The story below is a preview from our January/February 2021 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Editor's Note: For more tips from our health and fitness experts, including where to work out and connect in our community, read our online companion piece to "Roanoke Strong" here.
When it comes to wellness, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. That’s why, to kick off the new year, we talked to six different health and fitness pros about the mindsets, tips and tricks that keep them committed to staying healthy and strong, year-round. Here's their advice:
- The Aerial Silks “Artivist”: Lynsey Wyatt
- The Hot Yoga & Cycle Queen: London Ray-Dykstra
- The Holistic Health Practitioner: Maya Ittah
- The CrossFitter: Tamalyn Tanis
- The Strength Coach: Gabriel Villarreal
- The High-Energy Trainer: Diane Simmons
Here's their advice:
1. It’s not about how you want to look – it’s about how you want to feel.
When you think of getting fit, do you think of weekly weigh-ins and self-shaming sessions at the mirror? Lynsey Wyatt is working to change that.
The aerial silks “artivist” – who’s been in love with high-flying circus acrobatics since she was a teen – offers a different take on strength training in her downtown studio, Cirqulation, where for the past two years clients have discovered the fun of twisting high in the air between long swaths of fabric, their abs and arms fully engaged.
But don’t be fooled: Wyatt’s work isn’t just about toned muscles.
“I’m trying to create a space that feels safe to people, feels inclusive and feels affirming,” says Wyatt, who currently offers flexibility courses in online format. “Above all, [it’s about] just bringing joy back into your body, no matter what shape or size or background you come from.”
That’s a theme that emerged again and again among advice from health-and-wellness pros: when their clients pursued strength, confidence, and the everyday pleasure of a good workout – not just a number on the scale – they were less likely to give up on their goals.
“I think a common mistake is to focus too much on trying to receive a certain aesthetic like a flat stomach,” says Wyatt, “which is rooted in toxic fitness culture and influences folks to focus on how they want to look, not how they want to feel and move.”
2. Ditch the grind and make fitness fun.
In her late twenties, living in Richmond, London Ray-Dykstra hit a wall.
“I was in a bad place,” Ray-Dykstra says. “Three very traumatic things happened, one after another … I wasn’t coping well. I was just in what one might call the pit of despair. My doctor actually recognized that, and she said, ‘We have to do something. You have to change what’s going on. You’re overweight, your cholesterol is high and your anxiety is through the roof.’”
Ray-Dykstra’s doctor began incorporating healthy dietary shifts and natural remedies, and the momentum began to build.
But there was just one problem: when it came to working out, Ray-Dykstra wasn’t, as she describes, a “gym person.”
Luckily, the former dancer stumbled upon a Richmond studio that offered the kind of classes she could get behind: hot yoga, with its ability to feel physically challenging and also mentally centering, and cycling classes that felt less like a workout and more “like dancing on the bike,” she says.
That was the change that started the domino effect … and the one that later inspired her to found Hustle/Haven, a hot yoga and cycle studio in downtown Roanoke, complete with a self-care boutique and potion bar.
“And when you’re active and you’re taking care of yourself in that way, you want to take care of yourself in other ways.”
Ray-Dykstra isn’t the only pro to figure out that for many people, finding the right form of fitness – one that’s actually fun – makes all the difference.
“I’m not a person who likes to really just work out for workouts’ sake,” says Maya Ittah, a massage therapist and wholistic nutrition specialist who co-founded the Haven on 5th in Old Southwest. “I like things that make me laugh and play … I think that’s really important. Otherwise, you have a lot of really miserable fit people.”
For Ittah, a fun workout could mean slacklining in Highland Park, rollerblading with her kids, or meeting outdoors with an ecstatic dancing group.
She’s so convinced of the importance of finding authentic, personalized activities that she’s incorporated that into her latest modality offering, “therapeutic rewilding,” in which she guides clients to find “the foods, the forms of movement, the forms of therapies that our bodies most resonate with,” she explains.
“Find something that’s just you – the expression of who you are,” says Ittah. “[Then] you’re like, ‘This is going to bring me joy and I’m going to be looking forward to doing it … So that’s what I’m going to do.’”
3. Get out(side).
If the pandemic of 2020 taught fitness folks anything, it was to find new, flexible ways of working out, out-of-doors.
Maybe that’s why just about every pro on our list had a favorite outdoor spot for staying fit, meditating or centering … from Kennedy Park, where Diane Simmons of Simply Fitness by Diane has held popular fitness parties, to the city’s greenways, where London and Lynsey enjoy walking, jogging or biking.
For Tamalyn Tanis, trainer and owner at Roanoke Valley CrossFit, a favorite spot is Smith Mountain Lake, where she regularly escapes with family to paddleboard, kayak and run.
“For somebody that’s local, Roanoke is so full. We’ve got access to the Appalachian Trail with Dragon’s Tooth and McAfee Knob,” Tanis says. “[There’s] the Star Trail around the mountain … Roanoke has a lot to offer!”
Want more fitness tips from these experts? Get all the tips in our latest issue, on newsstands now!
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