Ellen Barrett "Wellness is a Journey"

Wellness is a Journey

Fitness is a self-help tool for authentic wellness. The goal is wellness. Or another way of looking at it is, the destination is wellness. And you and I are never not on a journey towards wellness. We never get to the top of the wellness mountain and stick a flag in it and say, “Done!” If you’re breathing, you’re journeying!  Remember when Oprah showcased her dramatic weight loss on her talkshow? She even wheeled out...

Drop By Drop

I love feeling strong. I love having good balance. It feels good to stand up straight. Cardiovascular endurance is such a great asset. My mobility is on fleek!  These are affirmations that just rise to the surface – and become facts – when you move a little bit every day. The daily habit of moving is an open secret. When we see fit and vibrant people, we always want to know, are they kickboxing, bootcamp-ing, or do...

Sacred Space

Make It Sacred

Struggling to get to your at-home workout space as often as you’d like? Make it feel more sacred. The space we workout in should be a sacred space. First, because we spend a solid amount of time in it. Second, because we work hard on ourselves in it. And third, because we shut out the noise of the world and connect to ourselves in it. Often, we think a space is sacred because it’s connected to religion, like...

Ellen Barrett Inspiration Board

A 2/2/22 Message About Inspiration 💫

You may have wondered how I create each week’s inspiration board, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to explain my rationale. There are some very practical factors, specifically with the workout rotation. For one, I don’t want to have back-to-back weighted workouts. I also don’t want back-to-back seated workouts. Movement variety is important. Second, a variety in terms of length is nice, so you’ll always see pretty much every duration represented each week. I truly...

Ellen Barrett "The Barrett Blog"

My Anti-Procrastination Technique

You’ve probably heard the saying, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.”  I have found this to be a thousand percent true. It’s true for me personally and for people I work with. As a personal trainer, the clients that never cancel are ironically the one’s with the fullest plate. At the root of this, it’s because the busy person has a tight schedule and he or she intends to keep it. There’s no time for procrastination. Kids procrastinate...

10Day Kickstart with Ellen

10DAY KICKSTART: DAY 10 LOVE ❤️

“Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there.” – Rumi After years of working with people and being privy to some clients’ destructive inner dialogs, I realized self-criticism is the biggest obstacle to true wellness, and it usually comes from a place of self-loathing. At first, I thought, “Oh, it’s just words” but as my understanding of health and happiness grew, I realized that words  stem from beliefs, and beliefs rule the world. How we feel about ourselves...

10Day Kickstart with Ellen

10DAY KICKSTART: DAY 8 GRACE

GRACE (noun): simple elegance or refinement of movement Grace is a mix of self-awareness and serenity, in action. Some people seem to, naturally, have loads of it. Others need to call it in. There is someone alluring about grace and I think grace turns ordinary movement into a thing of beauty.   How can we cultivate more grace? It’s easier than you think. All it takes is to move calmly and pay attention. I think “hyper” is the polar...

Ellen Barrett Walk With Weights

Let’s Take A Walk

Originally – way way back – the idea for this workout came from emails from you. Many people wanted a longer walking workout, so my first working title was “Long Walk” but my 11-year-old son put the kibosh on that saying, “That is way too basic.” The next working title was “Endurance Walk” which I held onto for a few months but never really loved. I finally settled on Walk With Weights because after describing the workout to someone I said,...