Katie Sonier grew up an athlete and prioritized strength training. “All you do is hip thrust” – my ex to me. He wasn’t wrong 🤝Road to 1k,” she said on Instagram. She knows how to set goals and work towards them, sticking with them and staying disciplined. Her followers look to her confidence and strength for motivation, and she’s determined to continue reaching for her goals. Here’s what she does to stay healthy and fit.
It’s important to build healthy habits, so she started being active while growing up. “Growing up I was always some sort of athlete and therefore appreciated feeling athletic and strong. It was in college that I totally fell in love with weight training. I felt most confident and most empowered in the gym, working towards strength goals,” she said on katiesonier.com. “Regular physical activity can help children and adolescents improve cardiorespiratory fitness, build strong bones and muscles, control weight, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, and reduce the risk of developing health conditions,” according to the CDC.
She practices longevity when it comes to weight training, as well. “The name of this game is longevity: How long can she last? It’s a physical game. How long can we keep our bodies as healthy as possible as we strive to get them stronger? It’s even more a mental game. How long can we keep that joy & that love for our training? How long can we go without burning ourselves out,” she asked on Instagram. “At the end of the day, training and moving our bodies is supposed to be fun & something we can look forward to every day. And it’s supposed to be something that lasts a really long time- a lifetime. So…Lift less weight when you need to (listen to your body). Take that pressure off yourself & your performance when you need to (take care of your mindset). Learn how to keep playing, how to keep yourself in the game.”
Not just any chin ups, but she even does some with extra weights hanging from her body. “It’s chin up day. We had some fails & some wins. I respect my efforts across all sets. Which teaches me to respect myself,” she said on Instagram. She goes on to suggest “4 sets: Set 1: + 57.5 fail (PR here is + 62.5). Set 2: + 55 x 1 (barely). Set 3: + 50 x 1 (also barely). Set 4: BW x 12 (PR match that I haven’t hit in years).”
Confidence is key, and an important part of the health and wellness process. “Weight training taught me how to push past my biggest insecurities as a 6 ft tall woman. It taught me about self acceptance. Weight training taught me how to love myself. I knew I wanted to help other women feel this way, so I decided I wanted to make this a full-time career,” she said on katiesonier.com.
She knows it’s important to recognize how far she’s come. In a comparison photo of her from years ago, she said on Instagram, “this body has seen a lot of shapes and sizes over the years. Nutrition has been a rollercoaster from time to time, but I’m forever grateful for the programming I started following 5 years ago, Train with Katie #TWK 🍑Having coaches and a team providing endless support year after year has taken a bunch of the guess work out of this journey for me. My progress hasn’t been perfect, but it has been consistent #staythecoursetakethepictures.”