Trade Skinny for Strong: The Muscle Moments Podcast Is Coming
Strength training is the most under-hyped, over-delivering thing you can do for your body and your life. Here at Muscle Moments, we talk about strength as a life strategy.
The belief to sit with: strength isn’t a look. It’s not a phase. It’s not a short term goal. It’s infrastructure.
Strength is the thing that lets you carry your own groceries, your kids, your future self up a flight of stairs today, tomorrow, and when you’re 85. Being capable enough to achieve your dreams - hiking the mountain, running around with your grandkids, wiping your own butt as you age - is the goal.
Strength is earned. It is fueled. It is rested. And it is powerful.
Strength is a life strategy!
That’s the idea behind Muscle Moments. A platform for people who believe in strength who want to learn, think, and act as the strongest, most capable versions of themselves.
A podcast underpins the work here. Conversations with people like you and me, talking about why and how strength has improved their lives. There’s also conversations with sports coaches, executives, and health experts. All focused on one thing: strength as a life strategy.
Subscribe to the Muscle Moments podcast now, b/c it’s coming July 16 and I want to make sure it’s in your inbox!
Why I’m building Muscle Moments
I spent my life observing. People around me think I was interacting, really I was copying what was happening around me to fit in. “Do as the Romans do,” right?
When I wasn’t performing in chameleon-mode, I was learning how people communicate and watching how the words they used - with or without care - made people feel. Using words to do some damage of my own along the way.
The biggest lesson: how quickly we tear each other down. In every situation, even within your own circle. The number one thing we criticize is how each other looks, especially if you aren’t “skinny” enough (let’s be clear, “skinny” can be replaced with anything, “fashionable” “rich” “educated”, etc…). I choose to believe that most don’t do it consciously, but because they’d had it done to them too, and it made them feel small; so now, deep down, they want everyone (read: women) to feel small too.
They were told to take up less space, so should you.
And don’t forget to apologize when you do take up space, that’s what good girls do.
Fuck that noise.
That narrative never sat well with me. Those actions from others always made me feel like they didn’t want me around - so I didn’t stay. Protect your peace, people. Leave that as a lesson from the past that you can carry forward.
With time, it became clear that the reason those messages didn’t sit well with me was because I only know how to do it BIG! I’d never fit in with people who wanted to keep me small.
So I became the first person in my family to leave my hometown and moved to LA in my 20s. Then I became one of the first 10 women in the world to squat over 700 pounds in my 30s. And, I had a BIG career during that time, too. I built businesses, scaled non-profits, launched VC platforms, designed internal comms at Hulu, and co-produced the first-ever TEDx. And, on the side, I coached people, too. I also survived cancer, an ectopic pregnancy, having my left kidney removed, and a ventral hernia that required a full abdominal mesh repair. (Whew! We can thrive on the other side of so much!)
Now in my 40s, I’m directing my vast experience platforming others and building resilience at shining the light on strength.
Being an athlete and coach has always been a hobby. Now, it’s my full time job.
I’m tired of skinny getting all the attention. It’s time STRENGTH gets its shine.
With time, it became clear that the reason those messages didn’t sit well with me was because I only know how to do it BIG! I’d never fit in with people who wanted to keep me small.
What is Muscle Moments
Part podcast, part publication, one home for people who want to understand what strength can do for them.
Every week, Muscle Moments will host conversations with athletes, coaches, executives and founders who’ve built real strength — physical, mental, emotional, spiritual — and writing that connects the dots. Because strength is the one thing that supports everything: your energy, your confidence, your independence. Strength is a life strategy!
It’s going to be raw, gritty, and imperfect. Just like the human experience.
On Day ONE - July 16 - I’m dropping a series of stories to tickle your brain and get you thinking about where strength shows up for you, and how it’s improved your life.
What’s the deal for subscribers
I want the stories, insights and information on Muscle Moments to be accessible.
So here’s the deal:
Episodes 1–5, are completely free. Full audio and companion content. No catch.
After that, every podcast stays free. Forever. The conversations are for everyone and
The companion content, the written articles, deeper dives, live sessions, Q&As, the stuff I’m chewing on between episodes becomes available to paid-subscribers only.
If you believe in the message of strength, want to learn more and go further with me, and get the extras too, support this work.
What you can expect
Weekly episodes, real guests, no fluff. Raw, gritty, probably not perfectly edited episodes.
Essays that make you feel something, not homework.
Zero apologies for being strong.
A place where everyone gets to explore what strength means for them.
My Ask
Share this with others so they’re in the room with you when it all goes live on July 16.
Strength isn’t going anywhere. Neither am I. Let’s go.
Go Dana!