Can I be real with you for a second?

It is SO easy to lose yourself in motherhood and a career. The working-and-momming, working-and-momming loop just… swallows you. And somewhere in my 40s, I caught myself wondering: who the f*ck even am I anymore?

Here's what I remembered: I've been an athlete my whole life. Sports are how I've always connected with people—it's where I feel most like ME. So this year I did something just for me and picked up a paddle. 🎾

Honestly? Best decision I've made all year. (I've been meditating, too. A small daily win I'm weirdly proud of. Protecting the things that keep me feeling alive + sane.) So many women in their 40's, 50's 60's+ 70's are crushing the courts right now and pickleball has connected me with so many special humans in the process.

10/10 recommend :)

Here’s the funny part: my new hobby bumped me straight into the exact thing I teach all day long. Whether you’re swinging a paddle or lifting a barbell, so much comes back to one foundation: posterior expansion. Learning to breathe into the back of your body.

Let me show you what I mean, because it quietly solves two problems most women think are totally separate.

1️⃣ You brace and brace... and your core still doesn’t “work”. You’ve been told to “engage your core” and “brace harder” a thousand times. And maybe you do, and it STILL doesn’t feel right. Here’s the piece almost nobody teaches, even to women who’ve been lifting for years: if your ribs flare and your shoulder blades can’t move, your core physically can’t do its job. Bracing harder won’t get you there. But when your ribcage can move back and your scaps can glide? You breathe deeper, your abs turn on automatically, and your low back (and pelvic floor) finally get a break.

2️⃣ You rotate one way all day… and stretching won’t unstick you. All that pickleball, tennis, or just life has you rotating the same direction over and over, and one side of your back gets jammed. Most of us try to STRETCH it out. But stretching won’t give you your rotation back. Your mid-back and ribs move together: to rotate toward one side, the back ribs on that side have to EXPAND. If they’re stuck and compressed, your body goes looking for rotation somewhere it shouldn’t, like your neck and low back. 🙃

Two totally different problems same root. Not more bracing. Not more stretching. A ribcage that can actually move.

Think of it like wringing out a towel. First the towel needs some give — that’s your inhale, filling the back of your ribcage. Then you wring — exhale, and let the opposite oblique twist you. You can’t wring a stiff, dry towel. And you can’t brace, breathe, or rotate through a stiff, compressed ribcage.

Here's what all of this is really about for me: I never want pain to be the thing that gets in the way of a woman feeling happy. Movement brings me so much joy and I want you to keep yours. Because here's what I wish more women knew: pain often has less to do with getting older, and more to do with the movements we stopped doing. Intentional breathing and rotation at the ribcage are my favorite place to start.

I broke both of these down on Instagram this week:

• ​A post on the core + bracing piece​
• And this reel on the pickleball rotation piece​

(If IG’s been hiding my stuff from you lately… here’s your nudge 😉.)

That’s what posterior expansion is really about. It’s Pillar 1 inside my 8-week Strong AF Foundation program, and we kick off a new round in September.

XOXO,
Stacey