Strive & Uplift https://www.striveanduplift.com community in movement Wed, 06 Mar 2024 20:43:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.striveanduplift.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Flame-e1538940103398-60x60.png Strive & Uplift https://www.striveanduplift.com 32 32 Strive & Uplift and FROG Business Changes https://www.striveanduplift.com/2024/03/06/strive-uplift-and-frog-business-changes/ Wed, 06 Mar 2024 20:43:12 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=51486 The Ballard-based gym location is rebranding and refocusing as Friends of the Gym, and the ultimate programming is staying with me, Coach Bert, as Strive & Uplift here!

I’m so excited for the gym to take this next step and am sending all my love always to the Friends of the Gym! It’s such a lovely vision for a supportive space, and I’m grateful it gets to flourish.

If you first came to Strive & Uplift for the ultimate focus and are wondering if the programming and specialists are still around, I’m here for you! The virtual training programs for ultimate as well as Return to Performance will remain on the Strive & Uplift website, and I’m going to keep managing and updating it. I’ve got some exciting things planned for ways to freshen things up and make it easier to access programming wherever you work out. 

If you’re interested in 1:1 support from an ultimate training specialist, you can reach out to me through my personal coaching website. I currently work in-person in central Seattle and on video call anywhere.

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Pilates & West Seattle Changes https://www.striveanduplift.com/2023/04/19/pilates-west-seattle-changes/ Wed, 19 Apr 2023 20:44:04 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=39537 One of my favorite things about Strive & Uplift is how much we support each other in growth and change! We do this with clients and members, with our coaching team, and for ourselves.

We’re incredibly excited to announce that Becca and Kira are going to be starting their own coaching operations in May! This has been in the works for a long time for both of them, and they’re using a lot of skills and confidence that they gained in being a part of our team and the S&U community as they move into this new stage of their professional lives. We’re sad to see them go, but we’re so jazzed to see what they will do next! Please read on for a message from Kira and Becca, and to learn how S&U’s schedule will be shifting due to this change! 

– Ren

From Kira and Becca

We are so grateful to be a part of a community that celebrates and supports each other! Our new adventures are in the works and we are excited to see where the future takes us! 

Here’s a brief summary of what we will be up to in May and beyond – if you want to learn more/be in the know, you can sign up for our mailing list

Kira: I’ll be starting my own coaching business, and will continue to offer 1:1 Coaching (virtual & in-person), Small Group Coaching (virtual, or in-person outdoors) AND Saturday 10:30am Restorative Pilates class (keep reading)! 

Becca: I will be operating out of the West Seattle location under my new business name, Opus Movement! I will be offering 1:1 Coaching (virtual & in-person), Small Group Coaching (virtual, or in-person) and virtual Mat Pilates classes! There’s lots in the works for this next adventure so make sure you sign up to learn more about how to continue moving with me!

We are collaborating to offer virtual Mat Flow & Restorative Pilates classes on a drop-in basis! We will start with classes and a schedule similar to what we are currently doing at Strive AND will continue to grow our collaboration offerings! 

Check out our new schedule and sign up to learn more:

Opus Movement classes: Tuesday 10:30am Restorative Pilates, 6pm Mat Flow Pilates with Kira. Thursday 10:30am Restorative Pilates, 6pm Mat Flow Pilates with Becca. Saturday 10:30am Restorative Pilates with Kira or Becca.

We are so excited to keep moving with you all! Sign up for the mailing list and be the first to know how to join a class and/or reach to explore other options to continue working together. 

S&U May Schedule

Our weekly schedule will be shifting with this change and will continue to evolve as we move into the summer! We would love for folks to go to Becca and Kira’s classes, so we’ve considered their plans as we crafted this new schedule. We’re adding a new class (Core / Stability) to our offerings, getting Liz back into group coaching with a new Saturday class, and adding another Yoga Flow class. Here’s what the schedule will look like starting May 1st:

S&U Schedule graphic. For a screen reader friendly version, click the schedule link below.

Please email us with any questions or chat with a coach!

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Mask Policy Update https://www.striveanduplift.com/2023/03/29/mask-policy-update-2/ Wed, 29 Mar 2023 22:55:44 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=39312 Prompted by the changes in mask policy coming April 1st in healthcare facilities, and after polling and conversations with our membership, we’ve decided to change to a mask optional policy in our facilities, effective April 1st.

Accessibility remains important to us, and with this shift we want to do our best to offer options for people in different health circumstances. We’ll continue to offer classes on Zoom along with the massive library of recorded classes in the Member Content area. 1:1 and Small Group Coaching clients can ask your coach to wear a mask during sessions, and we encourage people who need to mitigate their exposure risk to book during off-peak times.

You are always welcome to wear a mask if you prefer. We’ll continue running our air filtration systems and opening doors or windows to increase airflow.

  • Please wear a mask if you have had an increased risk of exposure such as airplane travel or spending time unmasked in a crowd (e.g. concerts, sporting events).
  • If you had a known exposure in the past 10 days and are vaccinated, please wear a mask or stay home.
  • If you have a medical exemption for vaccination, please stay home if you’ve had a known exposure in the past 10 days.
  • As always, we ask that you stay home if you test positive for COVID or have symptoms of a contagious respiratory infection, COVID or otherwise.
  • We do not charge a late cancel fee for sickness-related cancellations.

With this change, we anticipate we may have exposures in the gym. If you attended services in-person, with or without a mask, and find out you’d been exposed to COVID, please inform your coach or email us, and we’ll contact anyone who might have been exposed.

You can consult our full COVID policy for more details.

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Reconnecting with Spaces https://www.striveanduplift.com/2023/02/15/reconnecting-with-spaces/ Thu, 16 Feb 2023 01:00:34 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=38807 Written by Coach Ren

There is nothing like cutting thick black mats with an exacto knife to bring me back to when we opened the first Strive & Uplift facility in January of 2017. We expanded the movement space in the Ballard gym last week, and as I was sawing away (trying to be mindful of the chalk line I was following), I was thinking back to how great it felt to finally be creating a space where people could move together. 

The pandemic changed our experience of and connection to spaces. Instead of having one large space to curate intentionally, we’ve ended up with several smaller spaces and virtual options that we can use to connect with our community. It’s hard to remember that I was so nervous about classes on Zoom – how they would feel, would we be able to effectively coach, would we still be connected to each other? And here I am now, taking three of our virtual classes weekly, and feeling them as such an important touchstone for my body and brain. My Tuesdays with Liz, yoga with Dominique, my Pilates with Becca…and workouts at my pole studio, with a different awesome community! Regular karaoke meetups with friends and working at the food bank give me touch points during my week, making it easier for me to tune in to what I want and need while staying connected to people I care about and the world in general. These spaces (both virtual and in person) allow us to continue to nurture and participate in community even during these intense last couple years.

I was watching a TikTok video the other day from one of my favorite creators, Imani Barbarin. Among other things, in this video she points out that we have all lived through an enormous amount of collective trauma in the last few years, which affects us in every facet of our lives. One thing I take from that is that this trauma makes it difficult for us to engage with ourselves and each other. Finding spaces where we feel supported and can share energy with cool people is part of how we start recovering and feeling strong again. 

A collage photo with many different images from the past year with Strive & Uplift: everything from Puppy Yoga to Intentionalist events to people working out to outdoor classes to group coach photos and more!

What spaces are you reconnecting with?

If you’re interested in joining our Squad either in-person or virtual, you have a lot of options! Check out our Locations to learn more about each space and the services we offer there!

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Ballard Class Additions https://www.striveanduplift.com/2023/02/13/ballard-class-additions/ Tue, 14 Feb 2023 00:04:48 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=38772 We’re grateful to our members for their participation in recent polls about class times!

Thanks to member feedback, we’re adding a few classes and adjusting Sunday’s Gym Access time in the coming weeks. These additions and changes are all in-person offerings in Ballard.

  • Wednesday 7pm Strength starts this week on 2/15
  • Sundays starting 2/26 will be 9:30am Gym Access, 10:30am Strength, 11:30am Strength

As the days get longer, we often find later evening classes work better for folks. You can “vote with your feet” or just send us a note and let us know what times are best for evening in-person classes through the spring and summer!

Image showing the weekly schedule of classes and gym access at all locations. The daily schedule is displayed on the Classes & Gym Access page.
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Evening Pilates Class in West Seattle https://www.striveanduplift.com/2023/02/01/evening-pilates-class-in-west-seattle/ Wed, 01 Feb 2023 20:22:46 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=38601 We’re adding an evening in-person option in West Seattle! We’re changing the Pilates Flow class on Mondays at 6pm to a hybrid offering, so now you can move with Becca online or in the West Seattle location.

All our COVID and cancellation policies for in-person classes apply to that section of the class.

Coach Becca works with participants in person and on Zoom from the West Seattle space
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Gym Access Schedule Updates https://www.striveanduplift.com/2023/01/19/gym-access-schedule-updates/ Thu, 19 Jan 2023 19:15:34 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=38512 Your coaches are hard at work refining enrollment systems, jamming on space capacity, and moving things around/out of the Ballard gym space – the goal is to improve your movement experience!

As a part of these shifts, we’re taking some Gym Access times off the schedule that haven’t been getting utilized, and also eliminating access during our T/Th evening strength classes. This will allow us to provide more consistent service quality to our members, and help manage the flow of traffic in and out of the Ballard space!

We encourage you to use the wait list if you’d like to work out during a time that says it’s full – the coach will add you if there’s space!

These schedule changes go into effect January 30th. Thanks as always for bearing with us as we continue to shift and pivot to meet the needs of our coaches and members!

Image showing schedule updates taking effect January 30th. All changes are reflected in our Pike13 schedule, which can be read with a screen reader.
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Making Space for Yourself https://www.striveanduplift.com/2022/12/21/making-space-for-yours/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:16 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=38183 Written by Coach Ren

The “Long Dark” is upon us, and the holidays are challenging for many people. We’ve been sharing ideas during our class check-ins about how to support ourselves during this time of the year. Light subconsciously helps us regulate and gives us energy – it’s good to think about how to create that for ourselves in an easy-to-manage way since we aren’t getting it for free this winter!

I shared in one class that having many sources of yellow light in my house really helps me – I’m from Florida and long dark months is not something I experienced growing up! This got me thinking about the concept of “lightness” and how to create it – what’s the emotional/social version of “lightness?” Maybe…good vibes within classes and spaces…laughter with cool people…good food and drinks…warmth and friend/family time…

What’s a way you’re bringing light into your life this winter?

A hand holds a small potted plant with a beautiful red flower in front of a lavender wall with white string lights draped on it.

Making space for yourself can also look like doing what your body needs when it needs it (even if that’s not what you’d most like to be doing or what people around us expect and reward). One night in our Ballard gym space I was helping a member with a max effort bench press, coaching them on breathing and driving the bar up from their chest. Next to us, a member was lying on the floor recovering from their last set of exercises. It struck me that both people were in the process of building strength, even though what they were doing looked very different! 

When it comes to getting stronger, you need both exertion and recovery. Muscles get broken down when you lift heavy, and the rebuilding only happens through rest. Try hard, then chill. Often, the “fitness” world (and society in general) focuses on and praises the effort we put forth, and discourages us from taking the time needed to rest, learn and grow. Let’s make sure we value that time in the coming weeks!

If you’d like to make some space for yourself at the beginning of 2023, consider signing up for our 30-Day Core Challenge! It’s fully asynchronous so you can more easily fit it into your schedule, and will help you tap into how you use your core in your daily life!

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Weather Related Schedule Changes https://www.striveanduplift.com/2022/12/20/weather-related-schedule-change/ Tue, 20 Dec 2022 20:17:30 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=38154 Due to road conditions, we’re canceling some in-person services. You can join us online for our classes. Stay safe and warm, friends!

Tuesday Dec 20

  • Gym Access canceled
  • Strength offered on Zoom at 6pm

Wednesday Dec 21

  • Morning Gym Access canceled (7-9am)
  • Strength offered on Zoom at 7am
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Policy Update: Mask Optional Times Suspended https://www.striveanduplift.com/2022/12/13/policy-update-mask-optional-times-suspended/ Tue, 13 Dec 2022 20:00:41 +0000 https://www.striveanduplift.com/?p=37996 Due to a high level of the combination RSV, flu, and COVID circulating and putting strain on local hospitals, public health officials in King County are currently recommending masking in indoor public spaces. For the time being we are suspending our Mask Optional times and going back to requiring masking at all times in all our indoor facilities.

We’ll keep monitoring publication from officials, revisiting this policy every few weeks throughout the winter. Once things have calmed down and officials say it’s okay to go unmasked, we’ll bring those mask optional times back!

Image showing the weekly schedule of classes and gym access at all locations. The daily schedule is displayed on the Classes & Gym Access page.
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