Welcome to our new "ask the trainer" series! We've found that it can be difficult to sort through all the information on the internet to get a straight answer about health and fitness, so we wanted to give our clients and social media followers an invitation to ask about topics that matter to them!

Today's post is by our Fitness Consultant Konner:

I recently had a conversation with one of our clients, Sherry, where we were talking about how confusing it can be trying to eat healthy when it seems there's a million different ways to go about it. She mentioned that many of her friends are always trying these new diets, and that she was also tempted by them at times. We thought this would be a perfect topic to start off this series, as fad diets have become an overwhelmingly popular nutrition practice in recent years.

First, what is a "fad diet"? Fad diets are nutrition guidelines that promise a quick and easy path to weight loss. There are a few characteristics of diets in...

Are you suffering from limited back mobility and overall tightness?
If so, here are a few exercises and stretches that can help increase mobility in the back as well as relieve tension! 

Have you ever heard the saying, "fake it until you make it"?

While it may sound overused, the message behind it is sound. Too often, we think that if we just want something hard enough, if we're just motivated enough, if we read the right books and listen to the right podcasts, then a switch will flip somewhere inside us and turn us into who we want to be.

Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way.

We can read all the self-help books we want, research the latest and greatest theories, but none of it matters if we don't take action. Until a habit is built of consistent exercise/nutrition/work/etc., we won't be able to have success. That's where the "fake it" part comes in. 

When starting something big and new, there's often doubt. Especially in health and wellness, there's many questions that come up. "Am I doing the right thing?" "Will this even work?" "How long until I am who I want to be?" Many of those problems can't be solved in a week, a month, or even longer sometimes....

Meet our Fitness Consultant, Taylor!

I grew up about 30 minutes away in Winona, Minnesota with my younger sister Katie. In high school, I played volleyball and ran track. During my track seasons is when I started working out more seriously and really started to see results. Throughout both high school and college, I worked retail jobs where I gained a lot of customer service skills. I actually met some of my best friends while working one of these retails jobs. 

After high school, I attended Winona State University, where I earned my Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science. During my senior year at WSU, I completed an internship at the YMCA in Winona and shortly after, I started working at the YMCA as a personal trainer, water aerobics instructor and coached Happy Hurdlers. I currently still live in Winona and I have a dog, Baxter. In August of 2022, I started at Northstar Fitness and I have loved working here ever since! I love helping clients achieve their goals.

My...

There's so much information surrounding nutrition these days, it's easy to fall into traps of overcomplicating everything. Some diets tell you to completely restrict one food group, or food "type" or limit the times that you can eat.

Think about it this way: if you were going to buy a house, would the first thing you worry about be how many outlets there are? No, you'd probably want to know how many beds/baths there are, or how much land it's on. By hyper-focusing on one small aspect of nutrition like these diets do, it skips the major stuff that's needed to build a solid foundation. This leads to confusion, feeling overwhelmed, cravings, non-adherance, and failure.

A better approach is to simplify. Start with one or two habits that you know are negatively affecting your health and make a focused effort to improve them. Choose something that is easy enough to change, so that you can start stacking your wins and build upon that. 

Ex. if you're eating late at night try adding...

Are you struggling with tight trapezius muscles? 

We tend to hold a lot of stress in our shoulders which often times leads to tight trap muscles. One way to relax the traps is to correct posture by pulling shoulders down, away from our ears. A few others way to relieve trap tightness is by rolling our shoulders or performing shoulder shrug exercises. For shoulder shrugs, it is best to hold them by your ears for about 10 seconds and then relaxing them. For the ear to shoulder stretch, it is best to hold them for about 15 seconds on each side and then repeating for a total of 30 seconds. With the chin tucks, hold for about 5 seconds and then repeat about 5 times. 

Wellness is more than just exercising and healthy eating. All of our actions, feelings and beliefs are an integral part of wellness and our well-being. These reasons are why it is so important to always have a postive mindset and believe in ourselves. 

Meet our Fitness Consultant, Konner!

I grew up as the oldest of 4 in Westby. While in school I played football, basketball, and baseball, which grew my love for athletics and activity in general. During high school and college, I poured concrete as a summer job. Seeing the toll hard labor took on the bodies of my older co-workers pointed me in a direction of helping adults live their best pain-free lives and increase their longevity. 

After high school I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I studied Kinesiology. After graduating college, I knew I wanted to come back to this area and be around family. In September of 2021, I joined Northstar and have loved helping our clients reach their goals ever since!

In my fitness journey, there have been ups and downs. Playing 3 sports in high school, I was always moving. To continue that into college, I played intramural sports, and ran a marathon after my freshman year. After the marathon, without much direction...