Fitness Archives - Fit Bottomed Girls

How to Do Squats: Beginner-Friendly Variations to Build Lower Body Strength

Naomi Gottlieb-Miller — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 09:00:58 +0000

Let’s talk about squats! Love them or hate them, squats are an essential exercise for building strength in your lower body. Why Squats Are a Powerful Lower Body Strength Exercise Squats are a compound strength exercise. This means that unlike isolation exercises, which target one muscle group, like biceps curls, squats engage multiple muscle groups and two or more joints simultaneously. What makes compound exercises so great is that they are incredibly efficient, both in terms of muscular engagement and use of time. Compound exercises allow for heavier lifting because you’re spreading the work across muscle groups and joints. This…

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How to Make Fitness Fun Again as an Adult

Alex Kennedy — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 15:53:11 +0000

Remember gym class or playing outside at recess? (No, not the awkward rope-climbing part or when you fell and scraped your knees)… the part where you were just running around, laughing, playing games, and completely forgetting you were even exercising? That feeling didn’t expire when you turned 18. But somewhere along the way, most of us got the message that real fitness had to be serious. Structured. Optimized. And that’s the exact part where a lot of us checked out. If your current relationship with movement feels more like an obligation than something you actually enjoy, this is for you.…

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The Truth About Menopause Belly Fat (What Science Actually Says)

Naomi Gottlieb-Miller — Tue, 19 May 2026 09:00:49 +0000

If you ask the average woman going through perimenopause what she is most concerned about, you’ll probably find a few things near the top of the list: hot flashes, for sure. Vaginal dryness, definitely. Mood swings, irritability, and incandescent rage at the incompetence of men? Highly likely. You’ll even hear a lot about chin hairs and good grief, why are we afflicted with them, along with all of the other perimenopause nonsense. But the thing that tends to be at the very top of the list is actually none of these things. The thing many women in perimenopause are most…

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How Lifting Weights After 40 Changed My Relationship With Food and My Body

Naomi Gottlieb-Miller — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:00:39 +0000

Note: The point below includes discussion of disordered eating and an unhealthy relationship with exercise. Please take care while reading if these topics are sensitive for you. When I was in my twenties, I worked out a lot. I ran several days a week, pushing myself to be a little faster every time. I not only took several high-intensity yoga classes each week, but my own home practices were much the same. Although I did belong to a gym when I was in my early twenties living in NYC, I mostly used the cardio equipment — the treadmill, the elliptical…

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From Marathons to Ironmans: The Women Over 50 Redefining Athletic Aging

Naomi Gottlieb-Miller — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 10:00:31 +0000

In April 2025, I completed my first half marathon at age 44. It was a relatively small race, with just 91 finishers. While the racers skewed toward people in their 30s and 40s, there were nearly as many in their 50s and 60s. Distance running tends to suit older runners for a variety of reasons: more experience, greater consistency in training, stronger mental resilience for pacing, smarter injury-prevention strategies, and the ability to learn from past mistakes. In fact, the woman who finished just four minutes after me was 70 years old. The only two people in their 70s who…

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Functional Fitness for Real Life: The Case for Everyday Athleticism

Marlene Andersson — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 10:00:27 +0000

Most people think athletes are those who train for a sport. But what if you’re already training—just without meaning to? Why Most People Don’t See Themselves as Athletes When I was younger, I believed that strength training—or even training hard—was only for athletes: people preparing for a competition or a race of some kind. If you played a sport, I could see how it might be useful. But I wasn’t doing any of that. I didn’t really understand why a “regular” person who studied or worked a 9–5 job would benefit from spending time training. What would they even need…

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Why Dance Is One of the Most Powerful Confidence-Building Workouts

Alex Kennedy — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 10:00:33 +0000

Dance isn’t just one of the most insanely fun workouts—it’s also a complete confidence and resilience builder. I know this because I learned to shuffle dance in 2019, and it has shifted every single area of my life—from physical fitness, to body image, to mindset, to courage. I can bet you’ve seen dancers all over the internet (probably shuffling, honestly—the dance has taken a major leap online since 2020!). You think, “That looks fun,” followed immediately by, “But I could never.” At first, I was that girl too. But on a total whim, I decided to stop watching and just…

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How to Create Habits That Actually Stick

Naomi Gottlieb-Miller — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 10:00:47 +0000

Habits and behaviors are the actions that create the building blocks of our lives. Sometimes those habits and behaviors align with our desires and values, shaping healthy routines that make our lives more enjoyable. Other times, we have habits or behaviors that keep us stuck in cycles that don’t feel so good. Unfortunately, it can be really tricky to change a behavior or habit—especially if it’s deeply ingrained in the fabric of our lives. Ease and familiarity tend to win over things that are new and challenging. Plus, we tend to prefer change that is radical and immediate over change…

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Weighted Vests for Walking: Do They Build Bone or Is It Just Hype?

Karin Weinstein — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 10:00:20 +0000

Weighted vests are having a moment. They’re touted as a simple way to boost strength, build bone, and make everyday movement more “effective.” “Should I wear a weighted vest while I walk?” is one of the most common questions I hear in my role as an osteoporosis strength coach. Weighted vests have become a popular “hack” in the wellness world, often promoted as an easy way to build bone density, strength, or endurance. Some of the voices most loudly touting their benefits are also benefitting in some way from their sale — so it’s important to separate marketing claims from…

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How to Train for Your First Triathlon: Q&A with Author and Coach Hilary JM Topper

Alison Heilig — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 10:00:09 +0000

When Hilary JM Topper signed up for her first triathlon at 53, she didn’t expect it to change her life — or spark a second career as a triathlon coach, podcast host, and author of Unlocking the Triathlon: The Beginner’s Guide to Competing in a Triathlon. In this inspiring Q&A, Hilary talks about what drew her to the sport, how anyone — at any age or ability level — can get started, and why triathlon is one of the most empowering experiences you’ll ever have. From balancing training with real life to what gear you actually need, her advice proves…

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