What is resilience?

the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.

Resilience is the ability to overcome all kinds of challenges - daily life issues, personal crisis, family struggles, tragedies, societal concerns, traumas - and bounce back wiser than before, stronger than before, and more powerful and confident than before.

Studies have shown that movement, exercise and fitness programs help us to be more resilient and enable us to have the abilty to "bounce back" when faced with life's inevitable difficulties and painful traumas.

Make the work you are doing today better than the work you did yesterday.

-Robin S. Sharma

Some gym workouts are accompanied by pumping music, loud noises, flashing lights, confined spaces, touching, shouting, and sometimes-harsh messaging about bodies. Exercise also comes with the accompanied increased heart rate, sweating, and similar feelings in the body that happen when going through an emergency or trauma situation. It can be difficult, for those with a history of trauma, for the body to differentiate between good and bad reasons for these responses when it all feels the same. Any one of these things or a combination can become overwhelming and very unsettling for some individuals with a history of trauma, to the point that it may keep them from exercising. Trauma-informed workouts strive to create a workout environment and program that feels safe, comfortable, and that moves at the individual’s pace. Trauma-informed fitness instructors are different from traditional exercise professionals, as they have special training in both fitness and trauma.

How is trauma-informed fitness

different from a regular workout?

Trauma-informed exercise can look many different ways, but it all comes from a foundation that people deserve a compassionate person-centered approach, especially when underlying stress from trauma can be exacerbated when exerting, manipulating, or touching the body.”