3 or 4 times a week I end my day here at the gym.

I love to get a sweat in at the end of the day.

It helps me decompress from work and forget whatever ridiculous things happening in the

news just for an hour.

I pay for a gym membership but I really only use the cardio machines.

The treadmills, the ellipticals, stationary bikes.

This is a big part of my life.

I played sports growing up like soccer, cross country, and swimming.

I like sweating and I liked the physical challenge that sports offered me.

But I was also a teenage girl in America with a subscription to a teen magazine that delivered

workouts each month that promised to tone my tummy and slim my arms all without bulking

me up.

Strength training would only give me bulbous, unfeminine muscles.

So I stuck with cardio.

I ran miles and miles and took like a million spin classes.

Strength training was okay as long as you did lots of reps with light weights.

Yoga and Pilates for a yes because they promised slim muscle definition.

Powerlifting was a hard no.

Fast forward to now.

I'm in my late 20s and running is harder than it used to be.

I'm more injury prone and I've hurt my back in knees when I try to get my mileage up.

One of the main pieces of advice I've gotten to prevent injury, more strength training.

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