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Colin Hood

@hoodlee

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Soma Strength Movement & Strength Coach at @ascensionfitness
@ouranchorpoint Community Leader

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If you call yourself a mover, read this.

I see a lot of ‘movers’ who shy away from “fitness” because the gym felt blunt, prescriptive, or even damaging.
As @karin.avi put it on @wbrown7 podcast: micro-traumas from bad experiences at the gym can convince you exercise is “not for you.”

Most people I work with are really just training so they can do life better, even the professional athletes.

Strength training isn’t the opposite of movement — it’s the foundation for more of it.

Find your weak links and improve upon them, regardless of if it fits into a ‘movement perspective’ or not.

As @strongcamps just posted:
“only when an exercise becomes your identity, do you feel offended” taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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7

a year ago

THIS IS NOT
A GYM AS YOU KNOW IT.

This is a community that embraces failure and learning. This is the land where reps are counted in ‘zeros’.

This is not just a group of people working out, but more of a family; a tribe.
This is not a facility geared towards generic group classes, or bland and uninspired repetitive workouts.
Rather, we offer a space that is coached, individualized, and focused on ensuring people are met where they are at with their individual histories and goals.

If you are looking for a place that approaches injuries and training in an entirely different way, this may be the space for you.

Words straight from the @ascensionfitness website.
Pop in if you are in need of community and a new perspective on what you’re capable of.

PC📸: @irrationalcarny

#yyccommunity #yycliving #effort #fredagain #metabolichealth #toughlove taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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2

a year ago

🔥New Classes Starting at @ascensionfitness 🔥 - Handstand Therapy 🤸🏼🤸🏽‍♀️

2026 Fall Classes:

⚡ Wednesdays | 6:00–7:15am
Oct 7 – Nov 25
10 classes | $300

⚡ Fridays | 11am - 12:15pm
Oct 9 – Nov 27
10 classes | $300

Learning to stand on your hands is about more than learning to stand on your hands.

Handstand Therapy is a focused, small-group class for adults who want to build the physical skill, confidence, and patience to move comfortably upside down.

Through structured progressions, we’ll develop the foundations that make handstands possible: strong and resilient wrists and shoulders, mobility, body awareness, balance, and the strength to control your body in unfamiliar positions.

But handstands also teach you how to practice.

They put you face-to-face with fear, frustration, fatigue, and failure.

We’ll learn to treat missed attempts as feedback, setbacks as part of the process, and progress as something built one repetition at a time.

Classes combine guided skill progressions, targeted strength training, partner-supported practice, video feedback, and hands-on coaching. You’ll also receive individualized guidance to help you continue progressing between classes.

Whether you’re working toward your first wall handstand or refining your freestanding balance, you’ll train alongside a small community of people learning a difficult and deeply rewarding skill together.

Colin has been teaching adults handstands for nearly 10 years.

All levels welcome to join at @ascensionfitness

#yycfitfam #yycyoga #yycdance #yycfitness #yycrun #yychealth #handstand #yyctherapy #calgaryhandstandproject #movementculture #yycfit #fitnessyyc #yycclimbing #yyc #yycnow #yycliving taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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3

a year ago

Your scapula (shoulder blade) isn’t a passive platform for your arm.

When you load your hands, it becomes part of a force-transmission system connecting your hands to your trunk.

That’s why straight-arm, closed-chain work is so valuable. It’s so often undertrained outside of rehabilitation or gymnastic type environments.

And it’s one reason handstand training can be such a powerful tool for anyone who loves climbing, yoga, dance or movement.

You’re not just learning to balance upside down. It’s that Handstand shapes might be one of the easiest ways to fix your shoulders.

You’re teaching the shoulder girdle and trunk to work together as a strong, stable, load-bearing unit.

Let normalize opening up our shoulders under load!

Join my Handstand Classes, Starting Oct 7th & Oct 9th:

Wednesdays at 6am
Fridays at 11am

Link In BIO

#yycyoga #danceyyc #yycfitness #handstandtraining #movementculture taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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1

a month ago

THE CURSE OF “I CAN’T”

Your legs are burning.
Your heart is racing.
Your breath gets heavy.

Then your mind says:

“I can’t.”

But how did “this is hard” become “I can’t do this”?

Nassim Taleb calls this the narrative fallacy: our tendency to weave simple stories around messy reality and then believe the story.

Agnes Obel’s The Curse explores the same strange human impulse: our need to make meaning.

A blessing and a curse.

Because sometimes:
“I’m not (strong) enough”
is just a story wrapped around
“I’m experiencing something difficult.”

Training gives us a place to practice noticing the difference.

Not ignoring the body.
Not blindly pushing through.

Feeling the sensation without immediately believing the story.

That’s where strength training gets interesting.

This is the kind of work we practice at Soma Strength: getting stronger without becoming disconnected from your body.

📸@irrationalcarny 📸
#antifragile #eustress #nurturingresilience #discomfort #embracethesuck taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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2

a month ago

The strongest body isn’t the one that works the hardest.

It’s the one that wastes the least.

Try this:

Take a movement you normally do for 60 seconds. Now keep going for 4 minutes (crawling, bouldering, dancing, yoga sequence).

Notice what happens when your first solution stops working.

You might start to notice where you create unnecessary tension. Where you lose coordination. Where you keep reaching for the same strategy, even when it stops working.

Fatigue is useful because it exposes your habits.

And that’s where good coaching gets interesting.

SENSE — notice what’s happening.
EXPLORE — find another option.
BUILD — develop the capacity to use it.

The goal isn’t to constantly throw new movements at your body.

It’s to give your body different problems to solve and learn from what happens.

This is a big part of what we do at Soma Strength:

Not just building more strength.

Building a body with more options.

#yycfit #yycfitfam #yycyoga #yycdance #yycfitness taken in MOVE TO MOVE by @hoodlee

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a month ago

The best thing you can do for your yoga practice might have nothing to do with yoga.

Sometimes, the best way to deepen one practice is to practice something completely different.

Handstands. Climbing. Strength training. Dancing.

Different practices give your body different problems to solve.

And solving new problems can develop more than physical capacity:

More attention.
More coordination.
More adaptability.
More confidence in uncertainty.

So instead of asking:

“How do I go deeper into my practice?”

Try asking:

“What am I not practicing that could help me go deeper?”

That’s where coaching becomes useful.

Not giving you more of the same but figuring out what your body needs next. Coaching helps you find the lowest hanging fruit to add to your practices

If you want help finding your next physical problem to solve, send me a DM.

#yycyoga #yycdance #handstandpushup #yoga #yogalife taken in MOVE TO MOVE by @hoodlee

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3

a month ago

Hard work is only the entry point into getting stronger.

The strongest body isn’t always the one that works the hardest.

It’s also the one that wastes the least.

Getting stronger requires doing the work:
Lift. Carry. Climb. Crawl. Push. Pull. Jump. Twist… Play.

Give your body a reason to adapt.
But eventually, more stops being the only question.

How much force can you create?
How well can you organize it?
Where are you working harder than necessary?

Strength isn’t just building more capacity.

It’s learning to use that capacity well.

That’s where coaching matters.

We don’t simply make the workout harder. We facilitate you noticing what you’re doing and strive to invite better options.

More strength culminating from better organization and efficiency. Often communicated about as beautiful movement or that the person is so graceful, not hard, or tense.

#movementculture #yycfit #yycfitness #yycrun #yycfitfam taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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0

a month ago

Progress is not random at @ascensionfitness

Last week:
4 personal best lifts.
2 new client assessments.
2 running assessments.
1 Group Therapy class (runs weekly on Wednesdays)

That is what a good week looks like when training is built around the person, not just the workout.

Assessment first.
Structure second.
Community all the way through.

Individual effort matters, but it goes a lot further when it is carried by a room that knows how to build progress on purpose.

If you have a health, rehab, or movement goal:

Start with our FREE general assessment AND a FREE week trial at @ascensionfitness

DM me and we’ll get you set up to work on your transformation.

#yycfitfam #yycstrength #yycfitness #yycrun lululemonyyc taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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1

5 months ago

Most people don’t lack effort.
They lack direction.

@karendelavina is a practitioner who already understands the body through Massage, Manual Osteopathy, and Clinical Pilates.

But she wants to keep building a body that keeps up with her work, movement, and dance practices.

So we found some GAPs between her goals and where she currently at and have been focusing on:
• developing more capacity through compounds movements
• building strength where she’s usually “just mobile”
• learning to create more tension with eccentric and isometric training

This is what coached sessions look like:
clear targets, structured progressions, and zero guesswork.

If you’re training hard but still feel like something’s missing—this is probably why.

DM “COACHING” or hit the link in bio to learn more about me and @ascensionfitness .

#yycfitfam #yycpilates #yycdance #yycfitness #yycyoga taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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0

5 months ago

One month since my Patella Tendon Repair Surgery

Finding more ways to move my spine.

Feeling the Spinal Engine from a new perspective.

Trying to express a little more as these restrictions accumulate in me so they don’t calcify further.

Noticing a lot of Samskaras this past week.

So I’m trying to feel them as they are.
Some beautiful humans have reflected that I may be rationalizing some feelings, which isn’t how feelings really work, do they?

Good thing my co-workers and I only kind of make fun of each other!

#movementculture #yycdance #samskara #yycyoga #idoportal taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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3

6 months ago

Flirting with my knee.

Three weeks since patella tendon repair surgery, it’s clear to me that healing is a form of relationship.

Don’t rush it.
Don’t ignore it.
Approach it with the right amount of interest.

Flirting with that line between restraint and participation.
Enough respect to protect the tendon. Enough movement to keep the rest of the system awake.

My hips are feeling the lack of options. My mood shifts with more blood flow. My nervous system adapting to every new signal.

So I keep returning to the edge carefully.
Light, rhythmic movement.
A little more each day.

Not forcing recovery.
Not withdrawing from it.
Just staying in contact long enough to learn what it needs.
Remaining playful, not reckless.
Inviting response, but not imposing outcome.

#movementculture #kneerehab #yycfit #yycrun #yychealth taken in Ascension Fitness by @hoodlee

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0

6 months ago