Sarah Herse Fitness

Happy anniversary ! 🥳

In honor of six years of marriage, here are some random facts about us:

-we met in business school 🐻 (He was a former professional poker player, I came from a fashion background)
-we’re both lefties 🤙🏻
-we’re 10 days apart in age
-we were engaged & married in Fredericksburg, Texas (even though neither of us are native Texans)
-the first meal I cooked for him was pork belly dumplings (from scratch!)

Every year with this guy is a blessing! Looking forward to a steak dinner with him tonight! 🥩

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How fit would you be if you had unlimited free time to commit to your fitness? 🤔

I think this is a question that many of us fitness fanatics wonder at one time or another (and it’s an interesting one to ponder). I know that when I was working my corporate job, it was all I could think about. But then a funny thing happened: I left my job and I DID have all the time in the world to workout. Here’s what I learned:

1) The difference between the average fitness fan & an elite athlete is usually genetics, not time. I think a part of me was hoping that I was secretly a Games-level Crossfitter if only I just trained harder. But after diving in full force, working out 2x/day, and crushing myself with fitness, I realized that there were only so many gainz to be realized.

2) High volume training is extremely unpleasant. If you could workout 2x/day, every day for years, would you really want to? Even though I loved feeling so passionate about something, I don’t think I ever want to go back to training like that. It drained me physically & mentally for everything else in my life.

3) We naturally prioritize the things we love/value most and push out the things we don’t enjoy. If I’m not in the mood to workout, I will find every little task other than working out to fill my day and then tell myself I was “too busy” for a workout that day. If you value your job/family/chores/etc over your fitness, that’s totally normal & acceptable and not something you should beat yourself up about.

Achieving & maintaining a high level of fitness definitely requires a threshold of time commitment that is not easy for most people to make. The day in/day out consistency can be a lot and is not without opportunity cost. If you find yourself on either side of this (either overtraining or falling off of training completely), I think it’s important to do a cost/benefit analysis of your time & decision so you can feel good about where you’re at with the time you are committing (or not committing) to your fitness.

Some random food for thought for your Tuesday. 🍎

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I first competed in bodybuilding in 2019. However, what many of you may not know is that I first wanted to compete back in 2016 but chickened out because I thought I wasn't good enough.

That year I had just coached myself through my first "cut" and got down to 9.5% body fat (according to a dexa, swipe to the end to see a pic of me from that time). I had followed a lot of bikini competitors on IG and had been really curious to try the sport. However, the girls I saw on IG all seemed *perfect* and I just didn't see myself as being on their level.

I was really hung up on my "flaws". I don't have breast implants, I have pretty big hip dips, I have a lot of "functional" muscle that I knew wasn't exactly aesthetic, etc. etc. etc. All of this negative self-talk was enough to convince me to not try it out until I finally got the courage a few years later.

What did I learn when I finally stepped on stage? That I had absolutely nothing to be scared of. I even won my class the first year I competed, with all those same "flaws" still there.

Bodybuilding is actually an incredibly welcoming sport for beginners. At a local show you will see such a huge variety of ages, body types, imperfections, etc. The sport is more about seeing what you can do with the body you have and less about trying to reach some level of perceived perfection.

I thought I should share that in case any of you are curious about the sport and feel intimidated like I did back then. There are a lot of things to consider before jumping into this sport, but feeling inadequate should not be one of them!

Photos are from Worlds 2021 💞

I have a couple of exciting updates in the world of Sarah Herse Fitness 📢💞

1) My new program, The Home Athlete, is now live on the app! I had sooo much fun creating & testing these workouts. It's 4 weeks of workouts, dumbbells only, and filled with a mix of functional movements & exercises to build your physique. You can try it out for just $1 at the link in my bio!

2) I had the pleasure of working with the design team on a total branding refresh. This was loooong overdue and I'm so stoked with the results! I now have new logos, colors, fonts, etc (some of which you can see here.) You'll be seeing a lot more of these on all my channels soon.

Although I find marketing myself stressful & uncomfortable, I always feel a great sense of satisfaction anytime I create something new for my business. I'm learning to outsource more & leverage the strengths of others which is helping tremendously. A special shoutout to for helping with all aspects of my app & business and also to who has been instrumental in capturing video content for the app. And of course thanks to all of ya'll for the continued support. 🙏🏻🙌🏻

If you have any questions about the new program, drop them in the comments!👇🏻



Photos are from Mike Phung &

What was my turning point with fitness?

I think everything changed for me around the time I was 29 years old and was doing P90X & Tracy Anderson DVD workouts in a tiny apartment in Paris while studying abroad in grad school. I was in the middle of a total life transformation (new degree, new career, new city, new relationship, etc) and realized I was still doing these workouts that were doing absolutely nothing for my fitness or my body. It frustrated me that I could change all these other aspects of my life, but fitness and body composition were still these big mysteries that somehow I would never be smart enough to unlock.

This turned into a rabbit hole of research for me. I started digging and peeling back all of the layers of misinformation & marketing around women's fitness that I had been fed for decades. I started to learn about fitness competitors and how they had turned body composition into an actual sport. I learned that there was a real science to this stuff and it didn't need to be about trends/fads/marketing.

A couple months later, I put a barbell in my hands and tried to teach myself to squat. I was incredibly awkward in the gym, but I didn't give up and I guess the rest is history.

A couple things to note: there's nothing wrong with doing P90x or body weight workouts (I work lots of different styles of workouts into my routine), but muscles need resistance to grow. Can you create resistance with body weight? Yes to a degree, but it's a lot more difficult so why not make your life easier and grab some weights?

Second thing to note: Fitness has not given me a perfect body. I realized quickly into this journey that that would never happen. What it has given me is peace of mind. I now understand why my body looks the way it does, and the things that I can and cannot change about it.

Comment below if you can relate to any of this or if you had a different turning point in your fitness! 👇🏻

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I've had a heck of a time trying to find my place in the fitness industry but every year I feel like I get a little closer...

It's been about 6 years since I took my first job in fitness as a part-time Crossfit coach. I had just left my career as a management consultant and was coaching to keep myself busy while I was applying for jobs in corporate strategy. However, months passed by without landing a new job and I quickly realized that I didn't want any of the jobs I was applying for anyway. My heart was pulling me towards fitness. It took a lot of self-reflection and ego-checking to leave the corporate world for a job that paid $15/hour just two years after earning a very challenging and expensive ivy league MBA; but I did - and haven't looked back since.

Part-time coaching soon because full-time coaching at 3 different gyms in Houston. I then started taking on personal training clients and doing programming for a local gym. I slowly transitioned to online coaching which I recently shut down completely to focus on building my app, doing more digital content creation, and working with brands in the fitness space.

I've learned a lot about the industry and made a lot of mistakes along the way. Maybe I can do a seperate post on the pros & cons of all the different career options I've explored in fitness thus far if ya'll are interested, but I do have some general advice for those who are looking to break into the fitness industry (or any new industry for that matter):

Don't stress about the end goal or dream job right away. Take any opportunities that come your way, build a network, meet cool people, work hard, do a good job and the opportunities will start coming to you. It takes a long time to establish yourself in a new space, but with patience and time, it's definitely possible! ❤️‍🔥

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What's changed with my nutrition and how I'm eating to support muscle gain. 💪🏻

I've changed a lot with my diet since I competed in August so here's the latest of what's been working for me. 👇🏻

-I stopped tracking my food. I've never been someone who enjoys tracking (or ever did it very well) so I just cut it off completely. I still weigh out things occasionally and am mindful of portion sizes but I no longer open MyFitnessPal because I find it super annoying. 😅

-I've been in a modest caloric surplus. Since my show, I've gained ~6-8 pounds. Having the extra calories and body fat is necessary for health and supporting muscle growth but my preference is still to take it slowly. My dexa last month had me at ~12% body fat (up from 9% when I competed).

-I'm keeping my protein high. I haven't changed much with my protein intake. I still eat mostly lean meats and use protein powder every day. I've also been working more plant-based proteins into rotation.

-I've cut back on veggies. I know this sounds weird because most people are trying to eat more veggies, but my veggie intake was getting out of control and it was messing with my digestion. I've brought back a lot of bread and pasta (mostly gluten-free or sprouted) and have overall decreased the volume of my food.

-I've cut out a lot of junk and diet foods. I completely cut out erythritol (and other sugar alcohols), protein bars, gum, etc to help with digestion & bloating. I also started supplementing with digestive enzymes & betaine HCL for digestion.

-I've kept up with all my staple supplements and added a ton more to support health & hormones (which is a whole other topic!)

LMK if you have any questions or concerns about your nutrition that I can help with! 🍎

Supplements: (code: Sarah15)
Outfit: (code: SARAH)
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When will I start seeing results from my workouts? 🤔

At some point, I think we've all asked ourselves this question. The short answer is that changing your body composition is definitely a long game but hopefully this will give you some more details on why that is the case.

Let me know in the comments (or in my stories) if you have any questions on muscle gain or if you'd like a follow up post on any of these specific points!

And if you want to kickstart your muscle gain journey, join my Summer Bodies workout series which started yesterday on my app! (Link in bio)

They say summer bodies are built in the winter. ☃️It's a little cliche but true for many people and here's why:

❄️Even if you have a lot of fat to lose, it's not advisable to diet year round and you should regularly take diet breaks to help mitigate some of the negative effects that dieting has on your metabolism, hormones, and other physiological systems.

❄️It's very difficult to build muscle while dieting, so it's a good idea to take advantage of periods of being in a positive caloric state to help add muscle (for aesthetic and functional/health reasons). You can't build a house without the raw materials and your body needs calories & protein to build that sexy bod.

❄️We tend to eat a little more and move a little less in winter, and we're all wearing giant sweaters anyway, so now is the perfect time to enjoy the extra food and put those calories to work.

In addition to nutrition, your training needs to be on point for building muscle. This means creating mechanical tension through lifting weights, hitting enough volume to elicit an effective stimulus, and including the right exercises to target the muscles that you actually want to grow.

For the whole month of February, I'll be dropping a new hypertrophy-focused workout (aka muscle-building workout) each day on my app. It will be a mix of home & gym workouts so you will have lots of options to choose from and the workouts will target specific areas like arms, shoulders, legs, glutes, back & abs. Comment anything specific you’d like to see!

Let me help you get swole! Join my app today for $1 for the first month (and $14.99/month after that). Link in bio.

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Swipe for some questions to ponder as you make your new year's fitness resolutions. 💕⏩

These are questions that I regularly have to ask myself when I find myself going a little off the rails with unrealistic expectations. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing people get psyched up about fitness and self-improvement, but I prefer it to come from a place of self-love and grounded in reality because that will always yield better long-term success.

Remember, fitness cannot solve all of our issues around our body but it can be a piece of the puzzle! Let me know if any of these resonate with you. 🙏🏻

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Advice for overcoming gym-timidation. 👇🏻

The other day someone asked if I had advice for "shy girls" who were intimidated by gyms. I was a little taken aback because I think "shy" is the wrong word here. The gym is actually an amazing place for shy girls (like myself) because you don't have to interact with anybody! I think what this person meant was "self-conscious". That being said, here are some practical tips for increasing your confidence in a gym environment:

1) Come with a plan: Ideally you should be following a program with prescribed exercises, sets, reps, etc. If you're a beginner, use a program that has video demos so you aren't concerned about "doing it wrong".

2) Wear clothes that you feel comfortable & confident in. If you're constantly worried about your stomach looking bloated, put on a baggy t-shirt and keep it moving! On the flip side, if you don't feel confident unless you have a super put-together fit on, then invest in some new clothes that make you feel strong/happy.

3) Focus on your workout. Put on headphones, listen to a bomb playlist, and think about your mind/muscle connection. Also, time your rest periods. Your mind should always be focused on your gainz and not on the people around you.

4) Let go of your ego (and I mean this in the nicest way possible). It's not about you! Most people are in the gym for the exact reason you are: to better themselves. They're not there to worry about what you're doing. If you need to, use the old stage trick of imagining everyone else is in their underwear. 😉

5) If you're still worried about doing the exercises incorrectly, consider joining a Crossfit gym (or a similar gym that teaches lifting) or hire a single session with a personal trainer.

At the end of the day, NO ONE should feel intimidated or discouraged from entering a gym. I can tell you as a real gym ju**ie, I am thrilled to see newbies coming in the gym (and I think any meathead would agree). ☺️

If you're looking for a gym program, check out my app at the link in bio

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