Lift and Breathe

03/18/2026

Hi! I’m Erin Svare. I’m a 45 yr old Strength Coach & Yoga Instructor and I love coffee☕️, hiking and getting stronger as I age😄.

❔Recently, a woman asked me how I came to enjoy strength training. Honestly, it didn’t happen overnight, but I love how my body feels when I lift consistently. I like that everyday tasks are a lot easier with a strong body. I love keeping up with my kids. I enjoy learning new skills & challenging myself physically and mentally. Strength checks those boxes. Yoga keeps me balanced.

I share health info on pregnancy, healing after delivery, perimenopause (I am in the midst), menopause and other women’s health related topics.

F U N F A C T S

🏋️‍♀️Career. I’ve been working in Fitness 🤸for 2+ decades...started in my 20’s, through pregnancy, the postpartum chapters and beyond. A big part of that fuels my passion to provide better information & services to this population

🌲Personality. Part extrovert/part introvert. I love people, cheering for & encouraging others. I refill my cup with quiet time, reading and time outdoors.

🐶Pets - I 🤎 dogs! I was raised with golden retrievers. Our family keeps busy with our australian shepherd/pitbull/lab retriever/mini great dane! Because of her, I walk daily regardless of the temperature!

🩵Family - I am a mother to three kids (17, 13 and 10) and they inspire me and teach me lessons every day. My husband & I have been married for 20 years and first met in middle school. He took this 📸on our anniversary trip to Maine last year.

🎹Music - I love everything from Alicia Keys, U2, Brandi Carlisle, Hip Hop, musicals, DMB, country, pop...I enjoy music. It can turn my mood instantly!

—>Ways I work with people: my in-person strength + Yoga studio in Delmar (near Albany, NY), Personal Training and online programming. I live for seeing people accomplish their goals!🙌

03/11/2026

After getting many requests for tours, here is a virtual one!

Come visit for a LIFT session or Yoga class. Link in bio for available classes.

03/08/2026

Celebrating women…today and every day!

It is our greatest privilege to support strong women and their strength goals all year round.

Many who walk through our doors are new to strength training. We welcome that!

If you’re willing to learn, it is never too late to begin.

03/05/2026

Friday classes keep filling..so we added another❕

Reserve a spot and get strong! 💪

03/03/2026

More of this...for the women and girls in the back!!!
(me included)

🚨 Let’s stop apologizing for things that should NEVER need an apology.

✨ “It takes years as a woman to unlearn what we’ve been taught to be sorry about.” – Amy Poehler

It’s breaking my heart. So often I hear saying “sorry” for simply being human:

✋A woman apologizing after sharing about a miscarriage, as if her grief is “too much.”
✋A mother apologizing for making noise in labor, needing help postpartum or her baby crying in public.
✋A woman apologizing to her healthcare provider for “complaining” about health struggles or for for “taking up too much time” in her appointment.
✋A woman in menopause apologizing for brain fog, hot flashes, or “not being herself” during a conversation or at work.

🚫 Enough.
This is the official start of the NO APOLOGIES CLUB.
No apologies for crying.
No apologies for needing.
No apologies for taking up space.

👉 What are you done apologizing for? Drop it below ⬇️

.
women
perimenopause

02/24/2026

Another 6-week session kicks off tomorrow!

Okay to join for one week at a time, too.

This group has grown and the women show up for the connection…equally important to the strength benefits they gain. 💛💛

02/09/2026

Our next 4-week series begins Wed 2.25

Come to connect & build strength one week at a time!

Link to register: https://LIFTANDBREATHE.as.me/?appointmentType=88558596

02/05/2026

National Women in sports day! 🏋️‍♀️⛹🏾‍♀️🤾🏾‍♀️🤸🏼‍♂️🤼‍♀️⛷️🏌🏻‍♀️🏊🏼‍♀️🤽‍♀️🚴🏻‍♀️🏂🏒

These keep getting better.

More fun. More connections with people. Witnessing triumphs, firsts and lasts.

I’ve got some good memories of sports as a kid. I played a lot of different sports. I wasn’t great at any of them, but they were fun, for the most part.😉

I’m glad I stayed with something and didn’t stop. It helps my brain, my heart and my whole body.

Keep women in sports. It’s never too late to play and the benefits are endless! 💚

02/04/2026

Prep for your birth with the Albany Family Life Center!

Join us on March for our Active Birth Series! For more info, reach out to Jessica@albanyfamilylifecenter.org

02/04/2026

Fun to learn that bursts of hard work can lead to brain benefits!

Did you know that even a single session of HIIT or SIT can deliver short-term boosts in attention, memory, and mental clarity—perfect for days when you need to be on your game? This same study also found that people who had bigger increases in blood lactate tended to show more improvement in attention. Over weeks and months, these benefits build, supporting long-term brain health and resilience.

A big reason? HIIT increases BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor)—a key chemical that supports neuroplasticity, learning, brain health, and mood. Higher BDNF levels are linked to better mental health and may help protect against conditions like depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

For those interested in diving into the research around exercise, cognition, and brain health, I highly recommend reading this article (https://bit.ly/44Yarvu). It highlights how some early research suggests that exercise might help reduce brain changes linked to Alzheimer’s and improve conditions like small vessel disease, a common cause of dementia.

So far, studies have mostly looked at how exercise affects gray matter in the brain (like the hippocampus, which is tied to memory). But new research shows exercise may also improve white matter (which helps with brain communication), brain blood flow, and overall brain connectivity. We still don’t fully understand how these changes relate to actual improvements in thinking and memory, but it’s exciting to know that there are more high-quality studies on the way that’ll help answer some of these questions.

Learn more >>> https://bit.ly/4sFf08b

​Study links:
https://bit.ly/4mYO2Vu
https://go.nature.com/4ppHeCj
https://bit.ly/4p3Kbbr

01/31/2026

Great info to follow not only related to fertility, but health for women. Your cycle is a vital sign.

01/27/2026

The fitness industry is sometimes seen as the Wild West. Anyone can get a trainer cert online fairly easily. People use their own images or others to sell. Fear tactics are used often to sell 😞

Strength & Fitness for women, especially prenatal, postpartum & beyond is nuanced. And recommendations change considerably- at least every 10 years. My programming 5, 10 years ago was quite different than it is now.

That’s why I listen to the experts, the leaders in research and those who treat women regularly. I keep local names in my contact list, pursue courses and listen to evidenced based podcasts regularly.

Yesterday, I listened 🎧 while chopping veggies for soup. Multi-tasking to feed my 3 kids, whose growth blows me away daily. Didn’t I just have babies? Nope. One recently turned 13 and next month my baby is TEN. A few weeks later, my oldest turns 17.

It’s fleeting, all of this time with them. So I get creative and listen to experts while I walk our 🐶 or meal prep.

What are your top podcasts lately? 🎧🎧

I rotate & ‘s active mom podcast. I also love anything that is on! 🩷