get dressed in workout gear)

6:45am – Wake daughter to get ready for school, prep her lunch and make breakfast

7:00am – Make sure daughter takes dog out for quick walk and has backpack and lunch

7:30am – Leave to school

8:15am – Back from school and begin my workout for the day

9:15am – Prepare protein shake

9:30am – Begin work (Conf calls, emails, distance coaching calls, designing programs, blogging, social media, prepping/editing videos, writing articles for my blog or others I contribute to, and coach any private students)

12:00 – Lunch break/ Shower

1:00pm – Get in some house work or run some errands

3:00pm – Pick up daughter from school – snack, homework etc.

4:30pm – Train some more students or take daughter to cheer/gymnastics

6:30pm – Dinner

7:30pm – Relax – spend time with daughter

8:30pm – Make sure daughter gets showered, everything prepped for school and off to bed

What’s the coolest “side effect” you’ve noticed from your training? The stronger I get the easier everything else becomes.

Next training goal: RE-GAIN all the following … 24kg MP, 250lb Deadlift, 3/3 OAPU and 13 pull ups. I had attained all of these prior to injury set back and felt great when my strength was at that level.

What’s your biggest accomplishment in the fitness industry thus far?

1. Professionally – being promoted to Master SFG
2. Personally – obtaining the title of Iron Maiden (a physical challenge that I worked very hard to achieve)

What’s your biggest accomplishment outside the fitness industry thus far? By far…becoming a mom to an amazing daughter who loves strength and fitness as much as I do.
If you had to choose 3 words to describe yourself, what would they be? 

1. DRIVEN
2. LOYAL
3. KIND

How has training changed your life? Training has changed my life because I feel it give me purpose… I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I grew up until I began training and coaching others. Besides my daughter, helping others is what keeps me going every day.

What do you want to say to other women who might be nervous to start working out? Don’t be afraid, just do it! It can change your life also. We are all here to help you through your new journey.

What would you like to be remembered for in regards to your impact on the health and wellness industry? I would live to be remember by those who come in contact with me for my passion and giving nature and for helping them become a stronger, healthier and happier version of themselves.
 

Karen Smith is a coach, writer, entrepreneur, fitness expert, and mom. It’s her passion to empower, motivate and mentor others to reach their true potential, either in person or through online distance coaching and program design.

Karen is currently a Master instructor with STRONGFIRST, and is an advisory board member for Nike and Girls Gone Strong.

The 3 Biggest Myths About Fat-Burning For Active Women

I am really angry. I have spent my entire career firmly planted in the field of sports nutrition, where the goals are performance-based.

In sports nutrition, weight-loss is an outcome of enhancing physical performance, not a goal unto itself.

Because the goals of performance are mostly objective, athletes and active clients depend on science-driven evidence for advice about training and diet regimes. Personally, I have stayed as far away from the diet world as possible, where creative writing reigns, and science takes a back seat (and frankly, often doesn’t have a seat at all)!

Even more frustrating, sports nutrition marketing has historically been very male-centric and unappealing to active women. In addition, there is limited scientific data on the needs of active women.

On the other hand, the diet world has been marketing to women for over a century, and knows how to make messages appealing to women, despite a lack of evidence.

This void in data about the needs of active women, in combination with the diet world trying to make big bucks, has allowed the diet world to swoop in and masquerade as sports nutrition for women. This leaves a host of active women vulnerable to marketing and misinformation about their dietary needs.

To put it simply: the diet world has invaded my sports nutrition space, and now I’m pissed.

That’s why I wanted to write about the 3 biggest myths perpetuated by the diet world in regards to the best ways to burn fat for active women.

Make sure that you understand these, and be a light of truth, spreading the word of evidence-based sports nutrition to all the active women and girls you know!

(Oh, and meet us at the Women’s Fitness Summit in Kansas City on September 27, 2014 to hear more, and to meet and network with other active, like-minded women!)

Myth #1

The best way to burn fat off your body is to exercise in the fat-burning zone. FALSE!

Also known as submaximal exercise, or training at 45 to 65% of your VO2max, this moderate exercise intensity depends on a mix of about 55% fat to 45% carbs, and requires a moderate amount of total calories per minute of exercise.

While you certainly burn more fat than carbohydrate during the exercise session, the total calorie burn is primarily dependent on the duration of the training session.

There is not much post-exercise elevation in metabolic rate, or “after-burn” of calories.

On the other hand, high intensity exercise, 70% and higher of your VO2max, requires at least 72% of the total calories burned to come from carbohydrates, and the higher the intensity, the more your body depends on carbohydrates, rather than fat, for fuel.

In fact, without enough carbohydrate on board, you can’t reach this level of training intensity and work output.

Dr. Brooke knows that intense exercise is great for fat burning.

More to the point of this discussion, high intensity exercise leads to a highly elevated post-exercise metabolic rate, or after-burn. And that after-burn can last for 24-36 hours, and is typically fueled mostly by fat.

This is where body sculpting happens.

By exercising in the higher zones that depend on carbs, not fat, you increase your total calorie and fat burning for many hours after exercise.

You get the best training effect, enhanced performance, and a lean physique by burning the most carbs during exercise, and that’s the science of it!

Myth #2

To lose more fat, eat a low carb diet. FALSE!!

You just learned in Myth #1 that it’s training in the carb-burning zone, not the fat burning zone, which really drives fat loss.

If you don’t fuel your body with enough carbs to drive high intensity exercise, you’ll perceive that you’re training very hard, but in reality you won’t be anywhere near that level of intensity; it just feels like it.

You don’t have to eat a low carb diet to lose fat effectively.

So to really burn off fat, you must fuel your training with the carbs you need to achieve high intensity ranges of exercise, and then refuel for recovery to train hard again later that day, or the next day.

To lose more fat, you need more carbs to fuel your training.

Myth #3

To lose a pound of fat per week, lower your calories by at least 500 per day from your energy requirement. FALSE!!

This has been the advice of the diet world forever, but you know as well as I do that it doesn’t work that way.

Some weeks you lose a pound, some weeks you lose half a pound, some weeks you don’t lose anything! And over time, you plateau. Why? Because your body is a dynamic organism, not a static machine!

Research has shown that a deficit of more than approximately 300 calories/day sends signals to your brain to slow down your metabolic rate, just in case the world is running out of food.

Your body begins to conserve fuel, and slows the rate at which it will allow you to burn it. However, the same research showed that you can fake your brain and body out if you keep your energy deficit to only about 300 calories. This keeps you burning calories at a higher rate.

Cutting calories excessively won’t lead to more fat loss.

So, if you eat only 300 calories less than your needs you will lose more weight than if you lowered your calorie intake by 500 calories.

You really can eat more to weigh less. Not to mention having enough energy to train hard, and benefit from the increased fat burning machinery that is your body.

In summary, following the truths of science rather than the myths of the diet world will fuel your body, mind and spirit. Pass it on!!

You Can’t Be ‘On’ All the Time: The Importance of Annual Training Cycles

I slept for 10 hours last night. Ten hours straight.

The two nights prior? Nine hours.

No, I’m not depressed, nor am I taking sleep aids. My body actually needs that much sleep right now. I go to bed when I’m tired, which is usually around 10-11pm, and then I sleep until I wake naturally, between 8am-9am.

You see, I’m in an intentional month-long period of rest and rejuvenation. My priority right now is to recover and recharge from summer, while preparing to slap fall and winter silly.

Let me back up.

I currently live in Salt Lake City for the majority of the year, and in Kentucky for the remainder of the year. We are fortunate to own businesses that don’t pin us down geographically, which means we have the luxury – for the most part – to choose where we want to be.

Because of this, we flip flop between the two states in order for both my husband and myself to spend adequate time with both sets of families and friends, and where we feel we most thrive.

For the last year, it’s been four months in Utah, followed by two months in Kentucky.

Unpack, repack, and repeat.

Off and On

My Kentucky time is my down time. This is where I focus on reading, writing, and rest (I almost said arithmetic). I put emphasis on soft tissue work, lounging in the bathtub, watching my favorite movies, cooking nutritious meals, and leisurely walking. Oh, the walking. My neighbors think I’m crazy because I walk for at least 60 minutes every day, jamming out to music while I mosey the ‘hood. What can I say? It makes me feel good.

I also do obscene amounts of yoga, and depending on the season I’m moving into, I scale my training accordingly.

While I’m in KY, my only physical goals are complete recovery and to bring stress levels down.  I still strength train twice a week, but they are short sessions, and meant more for maintaining my strength and keeping me sane than anything else.

Prioritizing relaxation allows me to go hard when the time is right.

My Utah time is my go-crazy time. The opportunities for fun and adventure in Utah are endless and I take maximum advantage. The mountains and lakes make summertime a blast, providing some of the best hiking, mountain biking, climbing, and backpacking you can find.

Winter is equally entertaining because of all of the resorts for skiing and snowboarding, not to mention the gorgeous places to snowshoe. Top that off with some of the greatest studios for aerial arts and yoga, along with the best gym I’ve ever been to, and I’m a busy girl.

This usually means I’m up at 6 am, revved up and ready to go. There were days this summer where I went hiking, biking, paddleboarding, and out with the girls for sushi and cocktails that night. Are you exhausted reading that?

Because I am.

(Thank goodness Utah offers an abundance of excellent coffee.)

 

Annual Training Cycles

In fancy training terms, this is more commonly referred to as a “macro-cycle” when you’re referring to an athlete or somebody that is preparing for some sort of physical competition. However, just because you don’t compete doesn’t mean that you couldn’t benefit from cycling the intensity of your training throughout the course of the year.

Cycling your training is typically best done around what else you have going on in life. If you’re a CPA, you are probably swamped during February, March, and April. These would be good months to dial things back with your training, and then pick it back up in May.

Sticking with the same theme, if you work for, or own, a big corporation, you know that preparing for tax season can be a bugger (can I get a witness?) so January might be extremely stressful for you. Because of that, it probably makes more sense to ease back your training during that time, and start to hit it again hard once you file.

Matching Training to Lifestyle Seasons

For many of us, with different seasons come different activities that we like to participate in, or different levels of activity in general. For example, somebody like me, that ran summer (too) hard, it only makes sense that I would book-end my madness with about a month of scaled back training and activity, because we can’t – and shouldn’t be – running ourselves into the ground all of the time.

You shouldn’t run yourself into the ground ever, but when the mountains call 

This same type of thinking applies to strength training. Even if you don’t have big outdoor hobbies, you shouldn’t be training as hard as you possibly can all year long.

Just like your training has smaller cycles that progress and then taper off every 6 – 8 weeks, you should also have a bigger, annual cycle that you’re following as well.

This isn’t to say that that your activity levels should fluctuate as wildly as mine do, however, there is something to be learned from my mania, and that is the importance of letting your training intensity ebb and flow.

For example, my January and February consisted of hard and heavy strength work four days a week, along with conditioning work.

All of March was essentially an extended de-load for me, and then I started to incorporate more conditioning in April to prepare for a season of riding and hiking.

I lowered the overall volume of my lifting throughout the summer since I was so busy doing outdoor stuff, and now I’m taking time to recover from all of that.

I am preparing to head back to Utah at the beginning of October, where I will ramp my strength and conditioning work up a bit as we move into snowboarding season. Once the season starts, I won’t be at the gym as much because I’ll be busy outside, and with any luck, accomplishing my goal of back-country snowboarding.

This same type of rule applies when stress levels get abnormally high. Remember, our body treats all stress as stress. Whether we are being chased by a bear or doing a super intense training session, the stress response is similar.

If you’re going through a period of higher-than-normal stress, such as a teething baby that isn’t sleeping, a death in the family, planning a huge wedding, etc., then it may not be a bad idea to scale things back for a few weeks.

Use this time as one of your extended de-loads. When things mellow out, you can get back to it.

“Gainz” and Body Fat

Most women seem extremely hesitant to back down their training intensity for an extended period of time because they are worried that they’ll lose their strength, or that they’ll gain body fat, both of which are valid concerns.

The thing to keep in mind is that maintaining the strength that you’ve built is far easier than increasing your strength. So long as you keep the big movements in your training, even at a lower volume, you likely won’t lose any ground on those.

As for gaining body fat, you will want to scale your food intake back a bit to compensate for the decreased energy expenditure. I’m not talking anything crazy, but a couple hundred calories less ought to be about perfect.

Squats are one of the lifts I keep in my rotation all of the time

We Can’t Be ‘On’ All of the Time

Remember, we can’t be ‘on’ all of the time. We have to have periods of rest and recovery, which means zooming out and taking a broader view at things.

By organizing your training with an annual cycle, you’ll be able to train smarter, and better manage stress levels.

FINE AND TONED GIRL

WORKOUT EVERYDAY

FITNESS MOTIVATION COOL BODY

WEIGHT LOSS

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FIT GIRL

 

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FIT GIRL

WORKOUT

GOAL

Cute fit girls that will dominate your dreams

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