Embodied Soul

28/10/2025

27/10/2025

I was feeling a bit tight in my body (after not moving much yesterday) so I told myself it would be a lighter day today.

However, I found myself doing sets of 5 at 95 kg — because you always feel better once you get started.

The 20 kg (wider) bar was slipping out of my hands. So I switched to a mixed grip (which I’ve never actually tried before) and it was so much easier!

I decided to try some heavier singles and I just kept going up, I bet my PR by 10 kg just from changing my grip.

This is 115kg.

It was only about a month ago that I reached 100 Kg.

Progress isn’t always this rapid, you didn’t see all the months I put in building up to 100 kg, but sometimes just a small change in technique can make a massive difference.

More women need to do this. It‘s not even about the weight on the bar, it’s about how strong and capable you feel doing it.

It’s so empowering!

And it’s possible for you too.

Come deadlift with us!

26/10/2025

I realise I write a lot about commitment.

It’s something I contemplate constantly, not just because I’m in the fitness industry where 90% of content seems to be about commitment and consistency (maybe it’s WHY I’m in the fitness industry, actually), but also because of my interest in the Gene Keys.

If you haven’t heard of them, the Gene Keys are a profound system created by Richard Rudd and inspired by Human Design. Your personal Gene Keys profile, based on your birth details, shows certain keys that are particularly active in your life.

Each key has three frequencies:

• Shadow – the pattern that shows up in your life
• Gift – the energy you can embody once you move through the shadow
• Siddhi – the highest expression, something to aspire to

The idea is that you contemplate these frequencies for the gene keys in your chart and notice how they repeatedly show up in your life.

One of the keys prominent in my chart is the 29th Gene Key.
• Shadow: Half-heartedness
• Gift: Commitment
• Siddhi: Devotion

I’ve witnessed the shadow in my own life many times. It has shown up as overcommitment, like me staying in my marriage seven years too long. Or as unreliability, where I had the tendency to say yes to too many things and didn’t follow through with them.

Now, I feel myself stepping fully into the gift of commitment. It’s not devotion yet, but I see the path there, especially in my business. I’ve had to carefully consider all of my commitments and decide what I’m going to put my energy into and what I’m going to let go of.

Even now though, the shadow is always present and I need to be aware of it. Just last week I found myself considering becoming a leader for my daughter‘s Scout group because they were desperate for help. Saying yes for that reason would have meant I would have easily fallen into the shadow of half-heartedness.

I love what Richard Rudd says about this Gene Key:

“The secret to all commitment lies in the way in which you begin. It is the energy behind your actions that creates your future rather than the actions themselves. There is nothing that is worth doing in life unless it is done with absolute commitment. If you attempt anything half-heartedly, you might as well not attempt it at all. Without commitment, action lacks power or direction, and above all, it lacks luck. Half-heartedness robs you of your opportunity to participate in life’s mystery. It keeps you in the sidelines, ensuring that you play roles in life that are dull and monotonous or else fraught with emotional agony. Full commitment carries within it the seed of good fortune.”

For me, this is a reminder that commitment is more than action, it’s the energy you bring when you begin. It’s saying YES for the right reasons. Stepping fully into that energy turns ordinary life into something magical, and opens the door to growth and good fortune.

25/10/2025

✨Weekly Reflections and Class Updates✨
(scroll down for info on classes)

It’s both a challenge and a privilege to work in a field where my livelihood depends on how committed people are to themselves.

So often I hear, “I really love your classes, I feel so great afterwards, but it’s so hard to get here.”

And the truth is, I can’t do that part for you. You have to show up.

All I can do is make the classes fun, effective, and encouraging enough that you want to keep going.

It’s a delicate balance, inspiring people to stay committed without shaming them when they can’t be.

I’m always aware of the tension between “stay consistent” and “listen to your body.”

I never want anyone to feel guilted into coming to class. Life can be a lot. I get that. I have autism and ADHD, and I’m a solo parent. I know how full and unpredictable life can be.

And we also want to go out and enjoy life, especially if your kids are older or you’re at a stage where you can finally prioritise yourself. You want to travel and take trips, (especially hiking trips!) After all, the purpose of getting strong is to enjoy life more.

That’s why I’ve done my best to design a payment and booking system that rewards consistency while allowing for flexibility.

If you message me and let me know you can’t make it, you’ll always be met with compassion and understanding. I respect honesty, communication, and self-awareness deeply.

However, I’m also running a business built around small class numbers, personal attention, and community. For this to work, I rely on people showing up regularly.

My business isn’t sustainable when there’s an influx of people one week and half-empty classes the next.

I also don’t want a huge number of people on my books. I want to know everyone, remember who you are, and what your body needs. I’d rather have a small, committed community than a revolving door of drop-ins I barely see.

This model only works when people commit, ideally at least once a week, and stay consistent as much as possible.

I can’t run a “just when you feel like it” fitness studio at this scale.

Ultimately, it’s up to the Motueka community to decide whether this kind of space matters enough to commit to.

And to be completely honest, (because I don’t want anyone wasting their time), strength training isn’t something to dip in and out of. You won’t see real benefits unless you show up regularly. It’s like brushing your teeth, something that deserves to be a high priority. If you skip it, it’ll cost you later. The same is true of your body: without consistent strength training, it won’t be resilient enough to support you as you age.

Those of you who commit weekly, or twice weekly, and pay for your class whether or not you make it, you are absolute gold. You make it possible for this studio to exist, and right now you’re literally covering the rent. I appreciate you deeply.

At the moment, I’m still open to new clients. You can try a class before you commit for just $20. A lot of people have said that it’s a bargain. The first session is often more like personal training because of how much attention I give each person.

This offer is only available for a short time though. There will come a point soon when classes are full and spaces will be reserved only for those who are genuinely committed.

⸻

🟢 Class Information 🟢

Labour Day:
I’m still running morning classes:
• 10 am 🧘‍♀️ Mindful Mobility & Heavy Lifting 🏋️ (2 spaces left)
• 11:30 am 💪 Accessible Strength 🪑 (2 spaces left)

Monday evening at 5 pm is cancelled to give me some time with my daughter.

⸻

💪 Accessible Strength 🪑
• Monday 11:30 am → just two spaces left
• Friday 11:30 am → just two people booked (perfect if you’re starting out)

⸻

🧘‍♀️ Mindful Mobility & Heavy Lifting 🏋️
Best classes for absolute beginners:
• Wednesday 11:30 am
• Wednesday 4 pm (now starting 15 minutes earlier)
• Friday 10 am

Classes with space:
• Monday → 10 am (just two spaces left)
• Wednesday → 10 am, 11:30 am, 4 pm
• Thursday → 11:30 am, 6:30 pm
• Friday → 10 am

⸻

🥾 Strength Training for Trampers
•Tuesday & Thursday 5:15 pm → plenty of space this week.

This is also a social tramping group — we train during the week and organise tramps together some weekends.

⸻

🧘 Yoga Classes This Week
• Sustainable Yoga → Thursday 10 am — lots of space (book early, I’ll cancel Wednesday night if no bookings)

• Restorative Yoga → Friday 6:30 pm — possible cancellation this week due to my daughter’s Halloween celebration (message before booking to confirm whether it’s going ahead)

Sunday Restorative Yoga is paused for now.

⸻

🫶 1:1 Sessions
• Embodied Processing — $80 (1 hr)
• Theta Healing® — $100 (1.5 hr)
• Combination sessions also available

This week: spaces open Tuesday between 9 am & 3 pm
Message me directly to book.

⸻

✨ Tips for the Week ✨

🩹 If you have a minor injury, you can probably still come to class. I can do a lot to modify your workout so that you don’t aggravate anything. I’ve taught Accessible classes for years, even to people who need to sit in a chair because they have no use of their legs. It becomes much harder to come back and restart again once you’ve broken that habit.

💪 Come even if you don’t feel like it. This builds up your sense of self-discipline. So many times I hear people confess, “I didn’t feel like coming today but I’m so glad I did, I feel so much better.”

🧠 Talk to me if you’re struggling to stay committed. Ask me for insight on what I see. I’m very intuitive and get awareness on the dynamics at a deeper level. I see patterns clearly. However, I won’t offer insight unless you invite me to give it. I never want to be invasive by telling you what I see uninvited.

Send a message to learn more

23/10/2025

Restorative yoga is on tonight at 6:30 pm.

Starting a long weekend calm and relaxed is better than starting with stress and tension.

We’ll do some slow, gentle movement, some resourcing practices to help your nervous system feel safe enough to release stress, and some long held positions so you can sink into the feeling of just being.

It’s time just for you, where you don’t have to do, don’t have to perform and you don’t have to meet anyone else’s expectations.

Message me to book, or I’ll put a booking link in the comments.

22/10/2025

Great article. Katy Bowman is someone I've followed for years. I even met her and did one of her workshops when she came to New Zealand. The way she teaches and talks about movement just makes so much sense to me.

NEW ARTICLE UP ON SUBSTACK: "Movement Hunger" Signals

Peeps, I'm much more about LONG FORM than I am about short form (social media posts, reels, etc.). I just launched a new Substack, "Movement-Colored" Glasses. I'll be rolling it out slowly over the next few weeks. Nothing too overwhelming, just thoughtful articles on movement you can read when it suits you.

Take a look here:
katybowmanmovement.substack.com/p/movement-hunger-signals

21/10/2025

I’ll be looking at buying some more weight plates soon, specifically more 10 kg and 20 kg plates, because everyone’s starting to lift heavier. It’s not uncommon for us to be using almost all of the plates for deadlifting now.

While that’s great, because the intention is heavy lifting and I love watching everyone’s confidence grow, we also have to be careful as the weights go up that we’re not ego lifting and adding weight just for the sake of it.

Checking in with your nervous system, energy levels, nutrition, stress, and sleep is so important when lifting. I’ve created a system for that, though not everyone uses it! My main worry is that getting more weight on the bar and seeing your numbers go up every week can become addictive. But it’s not always the right thing to increase every week. Having lighter weeks every four to five weeks is actually a good thing because it gives your body and nervous system time to adapt and recover.

It’s also important that we’re lifting with good technique and giving ourselves enough rest and fuel. If you do a heavy lift and then go out and add more physical or mental stress that day, your overall recovery will take longer.

For example, yesterday I did a PR of 105 kg on my deadlift, which I got off the ground, but I regretted it immediately. It was a day I’d chosen to walk to work. I walked home in the hot sun which took over an hour and felt completely frazzled. One hour of walking isn’t a lot for me, but combined with a heavy deadlift, including volume work in the 90 kg range, and accessory work like reverse lunges, which I find really taxing, it was too much. I felt completely exhausted teaching class later that day and I’m still recovering today.

We’re not competitive lifters. We’ve all got lives to live, so pushing to your max every session isn’t always the right thing to do. And I get it wrong sometimes too.

So be aware of what else you’ve got going on in your life. I realised that as much as I love long walks, walking to work on my deadlifting day is not a good idea.

Ultimately, we’ve all got to learn to listen to our bodies. Years of conditioning, from the way we were parented, to school PE, to people-pleasing patterns, have taught many of us to override our own wisdom. Heavy lifting is one of the best teachers for coming back to self-awareness.

And I really want to encourage everyone to listen to their bodies and feel for themselves when it’s time to go heavier.

However my first priority is to keep you safe from injury. Sometimes I’ll slow people down from lifting heavier. I do this mostly by intuition, but also based on what I see. If you have hypermobility, less stability in your joints, or a history of injuries, all of these need a slower, more deliberate approach.

You might feel capable of lifting heavier, your muscles themselves might be strong enough to get the weight off the ground, but your connective tissue and core stability also need to be strong enough to support that. So if I slow you down, it’s not because I don’t trust you, it’s because I want you to keep progressing sustainably, not get repeatedly injured.

Likewise, if I notice that your nervous system is already highly activated (sympathetic drive), doing huge loads can just add more stress. In that case, slowing down and breathing is often more valuable than going super heavy.

On the other hand, if I see that you’re capable of lifting more and the block is psychological, I’ll encourage you to challenge yourself.

19/10/2025

🌿 This Week at Embodied Soul

Every Sunday evening I share a weekly update so you know what’s going on at my studio.
⸻

💪 Accessible Strength

• Monday 11:30 am → just two people booked (perfect if you’re starting out)
• Friday 11:30 am → just two people booked (perfect if you’re starting out)
⸻

🧘‍♀️ Mindful Mobility & Heavy Lifting

Best classes for absolute beginners:
• Wednesday 11:30 am
• Wednesday 4 pm (note: now starting 15 minutes earlier)

Classes with space:
• Monday → 10 am (just one space left)
• Wednesday → 10 am, 11:30 am, 4 pm
• Thursday → 11:30 am, 6:30 pm
• Friday → 10 am
⸻

🥾 Strength Training for Trampers

Tuesday & Thursday 5:15 pm → plenty of space this week.

This is also a social tramping group — we train during the week and organise tramps together some weekends.
⸻

🌸 Yoga Classes This Week

• Sustainable Yoga → Thursday 10 am — lots of space (book early, I’ll cancel Wednesday night if no bookings)

• Restorative Yoga → Friday 6:30 pm — will go ahead subject to bookings (book early, I’ll cancel Friday morning if no bookings)

Note: Sunday Restorative Yoga is paused for now; I’ll rotate it in about once a month.
⸻

✨ 1:1 Sessions

• Embodied Processing — $80 (1 hr)
• Theta Healing® — $100 (1.5 hr)
• Combination sessions also available

This week: spaces open Tuesday between 9 am & 3 pm

📩 Message me directly to book.
⸻

🌼 Tips for the Week

Notice how self-sabotage shows up in your life. In terms of my classes, it can look like getting “too busy” and saying yes to others when you’d committed to something for yourself. It may even appear as feeling unwell, sore, or injured just as you get started.

These patterns aren’t deliberate, they’re often your body’s way of protecting you from change that feels uncomfortable or unsafe. A brave part of you has already stepped out of your comfort zone to try something new (well done), but there may still be a subconscious part that feels unworthy of care or uncertain about what bigger life changes might follow.

I understand self-sabotage well, and if you’d like support, I can help you explore and clear the deeper beliefs behind it.

💤 Naps after heavy lifting are a good thing — not a sign of laziness! I often take a 15-minute nap on a heavy lifting day, it’s a great way to aid recovery.

🍳 Another way to support recovery is to eat a high-protein meal soon after lifting.

⸻

Send a message to learn more

18/10/2025

Wise words.

16/10/2025

After cancelling restorative yoga for the last few weeks due to no bookings, I will run it tonight at a new time of 6:30 pm. I’ve put it at this time so you can let go of all the stress from the week, and move into your weekend feeling lighter.

Yeah, you could just stay home and have a wine instead, but alcohol is not the best for sleep and it’s not going to actually allow you to move into a parasympathetic state, it will just mask your stress.

Restorative yoga is much better! 😉

Send a message to learn more

15/10/2025

🧘‍♀️ Sustainable Yoga – Tomorrow 10 AM

I haven’t yet had much luck filling up my yoga classes. Heavy lifting seems to be where most of the energy is, and that’s great. Maybe people are prioritising strength training more, or maybe my audience just isn’t that into yoga. Both are totally fine.

But before I give up on offering yoga, I wanted to share a bit about how my approach is different.

First off, I don’t focus on extreme flexibility. In fact, too much flexibility can be unhelpful (especially if you’re hyper-mobile). What I care about is getting you moving in ways that are truly beneficial for your body.

Often less is more. We don’t need bigger ranges of motion; we need better awareness and activation, getting the right muscles working so you can build strength, stability, and safe, functional mobility.

Most of us spend a lot of time sitting, so we need movement that actually counters that. In many classes, the big movements get attention, but the smaller parts — wrists, shoulders, neck, ankles, feet — are neglected. If your yoga class jumps straight into planks or chaturangas without spending time warming up your shoulders and wrists, it’s missing something important.

I don’t follow traditional yoga cues or poses anymore. My classes are functional movement sessions focused on mobility, strength, balance, and nervous system regulation.

While the movements are functional, the practice itself is quietly spiritual. It’s about presence, embodiment, and remembering the deeper intelligence that lives within your body. But it’s not overly serious. We need to laugh and allow space for fun and playfulness too.

It’s a great complement to heavy lifting or a perfect option if you’re taking a deload week.

It’s also a beautiful place to start if you’ve been away from movement for a while and want to rebuild your foundation gently and intelligently.

And you’ll get a good rest at the end.

14/10/2025

Here’s the current timetable. For your first booking, message me directly and I will give you all the details.