#WeGotGoals by aSweatLife

We recorded this podcast while I sat next to my Peloton, a machine that got me through the pandemic - Jess Simms, Tunde, Cody, Alex, Robin, all came at me live into my home while I - like everyone else in the world, looked for some normalcy. But cut to a more normal fitness world and there my Peloton sits, unused by me since July of 2022. And don’t get me wrong - I loved that thing while I loved i...

This month on the podcast, we're breaking down the intricacies of the State of Fitness Report we published in February. There is a lot to unpack in all of the historical data we're comparing and in all of the incredible insights you share with us. Last week, we talked a lot about your fitness spending habits and this week we’re digging into what you’re doing with your precious time dedicated to mo...

We've been collecting consumer data on fitness habits and spending since 2017, so we have numbers that show just how quickly things really did change over the Pandemic. We’re breaking down our State of Fitness survey and its results on our podcast all month, This week, we're starting with spending. We talk about how much we - the hosts - are spending, what you told us you're spending and what perc...

If you’ve ever watched Shark Tank or pitched your own business, you’re familiar with the concept of addressable market, or total addressable market (TAM). It’s an ever important metric to determine whether the thing you’re talking about has room for growth or - to put it simply - a way to quantify how many people care or could care about the thing you’re selling. I told you that to tell you this:...

Content warning: we talk about sex on this episode. So recently, we started to notice Ashley Martens - a health and wellness writer who lends her pen to aSweatLife as well as Women’s Health, Red Book and Delish - covering more of what we'd call "saucy content." It started after some jerk ghosted her. By the way, human adults, don't ghost each other. Have a tough convo and move on. K? And as she pi...

You know that person who reminds you that Mercury is in retrograde and they ask new friends to share their astrological signs? It’s me. And we love leaning into the woo-woo in a fun and approachable way around aSweatLife. Each week, aSweatLife ambassadors get an email with everything fun that’s happening AND one of the Ambassadors, Mary Kessinger, writes a horoscope. So when Twyla Adkins raised he...

On the pages of aSweatLife in 2020, Kensli Diggs penned a piece that called on readers to use friendship to see the perspectives of others from different walks of life. It was titled Why it’s so Important to Diversify Your Friend Group . She said, “It’s important to diversify your friend group because it’s important to develop a familiarization and understanding of other people’s backgrounds.” Sin...

Chances are that if you're reading this, social media was introduced in your lifetime. Whether or not that means you have vivid memories of retrieving the AOL CD ROM from the mailbox and begging your parents to set it up on your Gateway PC (which came in a cowprint box) is another thing. If all of that resonated with you, email me at Jeana@asweatlife.com to commiserate about the series finale of F...

Trigger warning: on this episode, we discuss pregnancy and loss. If you're not in a place to hear that, skip it and come back next week. Take care of yourself. Amanda Lauren, a contributor at aSweatLife and a lot of other publications, has covered a tried and true beat for about five years around here: Wellness and lifestyle. We love reading her take on the way movement bumps up against fashion, s...

Welcome to Season 8 of #WeGotGoals, the podcast by aSweatLife.com. We’re doing things a little differently this season, featuring topics from our crew of expert writers, responding to moments in pop culture, or whatever the hell we feel like talking about. This week, we’re talking about body image … and since our team is practically all female and a lot of our readers and ambassadors are female, w...

My mantra going into 2023 in general is "this should be fun." It's meant to be a not-so-gentle reminder that I started aSweatLife for joy - I wanted to fill my own life with joy and hopefully help others do the same too. For me there are too sides to this idea: the first is actively seeking out ways to add fun to my life and the other is eliminating the stuff that is depleting my joy. Don't deplet...

This is the final episode of the seventh season of #WeGotGoals and we’re excited to kick off our annual State of Fitness survey with this episode. We’ve been keeping our fingers on the pulse of what you do to stay fit, recover and how you spend your money on wellness. And this year, we’re adding some questions about mental health. On this week’s episode, you’ll hear references to data from our sta...

This week on the podcast, you’re going to hear a lot about “the universe” and listening to intuition from Robin Samples, the Founder of Bare Feet Power Yoga . Robin Samples and I both got into business around the same time - about 10 years ago. And over these 10 years it got easier and easier for me to scootch into the territory of woo-woo. I get the feeling that Robin’s journey to the spiritual w...

I’ve gotten to chat with Brrrn co-founders Johnny Adamic and Jimmy Martin a few times since meeting them in 2018. I’d like to remind you that 2018 was a time before the proliferation of zoom, so our first interview was conducted via freeconferencecall.com.  I remember vividly chatting with the pair in 2018. They were equal parts entertaining and excited about a super-specific niche in fitness (col...

This week on #WeGotGoals, I’m speaking with the woman behind [solidcore], Anne Mahlum. And before that, she started the not-for-profit Back on My Feet, and soon to come, she’s heading up her new venture in the fitness space: Ambition.  One thing I noticed the first time I met Anne Mahlum on a lobby bench at the opening of Chicago's first [solidcore] is this: She fills up a room with her presence -...

On this week's episode of the podcast, you'll hear a lot of references to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I'm an alumna and our guest - Sam Karl, co-founder and president of Kamps Fitness - is an alumnus. You'll hear a lot about the campus and its hot spots. And I have never really cared that much about sports, which is sort of the thing that ties alums to their universities for years and yea...

Content warning: In this episode of the podcast, we mention the concept of suicide in the context of prevention and raising awareness. If you’re listening with young ears or if you’re just not in a place to hear that today, skip this episode and come back I’ve never met Kacee Must, founder of Citizen Yoga in real life. We met during the pandemic and have zoomed through our relationship. We talked...

Free MVMT Shop is a concept Ashley Rockwood conceived after retiring from dancing professionally - she wanted to create a space for herself in fitness that she didn’t see. She got a really good deal in a former dry cleaning location and viola, her first pop-up featuring dance, cardio, yoga, and sculpt had popped. You’ll hear her speak to it, but since 2018, Free Mvmt Shop has lived in 6 different...

The indoor rowing machine - or erg - has been in use since the fourth century when an Athenian Admiral created a rudimentary version to train his army. And since, innovators from Concept2 helped to commercialize the indoor rowing machine and CrossFit got millions of people across the world onto the erg in their intense workouts. And this week on the podcast, I spoke with two innovators who helped...

This week I interviewed Todd Wadler, CEO of Box Union and Title Boxing Club, and Felicia Alexander CRO of Box Union and Title Boxing Club, and it was clear that their partnership plays on both of their strengths. This pair is bold and thoughtful, which you’ll hear throughout the episode.  And if you're wondering how you missed that Box Union , which had three locations before the pandemic, acquire...

New York City has the same thing going for fitness that it has for every other industry: if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. I mean, granted, something that’s on the fringes of woo-woo and cult-fitness may not do great in Fargo. But for the most part, if New Yorkers will pack a class, it has a certain mile-a-minute effectiveness and cool factor that the rest of the country can get...

Ask anyone who’s been on a Versa Climber what they think of the machine and the first reaction will be a look that you’ll recognize quickly as a combo of fear and respect. It’s a machine that earns the title of love/hate. You might love how much you can get done so quickly, but you might hate how much you have to do so quickly. You know what I’m saying. Today, on #WeGotGoals, we’ll be spending a l...

We could talk all day about the pressure of being discovered as a teenage model like Erin Heatherton , co-founder of Chicago-based studio Resistance Chicago , was. She was scouted on the street at 17 and would go on to walk in high fashion shows as well as Victoria's Secret Fashion shows. The pressure comes from being expected to stay that way - a teenage girl - for your foreseeable future. Erin r...

Conik Runyon's education in culture started as a kid, going to the Anytime Fitness conferences with his dad and seeing people who loved that brand so much that they tattooed the logo on their bodies.  And today, he's the owner of Basecamp Fitness Chicago , a newer entrant into the fitness scene. And I don’t even really want to mention his dad except to say this: Conik was born into a world of fitn...

[This episode is supported by Athletic Greens. You can get an AG1 subscription and a free gift: a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D and 5 free travel packs with your first purchase at  athleticgreens.com/asweatlife .] I’ve come to know Bonnie Micheli and Tracy Roemer, co-founders of Shred415 , as a package deal. I can't actually remember seeing one without the other. I've also lear...