Present Tense Fitness

Present Tense Fitness Personal training for dancers and general population clients.

Honestly, it’s not just dancers. Sometimes I’ll meet with a new client who hasn’t been doing any strength training at al...
11/15/2025

Honestly, it’s not just dancers. Sometimes I’ll meet with a new client who hasn’t been doing any strength training at all. One of the most commonly asked questions is “what else should I be doing?”

We’re taught—and dancers especially are taught—that movement is a form of punishment. It should hurt. We should be sore all of the time. Every workout should be a 10/10.

And I’m always pointing out that the process of strength and athleticism is consistently applying the right amount of stimulus coupled with the right amount of rest/recovery.

There is no substitute for that.

If you’re struggling to jump higher or get faster or move more quickly, and your solution has been to keep doing more: consider whether what you actually need is less in the gym and more recovery strategies outside of it.

Sleep.

Food.

Hydration.

Days completely off.

Recharging emotionally.

What a great eight weeks with this crew from . First, thank you Kali, Isabel, Miranda, Leo, Sebastian, and Dandara for y...
11/14/2025

What a great eight weeks with this crew from . First, thank you Kali, Isabel, Miranda, Leo, Sebastian, and Dandara for your trust and willingness to travel down to the Village for this “training camp” heading into your City Center season. To say it was an honor to work with all of you would be an understatement.

These dancers came after their work days; they spoke up when things hurt; they backed off when we implored them to; they asked insightful and penetrating questions. And they danced and danced in between sets.

Alvin Ailey was the first dance company I ever heard of, specifically because of Mr. Ailey’s approach to pulling in Black art from the likes of James Baldwin and Romare Bearden and others. To be in a room with artists from the company and to be able to support just a few of them in a small way is something the child version of me would have thought unthinkable.

Thank you also to Miguel, Kyle, Gregory, and Carlos for letting us take over the METL Performance space twice a week for 8 weeks. Y’all have created a wonderful training environment, and it shows.

And a thank you to for your trust. You take care of these artists every single day, and we appreciate your willingness to take a leap with us in this endeavor.

I asked permission to capture some of tonight’s workout because I wanted the folks who follow PTF to see this work.

Also I have to shout out the man .agilmer, who I know was instrumental and making this PTF-Ailey connection. I know talked us up too: thank you.

I just sent out a note to a lot of the professional ballet dancers I work with to help them think through Nutcracker Sea...
11/08/2025

I just sent out a note to a lot of the professional ballet dancers I work with to help them think through Nutcracker Season. But, they’re not the only ones heading into stressful days. Other dance companies have residencies they’re preparing for, or tours, and then there’s the rest of us who might not be performing but are still dealing with *all of this*.

The old saying “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” which often is used in politics as a justification for maintaining a harmful status quo, is actually apt in the case of fitness. Okay, so you can’t get to the gym as often as you’d like, or you don’t have the energy you usually do, or you’re just under an enormous amount of stress. Now what?

Well, the now what is that you still need to be moving your body with intention. The point of this post is to give you different ways of looking at adjusting your movement practice that accounts for what your life actually looks like.

Often times, when we encounter stress, our response is to say “well, when all of this dies down, then I’ll go back to the gym.” But, the truth is—and I’m sure if you’re reading this you’ll recognize this intuitively—life has a way of continuing to be lifing, and sometimes we just don’t get the break we’re pining for. When that happens, we still need movement.

1.) The barbell hang power clean isn’t a heavy bicep curl. It’s about loading the hips and then powerfully extending the...
11/03/2025

1.) The barbell hang power clean isn’t a heavy bicep curl. It’s about loading the hips and then powerfully extending them. These are probably best worked on with a strength coach, or you can accumulate a lot of good mental reps following an account like Catalyst Athletics or Dedicated Strength.

2.) The Bosch clean is another one that might look like an upper body movement, but done properly it’s about loading the planted leg and rapidly extending that hip such that it moves the weight. Again, it’s not a glorified bicep curl.

3.) The trap bar jump might seem like it’s about jumping power and height—and it is! But if you think about the biomechanics of jumping, we need powerful hip extension. And that also helps with lifting a partner above head.

Some fitness reminders:1.) I believe in absolutely getting after it in the gym, but you can only train as hard as your r...
11/03/2025

Some fitness reminders:

1.) I believe in absolutely getting after it in the gym, but you can only train as hard as your recovery practices (sleep, food, stress management) allow.

2.) Bodybuilders have taught us so much about the body, but most general population clients’ training should probably look more like athletes’ training than bodybuilders’.

3.) Menstrual cycles are real and impact different people in different ways. Exercise science hasn’t coalesced around universal strategies regarding menstrual cycles and training, so the oldest adage applies: listen to your body and adjust accordingly (when possible).

4.) Strength training isn’t gendered. Strength training isn’t for certain body types. Strength training can be adjusted to meet all levels of physical ability.

5.) Loving food is a feature and not a flaw when it comes to training.

6.) It’s okay to have leanness goals. It’s okay to not have leanness goals.

7.) Consistency > Intensity if you had to just choose one.

8.) The less walkable your locale, the more you need to think about building intentional cardiovascular work into your exercise week.

9.) Discipline in fitness is vastly overrated. Organization is far more important for building consistency. Organization and planning is what makes fitness (and recovery!) possible, not grit or “dialing in.”

10.) Fitness isn’t a punishment. Your coach doesn’t need to yell at you. Training through pain is often a bad idea. You don’t have to earn your food or weekend fun.

There’s been a lot of talk and writing over the last few years about community. As I’ve gotten older, it’s a concept abo...
10/20/2025

There’s been a lot of talk and writing over the last few years about community. As I’ve gotten older, it’s a concept about which I spend a lot of my time thinking. And, I think one of the things on my mind quite a bit lately is the idea that some folks only want community if it is frictionless and if they can be in charge.

My brain likes to see big picture things. I can’t turn that off, and that’s probably an extreme bias I have. But, man, I think it’s pretty clear if you’ve worked in a school (or a hospital or a community center) that communities are ecosystems. It would be very easy for me to say that I’m the most important person along the way of a fitness journey. But that would be my ego talking.

Because if someone wants to build a sustainably healthy lifestyle, they need an ecosystem.

They need to know how to cook.

They need to know how to organize their time.

They need walkable and/or accessible streets and transportation.

Every teacher reading this has had the experience where a child’s ability to learn can be dramatically different based on outside factors. And ain’t so much of life just like that, child or adult?

Today is the last day of the Fall Season for New York City Ballet, which means it’s the official conclusion of the secon...
10/12/2025

Today is the last day of the Fall Season for New York City Ballet, which means it’s the official conclusion of the second cohort of strength and conditioning groups I’ve been privileged to coach. I couldn’t be prouder of this group of artists, who once again showed up even when they were tired, hurting, and almost certainly wanting to sleep in.

My approach with this group was similar to the first cohort: individualized programs, a decrease in volume once the season began, and on-the-fly changes based on injury, pain, or fatigue.

I think the thing I want you all to know is how hard these dancers work. How seriously they take their profession. Every once in a while, the room discussion would turn to ballet, and it was really fascinating to hear the sophistication and passion coming from the artists less than half my age.

I admire artists, sure. But I deeply admire workers, and, as counterintuitive as it sounds, many of these workers are unsung. They work in an outrageously tenuous profession, where one wrong landing or slip on a bead of sweat can mean the end of a career.

But what do they do?

They show up.

They work.

They ask questions.

They seek guidance and, occasionally, reassurance.

I’m old enough to know that I’m not one of them—my body isn’t on the line—but I hope every single dancer I work with knows how much respect and admiration I have for them. I hope that they feel supported and cared for, and, more than anything, I hope they see that support and care as a reflection of the value I place on them as people first.

So, thank you to David and Malorie and Sarah and Sierra and Olivia and Anna and Eli and Noah and Baily and Quinn and Maya and Gaby and Allegra. I can’t wait to continue watching every single one of you thrive and create and grow.

Sometimes I know I give annoying advice in this space, and this is probably one of those times. As inconvenient as it is...
10/06/2025

Sometimes I know I give annoying advice in this space, and this is probably one of those times. As inconvenient as it is, what our bodies require for lifelong, good movement is consistency.

We know this intuitively when we quiet our minds long enough to listen to our bodies. Sitting for a long time doesn’t feel good, right? Long drives? Also not great. Long flights? Also not great. We know intuitively just how much movement makes us feel better.

But, the crucible of modern life is such that we move through the world having to navigate responsibilities that have very little relationship to what our bodies actually need. So, if you struggle to make intentional movement a part of your life, trust that you’re not alone. But also trust that if you stop moving with intention then you will feel the difference in your body.

Consistency works both ways. When we move consistently, the positive changes happen slowly. One day we remember, “oh, my hips used to hurt every morning.” And then they just don’t.

But the opposite is true too. When we stop moving with intention, we don’t just fall apart overnight. A little ache or pain creeps in, and then we learn to disassociate from it just to make it through our days.

My wish for all of us is a society and culture that allows us to take better care of ourselves (primarily this would be a function of time and access). But, in the meantime, my job is to help you navigate the world we’re currently living in while pushing for a better, more tender, and more loving world.

Address

222 East 6th Street
Dayton, OH
45402

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 7pm
Tuesday 7am - 7pm
Wednesday 7am - 7pm
Thursday 7am - 7pm
Friday 7am - 7pm

Telephone

+19373967073

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