flexyfit

April 10 2022

ReCharged and ReFocused

Ashley Blog BrandHelp, Business Creative, flexyfit, Harmony, livingflexyfit

I’ve you’ve tuned into the last few blog posts, you may have noticed that I am shifting into a new gear and getting back to the root of my vision and passion.

When I started FlexyFit, its as originally about getting my physical flexibility and fitness back on track. However, as I progressed on this journey, I realized how much this bled over to other parts of my life. I realized how important it is to be flexible and fit in ALL areas of life and how being agile makes the ups and downs of life more manageable.

The ups and downs of my life got the best of me for a while. No shame…I AM HUMAN. But I hit the reset button and now I’m getting refocused and recommitted to what I set out to do initially. While not on any specific timeline, I am looking forward to bringing projects and goals to life and getting these resources in your hand, to your ears, and in front of your eyes.

More of what you’ll see me share will be based on things that I have found to be super important to me and to the work that I do with and for others. Some of those topics include:

My other love (besides flexility, fitness and aerials) which is business. Many people don’t know, but I’m not just a fitness coach. I am also a creative business coach. And when I’m not dangling in the air or coaching, you can find me putting my MBA and marketing expertise to use to help solopreneurs and small business owners in Fitness, Aerial, Health & Wellness, and Beauty achieve their creative business needs and better communicate with their community.
Supporting other Pole / Aerial instructors. Over the years, I’ve received endless questions about teaching, certifying, classroom management, teaching different body types, how to maintain my body while teaching 7 days a week, and more. So I will be sharing more insight into the solutions I’ve found helpful in hopes that they will help others.
Addressing issues I see too often in the pole/aerial world and ow we can do better.
everyBODY training. This one is HUGE for me. I started off as a non-traditional (or plus-size) pole dancer and this really impacted my journey and my approach to teaching. I am a coach for everyBODY and I recognize the need to educate others that are students, studio owners, teachers or plan to become teachers…because teaching and learning isn’t one-size-fits-all.
And then of course even more on self-care because it’s just so important! Being an advocate for yourself and taking an active role in your Health and wellness is essential.

Why these topics? Because these are the topics that are a part of my every day life. These are the things I get asked about most often. These are the things that I find are missing. These are the things that are woven into my DNA and I want to teach what I feel connected to and what my voice has a purpose in a passion for.

April 1 2022

Goal Better 2.0

Ashley Blog BrandHelp, Business Creative, flexyfit, Harmony, living FlexyFit

Goaling Better 2.0 is about a better way of setting and actually achieving goals that I have been putting into practice over the last few months – and with great success I might add. At its core, it’s about making the required habits and behaviors for accomplishing a goal, manageable and repeatable.

BTW, this is version 2.0 because as I was trying to think of a name for this post, I realized that I had already used the title for a previous post that I wrote about goal setting as we were preparing to enter 2020. (And what a wild ride its been since then, huh?!?)

So what am I doing now to make my goals, and the steps involved, more manageable and repeatable? I’m downgrading them. Did you just cringe a bit or see it as less of a win when I said downgrade? Well don’t. Downgrading naturally has a negative connotation, but I don’t think it’s a bad word. It simply carries the weight we give it. And in this case, I choose to see it as a helpful tool that creates a pathway to more consistent success. Slow and steady wins the race because its about consistency, and consistency is the key to results. Manageable + Repeatable = Consistency.

I’m sure you’ve heard the acronyms SMART as it relates to goal setting. (Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-based) and while each of these elements are important, for me manageable and repeatable are even more important. So now when I break ground on a new goal, whatever is my initial landing spot for that goal, I immediately think about the 1-stop downgrade. This serves as a bit of a reality check for me and also provides me with options so that I can adjust (or #livingflexyfit ) as needed.

Solving the Laundry Conundrum

I ask myself, will I really be able to do this everyday for the rest of my life? Or if every time an excuse may arise, will I take it? For example, I’m good about washing clothes. Terrible about putting them away. I’ve had months of clean clothes laying about for months at a time more times that I can count. And whenever I did finally go to put them away, it took forever because there was just show much. So I decided I wanted to get better about putting my clothes away sooner. Initially decided that I should put them away as soon as the dryer buzzed. FAIL. Half the time I do laundry it’s on my way out the door because #ProductivityWhileImOut is a major win. But not being home meant missing that call to action provided by the dryer buzzing. Then I’d get home and forget all about the clothes. Or if I was home, I was probably working and even less likely to be called away by a dryer and non-essential work.

So next I decided I’d put them away as soon as I took them upstairs, well the problem with that is I could leave the clothes in the laundry room and never take them upstairs and actually put them away. I finally hit upon a recipe that worked with I met myself and the clothing chore in the middle: as soon as I take them out of the dryer I take them upstairs and put them away. BINGO, for whatever reason, this works for me. I think the act of physically taking my clothes out of the dryer means that I’m already doing clothes chores, so I might as well finish. Plus when I do take the clothes out that means that I actually remembered that they were in the dryer and also that I probably have a moment of free time if I though about them and took them out. This also means that I have a max of 2 loads of laundry, instead of months of laundry. So putting my clothes away takes 20 minutes or less…way better than a 1 hour+ clothing marathon.

I know you’ve heard the saying, “if you want to floss regularly, start with flossing one tooth.” It’s so overused, but its so true. You really do need that spark and manageable approach. And if you haven’t read it, you should definitely check out the book Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg – it’s an incredible gem! I’d love to say that I read it right before I made the clothing change and it changed everything. But the truth is I read it years ago when it first came out. maybe I implanted some of the things I read, maybe I didn’t. But now, years later, those lessons are coming full circle and making so much damn cents that they actually made change!!!

I share this to say that goal setting has to be manageable and we have to be agile about it until we find a working recipe that works for us. There is no one-size-fits-all for everyone, or even for the same person with different situations. Everything will need a tweak. Everyone will need a tweak. You have to keep tweaking until you find what works for you.

I leave you with these questions to ponder:

What is one thing you want to do or get better at doing that you’ve had trouble maintaining?
What about it prevents you from doing it?
What is a goal you can set now and what is a 1-stop downgrade to make that goal even more manageable and repeatable?

Thoughts, questions, feedback? Or just want to share? Comment below or feel free to email me anytime!

October 30 2021

Evolution of a Freestyler

Ashley Blog flexyfit, freestyle, freestyle friday, performance

Maybe some of you have heard that after 7+ years Freestyle Friday is back! But why does it matter? Why did I bring it back? What does it help, especially for someone like me that has 10+ years of experience under their belt? So glad you asked! Freestyling is an excellent way to monitor your progress as a dancer. It allows you to pick up on patterns, habits (both good and bad), practice your ability to connect movement, develop your movement creativity and think on the spot. Oh, and in the case of Freestyle Friday, discover and practice movement with different music types.

I brought Freestyle Friday back for a few reasons:

For myself (also the very reason why I started it). I needed something that forced me to push myself and to get moving again. I love teaching, competing and performing, but they can be a (a very rewarding) energy and creativity drain. Usually when I find myself at a sticking point, I compete or learn a new apparatus. This time I decided to go another route and revisit an old friend!
Others wanted and supported the comeback!
I remembered my WHY! I initially opened up Freestyle Friday and started my teaching career to make a positive impact on the pole community AND to help others on their pole journey. Bringing back this tool and resource is a way for me to continue doing what I set out to do – and to also expand it to the Aerial community.

What Does Freestyling Help?

In addition to the things I’ve already shared, I believe that Freestyling helps you connect with your body. You learn how to listen to yourself, trust yourself and allow yourself to try new or different things without fear. Even for someone like me, that has a lot of experience under her belt, I still learn so much with free styling. I learn about my movement style and preferences, current movement/style influences, I see how I protect past and current injuries, I can see what tricks I’m most comfortable with and that are my go-to moves, I can see the moves that I may be currently working on or teaching. It’s an endless observatory!

Purposeful Evaluation
The key is not to judge yourself harshly or speak negative about your performance. The goal is simply to observe your movement. If you want to constructively critique your performance for the purpose of growth and improvement then here are 11 questions that you may consider asking yourself:

1. What did I do well?
2. What could I do better?
3. If there was a “mess up” did I keep it moving or did I allow that to affect my momentum and confidence?
4. How were my lines (watch for micro bends in the knees and flexed feet)
5. Could I see myself thinking, planning or reacting?
6. Are there moments of musicality that I missed? If so, what were they?
7. Was there any moments of musicality that I absolutely nailed? If so, what were they?
8. Did I incorporate anything I’ve learned or practiced recently?
9. Did I see/feel any improvement from my last freestyle
10. What would I like to use in my next performance/freestyle?
11. How did my body feel during my dance?

So let’s see some freestyle learning and observation in real time! Below are three of my Freestyles. These three freestyles showcase me in three different elements.

1st Freestyle Friday (My FIRST EVER Circa 2012)

This first freestyle in 2012 is me at the beginning of my Freestyle journey, still very uncomfortable in my movement, yet fairly confident about my ability level. My goal was simply to push myself to move. As I watch the video now (for the first time in 5+ years) I notice a lot of bad habits, choppiness and a lack of awareness in my body and movement (as seen in my lines).

Freestyle Friday Reboot: Week 1 (October 2021)

This Freestyle from yesterday (and the first Freestyle Friday reboot) features a more experienced ME, but also a me that is out of her element. This song, which was a fun spooky number, was a lot faster than anything I would normally choose to dance to. In addition to trying new movements, I’m coming off of an injured hip, so I keep kept it mainly floor-based and grounded movement.

I see maturity and awareness in my lines and movement, but I can also see a lack of connectivity to the music. I appreciate the elements of surprise if my face when I felt a moment of connection or a “that felt cool moment”, and I see less of a focus on throwing all of my “best” or “hardest” tricks, and more baseline movement.

Summer 2021 Freestyle @ Shine Showcase

My third Freestyle is from our Shine Fitness Studio Summer Showcase last month.

I feel like this represents the performer that I am at heart. It’s me in my element, and even though I did not pick the song (or know what they were going to play) it was a song that I was familiar with. The slowness and familiarity of the song allowed me to move in a way that was natural for me. Like my previous freestyle, it wasn’t about throwing a bunch of hard, tricky moves (although it was about putting on an enjoyable show for the audience).

I see more moments of musicality, awareness of my available space and proximity of the audience, smoothness and connectivity in my movements, clean lines, and definitely a change in my body and my flexibility – especially compared to my first 2012 freestyle.

In Conclusion

Clearly there’s plenty more that I could appreciate (or pick at), but my goal was simply to share the growth that can occur with practice, and the value of filming your journey – so that you’re able to go back and compare your movement gains.

And I love Freestyling because it helps you step outside of your comfort zone. It is in these outer limits that you discover new music, new movement and new ways of connectivity. This is when and where growth occurs – in the discomfort, the unknown and in having to do something different.

If you have thoughts or a freestyle journey to share, please do so below! I’d love to hear from you!!! AND if you want to join in on the Freestyle Friday movement, learn more here.