Embodied Soul

01/09/2026

A book I read recently.

Not related to lifting, but it is related to women and how they navigate the world.

It was loaned to me by someone who comes to my classes (thanks Kirstie!).

If you were into 90s alternative rock, like me, you’ll probably know of Melissa Auf der Maur.

I knew of her because she joined my favourite band, Smashing Pumpkins, for a time.

I was completely obsessed with the Smashing Pumpkins when I was younger.

I adored Billy Corgan. 😂

I actually have Melissa’s autograph on my bathroom wall, along with the other Pumpkins.

She was really friendly when I met her, but I never knew much about her beyond being the bass player who had somehow ended up in my favourite band.

So when someone loaned me her autobiography, I was curious.

And after reading it, I have massive respect for her.

She spent years in the world of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, alongside some very big personalities — Courtney Love and Billy Corgan.

She also had a relationship with Dave Grohl.

What I really liked about her was that she seemed to maintain her sense of self through all of it.

She walked away from a relationship with someone she still loved because she recognised that they were no longer compatible.

She eventually walked away from both Hole and Smashing Pumpkins too, choosing to pursue her own creative work.

I really admire that.

Leaving something you know is not right for you is hard.

Staying is easier.

Something can be exciting and successful and look amazing from the outside, and still not be where you’re meant to be.

She had an awareness of that. She knew when it was time to leave.

As someone who has historically stayed too long in relationships or situations that were no longer right for me, I am in awe of that.

She maintained her artistic integrity.

She cultivated her own inner world.

She stayed connected to her spirituality.

She kept creating.

She knew who she was.

And she wasn’t willing to abandon herself for fame or notoriety, or even for love.

I find that really inspiring.

She is a woman of remarkable self-possession.

There’s something incredibly powerful about being deeply involved with other people without losing yourself in them.

To love people without abandoning yourself.

To work alongside powerful personalities without allowing them to define you.

To walk away when something is no longer right, even when walking away hurts.

And to have the courage to create something of your own.

There was one little bit of synchronicity at the end of the book that was very meaningful to me.

At the time she wrote the book, her only daughter was 12 years old.

Her name is River.

If you don’t know me, I have a 12-year-old daughter called River too. 💜

31/08/2026

Things I don’t do at Embodied Soul

Some of these might be a little different to a conventional fitness space.

(This post was inspired by someone telling me what it was like at the last gym she went to.)

I don’t:

• Take or post pictures of you without your permission.

• Do before-and-after pictures.

• Require you to high five me after a session. 😂

• Not even learn your name, or anything about you.

• Ignore you while you try to figure things out by yourself.

• Comment on your weight or the way your body looks. I might comment on how strong you’re getting though. 😉

• Make you compete against the woman next to you. Your progress is your progress.

• Tell you to push through pain. We figure things out and adjust when we need to.

• Expect you to know what you’re doing when you walk through the door. I’ll teach you.

• Tell you that you need to get smaller before you can get stronger.

• Make exercise a punishment for what you’ve eaten.

What I do want is for you to feel comfortable here.

To know that I’ll notice when you walk through the door.

To know that I’ll help you when something feels difficult.

To know that you don’t need to remember every exercise, and that it’s okay to feel like a newbie or not know what you’re doing.

To get stronger without feeling like you have to change the shape of your body to belong here.

And to be surrounded by women who are all working on becoming stronger, more capable and more confident in their own bodies.

If you’ve been wanting to get started with strength training but don’t know where to begin, or you’ve been going to the gym for a while but would like to progress your lifts and move towards heavier weights, or you just want to be around a supportive group of women…

Send me a message and we’ll get you started. ❤️

I now have an 8am Saturday session for those who can’t make the weekday ones.

Send a message to learn more

31/08/2026

Saturday 8am sessions are now starting! 💪

For anyone who can’t make the sessions during the week, or if you want to add a second or third session to your week.

I may occasionally cancel a Saturday if I want to go on a weekend hike, because I do need to have some time for my own adventures too. 😂

But most weeks, we’ll be lifting at 8am on Saturday.

If you’ve been wanting an extra session, or weekends work better for you, go to ubindi and book. Space is limited to 6 people.

29/08/2026

Look at that.

I could reach 6 more accounts if I spend $49. 😂

No thanks.

I’ve been struggling with reach on Facebook lately.

I don’t know if my content is bad, or if people just aren’t on Facebook anymore. Maybe I should be doing Instagram, but that feels like way too much work. 😂

The only content I actually enjoy making is writing.

I’m not visual, I’m not into pictures.

I like depth and substance.

I’m not big on surface level.

And in a world dominated by short form content, I’m not sure how many people still read.

Luckily, I’m really fortunate that around 90% of my new clients come through word of mouth rather than from social media.

Which means you guys are doing my advertising for me.

So I want to reward you for it. ❤️

If you have a friend who you think would enjoy my classes, there’s a referral link you can share through Ubindi.

When they sign up, you both get a free class.

I really appreciate it when you tell your friends about me.

29/08/2026

In Human Design, my ideal environment is kitchens.

Which is funny, because I don’t even like cooking. 😂

But kitchens aren’t really about cooking.

They’re about transformation.

You take a collection of things and turn them into something else.

I think that’s why I created a fitness studio.

It’s a space for transformation.

We come together, we bring what we have, and we work with it.

We take movement, breath, lifting, challenge, discomfort and rest, and mix them together in the right amounts.

Over time, something changes.

The body changes.

The mind changes.

The way you see yourself changes.

You become someone different from when you first walked through the door.

28/08/2026

I get a lot of women who come to me saying they want to get “toned”, “skinnier” or lose weight.

Often, I don’t say anything about that.

Not because there’s anything wrong with wanting to lose weight.

But because if I told you that wasn’t the focus of my work, you might never get started.

So I watch as that language slowly fades away.

Instead of talking about weight loss, women start talking about their goal weight for their deadlift.

Instead of talking about being “toned”, they talk about feeling strong and capable.

Instead of counting calories and trying to eat as little as possible, they start fuelling their bodies properly — and actually enjoying food.

Instead of wanting to diminish themselves, they start taking up space.

They become more confident.

More capable.

More comfortable in their bodies.

And that’s not to say you won’t lose weight or get “toned”.

Sometimes that happens.

Sometimes it doesn’t.

I’m not going to promise you that strength training will make you smaller.

My body hasn’t lost weight through my years of strength training.

I’ve actually gained weight.

I’ve gained muscle. And muscle takes up space. So my body has gotten bigger, too.

And I’m okay with that.

This body once carried a baby who was off the charts for both weight and height. It fed that baby, too.

My body still has curves, softness and parts I used to wish were different.

And you know what?

I no longer believe they need to change.

This body has done some incredible things.

It carried a baby.

It carried me the length of Aotearoa.

It can deadlift more than 1.5 times my body weight.

I’m not interested in making it smaller anymore.

I’m interested in making my life bigger.

And, perhaps most importantly, I really like my body.

I’m proud of the fact that my thighs feel strong and that I’m both muscular and curvy.

I don’t have much pain in my body. I feel energetic most of the time.

This is a body that I can feel at home in.

And that’s what I want for the women who come to me.

Not that they have to stop wanting to lose weight.

Not that they have to love every part of their body.

But that they get to discover that their body is capable of so much more than being something they are constantly trying to make smaller.

That’s the kind of transformation I want to create space for in every woman who comes to me. ❤️

Send a message to learn more

28/08/2026

Low back pain is very, very common.

I see quite a few people who come to me with a sore or sensitive lower back, and interestingly, I tend to see two very different experiences.

For some people, they start strength training with a sore back. They’re nervous about lifting and careful with everything. And then, as they gradually get stronger and more confident, their back pain starts to reduce.

Sometimes it happens surprisingly quickly (someone told me recently that their pain had disappeared after just 3-4 weeks of lifting).

They realise they can move. They can lift. They can bend. They can get stronger without their back falling apart.

I’ve also had people who started training with me over a year ago who were constantly tweaking their backs or hurting themselves doing everyday things. Something would go wrong reaching for something, lifting something awkwardly, or just doing normal life.

But they kept showing up. They kept getting stronger. And now, more than a year later, they tell me they’re no longer having those problems.

That’s one of my favourite things to see.

Not because I think strength training magically fixes everything. But because the body can adapt.

And then there’s another group.

They start training. They’re getting stronger. Their deadlift is going up. They’re feeling great.

And then somewhere along the way… their back gets sore.

And I know this can be really discouraging. Because they think, “But I was getting stronger! Why is this happening now?”

Usually, it doesn’t mean they’ve done something terrible to their back. Sometimes you’ve simply asked your body to do a little more than it was ready for.

Maybe the weight went up. Maybe the volume went up. Maybe you’re tired. Maybe you’ve had a stressful week and aren’t recovering as well. Maybe you’ve just reached a point where your current capacity needs a little more time to catch up with what you’re asking of it.

We don’t have to panic. We don’t necessarily have to stop lifting. Sometimes we just need to take a step back, adjust the load, let things settle, and then gradually build back up again.

Because your back isn’t fragile.

It’s adaptable.

And I think that’s one of the most valuable things about strength training. You start learning that your body can do hard things. You can build capacity. You can recover. You can have a setback and come back from it.

Low back pain doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong. It’s not always a technique thing (although it can be). And it doesn’t mean you have to fear lifting any heavier.

Of course, persistent or severe pain, pain after significant injury, or symptoms like numbness, weakness or changes in bladder or bowel function need proper medical assessment.

But a sore back doesn’t automatically mean you’ve damaged yourself.

Sometimes it just means:

“Hey, that was a bit much. Let’s take it a bit more slowly.”

And then we listen.

We adapt your lift.

And we keep building. 💪

Send a message to learn more

27/08/2026

If you recommend my classes to someone, use the invite link from ubindi. It will give you both a credit for a free class!

25/08/2026

On the surface, I’m teaching women to move well and lift heavy weights.

I create creative mobility sequences that move parts of you that might get neglected in everyday life.

I build your lifts up by focusing on good technique and progressive overload.

Some women come just for that.

And that’s ok.

But that’s just the surface.

I have the ability to go far deeper.

I’m all about transformation.

Sometimes that transformation starts with something very practical.

Feeling less back pain.
Having more energy.
Feeling stronger and less vulnerable to the little injuries that can interrupt everyday life.
Feeling more stable getting in and out of the shower. (My over-60s sometimes mention things like this.)

Those are valuable transformations.

And I love hearing about them.

But I’m also interested in what happens underneath.

What happens when you get to a weight that seemed impossible when you first started?

What happens when you show up for yourself for an entire month?

Or an entire year?

What happens when you start prioritising yourself, and saying no to other people’s demands, so that you can show up for your strength training?

You become someone who is:

More confident.
More present.
More embodied.
More at home in herself.
More stable.
More willing to take risks.
More comfortable with uncertainty.

Getting stronger isn’t just about building muscle and bone.

It’s about discovering what you’re capable of.

When you know what you’re capable of, you can start living a life that feels less constrained by fear.

You take the risk.

You say yes to something you might have avoided before.

You discover that you’re capable of hard things.

And suddenly there is more room for possibility.

More room for joy.

Improving your balance isn’t just about reducing the risk of falls.

It’s about knowing that you can support yourself.

It’s resilience.

Every time life makes you wobble, you learn that you can find your centre again.

And sometimes it’s even about something as fundamental as fuelling your body.

After a lifetime of calorie restriction and believing you need to shrink, learning to actually nourish yourself can be profoundly transformative.

Your body stops being a battleground.

It becomes something you can inhabit.

Something you can trust, feel at home in even.

Something that doesn’t need to be smaller for you to take up more space in your life.

You become bolder.

And all of these things create deeper transformation.

So if you’re coming to me because you want to learn good technique and safely load your body, that’s ok.

You don’t have to be looking for deeper transformation.

You can just come and lift.

But you might be surprised by what happens along the way.

Because sometimes you come to learn how to lift heavy weights and discover that you’re capable of carrying a whole lot more than that.

Send a message to learn more