Meridian Functional Training

To do in June: take care of you. 🦄💟

A little self brag:

Yesterday marked 8 weeks of consistently making habits for myself!! 👏🏼

Over the last year, I hardly ever tracked macros after 6-7 years of tracking the majority of the time. My brain needed a break from the constant grind and mental fixation. At that time, the cost of tracking (weighted out against my life and training stressors) was too high against the benefit of being my leanest.

I still kept the same nutrition habits I’ve been building over the last several years: carb, fat, protein, veggie. Enjoy some treats. Workout hard.

I just wasn’t tracking every gram I put in my body and I let my mind take a breather.

But now that life’s pace has changed a tide, I decided I was going to rebuild some of those old habits and see what I had in me. Turns out the break worked because I was MUCH more consistent over the last 8 weeks than I usually ever was when tracking all the time. I LIVED for the weekends and often struggled to stay in the habit of tracking, but narrowing my window to just 8 weeks of consistency helped me stay on board.

I didn’t track 8days of out of 56. That’s 15% untracked and 85% tracked. That 80/20 rule sounds pretty familiar huh?

Goes to show, habits are really hard to break. For better or for worse 😉

If you’re interested in this tracking sheet, let me know and I will send you a copy! 🤍

All the swipes on this one >>>>

Balance > unattainable exercise regimens. ✌🏼

Whoops, accidentally took a month off of social media 😅

Well, I’m back! (In the messy, inconsistent way that this page is run. Lol)

And this is your sign to take care of you today, in whatever way that looks like:

- hitting a work out
- taking a walk
- getting outside
- fueling your body with good food
- getting a little extra sleep
- spending time nourishing your mind

Put aside some time today that your future self will thank you for. 🤍

Reminder: your PERCEPTION of your body changes A WHOLE LOT faster/more often than your body ACTUALLY changes.

Go ahead, read that again.

Meaning: I can feel amazing one day about my appearance and then the next day hate what I’m seeing with very little actual fluctuation.

Of course, our bodies fluctuate throughout the day based on how much/type of exercise, water intake, food intake, time of day, stress, amount of sleep, etc. but it never changes so much that our bodies change drastically, for better for worse, within the course of a day (*medical conditions excluded here).

So give yourself a little grace and remember, your body won’t change over night. Enjoy where you are, work hard for your goals. You’ll get there in time when you love your body back. 🤍

20 min Weeknight Meal 🪄 (packed with veggies, carbs, fiber, and lots of protein!)

Coming right up!

Including:
Lentil pasta
Chicken Meatballs
Bell Pepper
Grape Tomatoes
Basil + Garlic

1. Cook pasta as directed
2. Cook chicken meatballs as desired (I used my air fryer)
3. Sautéed tomatoes and bell peppers in olive oil over medium heat until softened. Add salt, pepper, and garlic to taste.
4. When pasta and meatballs are done, combine with veggies over low heat. Add ~1-2 more tbsp of oil and basil. Combine and serve!

I added some Parmesan over top as well 😋

Enjoy!! And for the love of all things that are good - EAT YOUR CARBS 🍞🍝🥖🥯🥐

Want to increase your healthy habits this ✨NEW YEAR✨ but don’t know where to start?

Here are 5 SUSTAINABLE goals you can make to get the ball rolling.

Here’s the catch though —

Pick ONE for the next 60 DAYS.

That’s right - ONE.

But Ashley, am I doing enough?!?

You are if it STICKS. Because the only habits that matter are the ones you actually do. Those are the ones that impact your life.

So pick one. Start small. Get confident. Then keep building. You’ve got nothing but time. 🤍

5 min NO MAYO chicken salad 🐓 🥗

This one is for all my ✨texture girlies✨ out there that can’t stand Mayo (or any sauces/condiments like me) because EW weird textures.

This chicken salad is packed with protein, fresh veggies, and good fats! Plus it’s delish and takes 5 mins to make. Check ✅ and check ✅.

Recipe inspired by ! (If she posts it, I’m trying it or some variation). Follow her for AWESOME macro friendly recipes.

Details here 👇🏼

• 2 5oz cans of chicken
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped bell pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped red onion
• 2 tbsps lemon juice
• 2 tbsps tahini sauce
• Pinch of chili powder or red pepper flakes
• Salt + pepper to taste

ENJOY 😋

Certs aren’t everything, but continuing education is.

As trainers, the good get separated from the best based on what we’re willing to do to have best practices for our clients. This is primarily from education.

Much of our knowledge comes from experience and working with coaches who have been doing what we’re doing for a looong time. So if there is a knowledge gap, best to seek out someone who knows what they’re talking about, and in my case, take a class.

Coming from CrossFit, I knew a lot about coaching and movement, but not a ton about programming. My programs were effective but I didn’t know WHY. .co ‘s Pure Programming course gave me the why behind what I was doing so I can more effectively program for my clients for the LONG HAUL.

Thank you, Annie, for the gift of gainnnnnz! 💪🏼💜

Here’s a quick run down on one of my favorite training goals ✨MUSCLE GROWTH✨

Hypertrophy is the fancy name for gaaaaainz. And here at MFT, we LOVE muscle.

Swipe for all the brain gainz on what, why, and how of hypertrophy 💪🏼

Did you know you don’t need to eat raw veggies?? 🥗 🥕🥦

Notice I did NOT say you don’t need to eat veggies (you still have to do that).

I’m writing you a permission slip to eat veggies the way you ACTUALLY like them.

On stuff, in stuff, around stuff.
Raw, steamed, roasted.
By themselves or joined with other yummy things.

Just put them in and around your mouth plz. Thx. ☺️

Todays breakfast:
- Everything Bagel 🥯
- 2 Fried eggs 🍳
- Hummus 🫘
- Spinach 🥬
- Bell pepper 🫑
- Sausage 🐷

Stop torturing yourself with gross vegetables. The end. 😘

ITS HEREEEEEE! 🍁🍂✨

Fall apparel is LIVE.

Crewnecks, midweight crews, 3/4 sleeves, and tees with NEW designs thanks to .design , of course with fun fall colors!

Plus… STICKERS!

Click the link in bio to order apparel. DM me for stickers! 🤍🍂

✨FUN THINGS ARE COMING!! ✨

Hi there!! I’m back! I haven’t been on insta in a bit but FUN things have been getting cooked up over here behind the scenes are Meridian. Including… 🥁 drum roll🥁 … FALL APPAREL + STICKERS!

Mark your calendars, set your alarms, and get ready for the drop this Friday October 15th! It’s time to get STRONG + COZY 💜🍂

✨ MARKERS OF AN EFFECTIVE TRAINING SESSION ✨

Did you know, how tired or sweaty after a workout you are, are NOT good indicators if your workout was effective????

YET, how often do we measure our training this way?!?!!!

So what DOES constitute an effective training session?
That’s a great question I would love to tell you.

Markers of an effective training session are:

✨Quality of intention + ex*****on of the session

✨ Proper muscle recruitment + increase of the mind-body connection

✨Positive biofeedback (I.e. you are sleeping well, energy is high, + you are able to adequately recover between workouts)

✨You feel as if you worked hard, but you can still function the rest of the day. If you’re dragging from your workout, there are adjustments that need to be made.

✨You are making consistently steady progress towards goals (as opposed to plateauing or losing progress).

This is not an exhaustive list, but definitely a good place to start!

So let’s stop saying we had a good workout because we can’t feel our legs, recovery sucks, and we end up peeling ourselves off the floor after every session, k? Luv u bye. 😘

Want more? Follow along + learn how to train with balance for the long haul. 🤍

Most people do 1 of 2 things before the weekend. Which one are you?

1. Obsessively track all good that goes in their mouth to not “ruin” their great week of eating, even omitting time with friends/family to be sure their food log is accurate.

2. Binge eat all weekend whatever they want because they’ve been so good all week!

I’m here to tell you, you DON’T need to do EITHER.

IF….

You live by the 80/20 rule.

80% compliance.
20% flexibility.

This guideline suggests that if you eat and train with 80% accurate and leave 20% room for flexibility (e.g. not being able to hit a workout, going for drinks with friends or ice cream with you kids), you can still make progress or maintain your health goals.

Fitness CAN’T be all or none. It’s a lifestyle. And life is always up and down, so our health has to flux with life.

Let me know how I can help you with this in the comments! 🫶🏼

🤍REMOTE COACHING🤍

A primary offer here at Meridian Functional Training. All the benefits of personal training, without the scheduling or commitment of appointments.

For those looking for:
✨Quality programming
✨Coaching feedback
✨Progress tracking
✨Flexibility if working out when and where you want!

Interested? Message me for more info or fill out the application form in my bio!

Exciting news over here at Meridian 🎉

I can officially add Certified Personal Trainer to the collection of letters and certifications on the resume!

I have a few spots left for personal training (afternoon/evening) or remote coaching! Message me for details 🤍

🇬🇷GREEK CHICKEN MEATBALLS 🇬🇷

Need a fun meal prep idea to break up your chicken, broccoli, and rice routine? 🤪 This is basically still chicken and rice but tastes MUCH better!

This recipe is from ! I LOVE her recipes and helps me spicy up my weekly meals so I’m not constantly eating the same things. I just tweak where I need to to meet my needs 😊

INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 Lbs Ground Chicken (or meat of choice)
1 cup diced red onion
1 large egg
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 tablespoon fresh mint
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
Salt + pepper to taste
Flour + oil (for frying)

RECIPE
- Add your ingredients to a bowl + mix with hands.
- Set in fridge for ~ an hour for meat to marinate
- Remove from fridge. Set out a small bowl of flour and a plate for your prepped meatballs.
- Using a tablespoon as your scoop, remove meat mixture form dish, roll into a ball, roll in flour (shaking off excess) and place to side.
- Once meatballs are prepped, heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat, add oil for frying, and cook until golden brown.
- Enjoy with rice + veggies, or a Greek salad! (She has great side ideas on her website).

Happy eating!! 🥗

So you just finished your cycle, maxed out, maybe hit a few PRs (!!!!!), but… now what?

It’s time for a DELOAD.

What’s a deload week?
Deload weeks are used to let the body have extra time to recover. They are taken every 4-6 weeks (sometimes 8 depending on the program) and are usually done at the end of a training cycle.

You just worked really hard, probably loaded up your central nervous system a good bit, and you deserve some well deserved rest!

So how do we do this?
Well you have options! You can go into the gym and do low intensity workouts (if you’re disciplined enough to not go hard 🤪) OR completely stay away from the gym and enjoy activities outside, go to walks, etc. We don’t want to completely flop on the couch for an entire week, but a couple of extra days of that are definitely warranted 😉

Here’s your deload week checklist:

1. Happens ever 4-6 weeks (roughly).

2. Low intensity strength training or staying out of the gym.

3. Rep ranges should be LOW and weights no higher than 50-60%.

4. Keep intensity to a conversational pace. If you can’t talk, you’re going too hard.

5. If you feel like you had a “good” workout, you probably did too much.

At the end of the week, you should feel refreshed and itching to get back to training!! 💪🏼

Have questions? Drop them here! 👇🏼

Fun fact: increasing weight isn’t the only way to increase the intensity of your workouts 🤫 You don’t even have to do more reps either!

Here are 3 simple ways to increase intensity that you can apply in your next session:

1. Add tempo. This includes defends, ascends, and pausing. Ever done a “negative”? You’re using tempo. Try adding a pause or slow down the decent in any movement. You’re sure to feel it.

2. Increase your ROM. This stretches the muscle and adds time under tension opening up a whole new world of adaptation.

3. Decrease rest time. Wanna burn out a muscle group and have slight anxiety? EMOMs are perfect for you 😂 They’ll be sure to slice up your next superset or compound lift and get that heart rate up!

Was this helpful? Let me know in the comments! 👇🏼

Welcome back to class! 🤓

Today we’re going to do a quick over view of a super common type of programming methodology: linear periodization.

Have you ever wondered why your overall volume or intensity of your workouts decreases throughout the cycle, while the opposite component may be increasing? Well it’s probably because your coach is following this model.

On slide 2, you can see that as time passes, volume will decrease while intensity increases. For example, as you go longer within a cycle, your weights will go up but the reps go down.

On slide 1, you see an example workout from one of my programs from week 11. So we’re close to the end of our cycle here. Reps are low and weights are high for the strength, while the overall intensity and volume of the accessory and conditioning pieces are lower than they were at the beginning of the cycle, as compared to weeks 1-4.

Throughout this program, weights stay light and volume is higher in the first microcycle, in addition to having higher volume and intensity of conditioning and accessory pieces. But then as time progresses, intensity for the strength elements increase while accessory and conditioning decrease. This is so your body can handle the increase of intensity in the strength portion, which is the goal of this specific program.

Which elements vary and HOW they vary is dependent on the goal of the program. Someone who has more conditioning based goals, would likely see a program that decreases intensity in the strength portions and increases intensity in the conditioning portions as time progresses.

So what’s the bottom line? If you’re paying for a program, make sure it’s going to work. I.e. it is based on scientific and evidence based principles that will aid in its success. Linear periodization is just one model of programming. There are several out there that have proven to work! We’ve got options. 😉

Ready to take your training to the next step? Shoot me a message to get started!

Happy Monday!! ✨

I’m back from vacay + wanted to give you a little reminder that your body is the LEAST interesting thing about you.

You are a human full of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and experiences. You have characteristics that make you unique and that allow you to bring something to the table that no one else possibly could. You have talents that the world needs.

Now when you think of it that way, that insecurity you’re always tearing yourself up about, doesn’t seem so significant, huh?

Here’s your permission slip to love yourself today. ✨

Cheers. 🥂

So you’ve gotten to the end of your strength cycle. It’s MAX WEEK! 🤩

You’ve completed 6-12 weeks of training for the next 3-4 days of lifting. Baller.

But wait - you’re nervous. Maybe you didn’t sleep well the night before. Stress has been higher. You didn’t even PR????

What the heck. 😮‍💨

Guess what? This is ALL. NORMAL.

Max week’s have A LOT riding on them. Like, you didn’t just work your butt off for 12 weeks for nothing! Keep in mind these few points before your next cycle comes to an end:

🌟 Nerves are NORMAL. It means you give a crap about your training. That’s a good thing.

🌟 LOTS of factors play into if a PR will happen. I heard a coach say: PRs are like unicorns. Often, the stars have to align for them to happen. In this case, the stars are sleep, nutrition, stress, and you’re overall headspace.

🌟 A PR isn’t the only measure of success. Did you move better? Get lower in your squat? Have more confidence getting under the bar? WIN. WIN. WIN.

Remember - the hard work is already done. You KNOW you’ve improved. You’ve seen it. Max week is just a time to have FUN and show off.

It’s just fitness 😉

Ever wonder how coaches and trainers write workouts?

I can’t speak for everyone, but this is my artistic ✨process✨🎨.

The big 3:
✨ Compound lift
✨ Accessory
✨ Conditioning (approx. 10 mins of heavy breathing)

Depending on the intention of the day dictates the order of the accessory or conditioning pieces. There is always a warm up and finishers depend on the volume of the entire workout. If we’ve already done a lot, we don’t need to do more.

Bottom line: workouts (if done well) are written with INTENTION. If your coach isn’t…. well, I’d start asking some questions.

But good workouts can’t be written in a vacuum. They should fit within a greater context that is accomplishing a larger goal (more on this later 😉).

Interested in finding out more about training or programming? Send me a message!!

Any program will work until it doesn’t. 🥱

So how do you make sure that it keeps working?

Progressive overload.

In layman’s terms, progressive overload is the strategic increase of stress on the body through exercise. Think adding weight, tempo, changing the amount of rest between sets, etc.

The key word here is STRATEGIC.

This means you have to repeat your movements often while changing the stress in a way that makes sense, which is dependent on the goal.

What’s the takeaway? You will stop seeing progress if you do the same workout every day in the gym OR if you’re doing random workouts that never build on themselves.

Need help with programming? Shoot me a message! 🤗

What does Meridian mean anyway? 🤔

No, it’s not the Prime Meridian from geography class.

Meridian is defined as a high point (as of development or prosperity) according to Merriam-Webster. It’s synonymous with peak, pinnacle, or summit. It has an essence of being the mid-point and balanced.

So why name the brand this?

Because my goal for each and every one of my clients is for them to live a BALANCED lifestyle. Everyone’s peak is different and it ought to be in harmony with the rest of one’s life.

Are you ready to find your peak and to have you fitness be an integrated part of your lifestyle? 🏔

Shoot me a message!

Good morning! ☀️
Meridian is having a pre-order sale for apparel until Thursday, July 14th! Tanks, tees, 3/4 sleeves + a few more.

Orders will be processed July 14th and should arrive by Aug 3rd!

Click the link below to order 😊

https://www.bonfire.com/store/meridian-functional-training/

Meridian Functional Training | Official Merchandise | Bonfire Comfort apparel to train or chill, sporting the Meridian Functional Training Logo.

Now you know who I am, so what can I do for you?

That’s a great question, I’d love to tell you (*said in Elyse Myers voice*).

My offers include numerous types and models of coaching to best fit YOUR lifestyle.

✨ 1:1 personal training
✨ remote personalized coaching
✨ template programs

Ready to get started on your fitness journey or take it to the next level? Send me a message!! 💛

Meridian Functional Training updated their information in their About section.

Hey there!!

If you found this post, you’ve found the business page for Meridian Functional Training. I don’t know about you, but I don’t love following faceless business accounts on the internet - so here is my face and a little intro!

My name is Ashley. I am 26 and live in Pennsylvania. I am a cat mom to Juniper, a mental health therapist, a personal trainer, and a lover of ALL carbs. 🥯💛 (BIG bagel gal over here).

Stuff I’ve spent money on to learn:
- Master’s of Education in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Ohio University ‘19)
- Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology (Liberty University ‘17)
- CrossFit Level 1 Trainer
- Certified USA Weightlifting Level 1 Coach

Stuff I’ve done:
- 17 years competitive gymnastics
- 9 years of weight training experience
- 5 years competitive CrossFit
- 2019 USAPL Runner Up
- 3 years of fitness coaching (groups + individuals)

Stuff I love to do:
- Read
- Hike
- Drink coffee
- Hang out with Juniper
- Be outside
- Drink a tall glass of red wine
- Take NAPS
- Eat 🥑🍇🌮🍩🍷

I believe fitness is for EVERYONE for LIFE. Movement should be:
- accessible
- affordable
- manageable within our time + abilities

After all, we all have a body. So we should be able to know how to move it! 🏋🏼‍♀️

Follow along for workouts, sarcasm, and a balanced lifestyle. So glad you’re here! 💜