Strength in the stillness :How Shelby on Tonal will help me nail that Dragon Pistol Squat

As a muscle mommy, I didn’t see yoga as part of my strength journey until I met Coach Shelby on Tonal. In this episode, I talk about how yoga transformed my training, why it’s non-negotiable now, and how it’s helping me unlock one of my biggest goals: the dragon pistol squat. If you think yoga isn’t for lifters 👂listen up. This one’s for you.

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Transcript

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Welcome back to Strength the Numbers. I'm Katie, and guess what? Today is our 20th episode, and I couldn't think of a better topic to talk about on the 20th episode than my girl Shelby and Yoga on Tonal. So today's episode is just for every woman who thought strength only came from lifting heavier, going harder, or moving faster, you are strong. But what if I told you that slowing down, breathing deeper, softening. Is the missing piece. I used to think yoga was not for me. I used to not be able to center myself because I was so into the music, the playlist versus being in the moment being present in the breath. So I am, yes, I'm a muscle mommy. I train hard. I like watching the weight go up. I love building muscle, the pump, feeling the burn, and feeling those lovely doms. But recently I started craving something more, something deeper, and honestly it came from a surprising place, tonal on yoga. More specifically, coach Shelby. Now y'all know I have met, I met Coach Shelby at, uh, at the tonal training lab in New York, and I can tell you that she is the most beautiful human being inside and out. And it was such a, it was such a blessing when Shelby came to Tonal because I truly believe that this was something that I was missing. Um, and I feel that it has opened up my brain, my thoughts to trying new things and getting out of my comfort zone. So I used to think that yoga was just for rest days or maybe for people who didn't, you know, really train. I was totally wrong, way wrong, if I'm being honest. I saw it as a filler, stretching, downtime, not something that would help me get stronger. Again, I was wrong, but what I didn't see, what I refused to acknowledge was that my recovery was slipping. My flexibility was limiting my strength. My joints weren't happy. My nervous system was up and down, shot from going hard all the time, and my goals were just starting to feel stalled. Like I was always looking for that. What's next? What could I try? What could I do harder? What could I challenge myself with? One of those goals? For me right now is a dragon pistol squat, if you know, you know, that's next level strength, mobility, control, balance, and it's a whole lot of trust in your body and protecting that face.'cause I can tell you how many times I've fallen over, but I keep practicing. You know, I couldn't, I sometimes I couldn't get deep enough because either it was something with my hip. You know, or you know, my ankle mobility wasn't there because I feel like my ankle mobility is there when I'm lifting, but yoga has opened up a whole new different kind of body scan. For me, strength was not the issue. Stability and mobility were because my balance, man, that needs a lot of work and that's how I've come to. Go to yoga to find these missing little nuggets that are missing in my training. So when Shelby came to Tonal, I clicked on one of her classes. I was very excited. Um, you know, Joe has, I, I believe all, actually, all the tonal coaches have taken yoga classes with Shelby. And, um, I was a, you know, I'm always. You know, I wanna support all the, everybody that works for Tonal. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna take a Shelby class. I am not a yogi. I'm just not. But there was something about Shelby. Shelby just, she shows up differently. She spoke with calm, with like this powerful energy and she wasn't trying to hype me up. She wasn't, she was just inviting me to connect with myself in a deeper way. Her cues made me feel, she made me feel my body not just moving it or listening to the music, she made me feel present, so, so for the first time when I'd started taking her classes, it got from, I don't really wanna do this, to, how can I challenge myself more with this? I realized I was carrying tension I didn't even know existed. My breath was shallow and I found that my glutes weren't firing right, and I've been having trouble with that in my lips. So I stopped trying to push through and instead started learning how to listen through. That is a huge shift. That has been a pivotal change for me. Is not pushing through, is listening more. If we listen more, we can achieve all of the goals that we want to achieve. So let's talk if you, if you wanna do something like a dragon pistol squat. I know it sounds crazy. People have told me that I'm crazy that why would you wanna do that? But it's the same thing with the Archer pushups and Superman pushups. Like, why would you wanna do it? Because I can and because I want to, and because we should be inspired by those around us. They show us what is possible. So you can't just be strong, you have to be mobile. Stable centered. That means hips, ankles, court, and most importantly, that nervous system all have to be working in harmony. Shelby's yoga classes have helped me improve. You know, my ankle and hip mobility activate my core better, stabilize her muscles, increase my balance and proprioception, and most importantly, breath through hard movements instead of muscling through them. Shelby and Coach Casey have helped me tremendously in my lifts. There have been multiple times where I've had to pause tonal during one of my job programs and just breathe. Just be in the breath and stop and regroup myself. I can't tell you how important that has been in my training, is taking that moment when the brain and the body starts to go haywire, take a step back, take a breath, reset yourself. So before, before I started really diving deep into yoga, when Shelby came. I was always, I felt like I was always fighting for control. Now I'm training for flow. You know, the dragon pistol squat just isn't a goal. It became a metaphor for balance, grace and grit, power and patience. It became, I know this will become something like how I feel about pushups. How I feel when I accomplish something that so many people will say is crazy, and why would you wanna do that? Like I am that shock factor, like that is my goal. Like my goal is to always shock Joe what I can do. So my goal now is to shock Shelby and be like, look what you've helped me accomplish. Look what I've done. And I think that's such a, it's such a great feeling ex. For me, when I can shock my coaches and I can shock my friends and they're just like, gosh, I can't believe you did that, because I wanna inspire them like they inspire me. So here's the thing I wanna say all women who lift heavy chase muscle and live through that high performance zone, slowing down is not a weakness. Repeat, slowing down. Is not a weakness. It's a wisdom. Yoga taught me how to recover in a way that actually supports my lifts. It taught me that rest can be active, that being present is just not being, just not hitting a pr. I used to fear that if I paused, I'd lose momentum, but I've learned that pausing is momentum. It's that reset that allows you to come back and stronger. If I haven't shown you guys that I'm, I am going to keep like shouting it from the root tops. Yoga is isn't doing less, it's more, it's more awareness, more connection, more strength, and building that strength from within. I'll always be a muscle mommy. Lifting weights gives me, gives me life, but yoga gives me death. It's helped me, you know, avoid injuries, improve my form, made my glutes work smarter. And honestly, it's just made me more present, more present as a friend, more present. As you know, in my day to day, I can walk into my training sessions now with less inflammation, less anxiety, more focus, and better results, because I've learned how important it is to center yourself and just take a breath. The dragon pistol squat is getting, it's gonna get closer. It's far away from me being able to do it, but it's getting it because starting is the most important part. So I know it's gonna be hard, but things that we really want and really passionate about, life shouldn't come easy and should enjoy the journey. Enjoy the failures. Enjoy the falling over and laughing at yourself. So if you've been skipping yoga, you better not be on tonal. Let me, let me be the sign for you to click on a Shelby class. Don't just do it for flexibility, do it for strength, for breath, for connection. Do it for the version that wants you to feel strong and whole. All right, so before I let you go, I, I'm gonna give you guys a challenge. Not a dragon pistol squat challenge, I promise. But this week I dare you to hit play on a tonal yoga session. Choose one with Shelby. Let your body soften. Let your breath deepen. Let yourself feel. And if you're training for something big like a dragon pistol squat, I know you're not, but maybe you might be. Maybe after this podcast, you're gonna be like, you know what? I'm gonna start working on my pistol squats and my dragon squats and my balance, just like Katie is. Maybe, maybe you could be inspired by it. Who knows? But strength isn't always about force. Sometimes it's about flow. So thank you so much for joining me on my 20th episode of Strength in Numbers. I so appreciate you guys clicking on and listening to me on these little short, little conversations. So if this had shifted your mind in any way, shape, or form, tag me. Tag Shelby when you and tag tonal when you take a class with her. And tell them. Tell them your yoga story. Let's normalize strong women. Pausing, coming back even stronger because muscle mommy yogi is gonna be a thing. See you guys next time. See?