Author: Sandra Augustin

The secret to my success is no secret at all, it’s part hard work, part persistence, and a lot of patience. As a child, I wasn’t an athlete. In fact, I wasn’t allowed to play sports at all. My mother thought playing sports would give me big muscles, so I spent my afternoons taking tap, ballet and jazz dance lessons. Like many women of her generation, my mother thought all the stretching in dance class would make me tall and give me long, lean muscles. Ah, those were the good old days; it’s amazing that fitness and weight training for…

Can’t run because you have “bad knees”? Well, are you sure it’s your knees that are “bad”? Very often, people write off their knees as “bad” when they experience knee pain while exercising. Consequently, they give up all activity, consider the pain as “part of growing old”, accept their love handles and drop their gym membership. As a trainer, this KILLS me, as well as my wallet, because most lateral knee pain is a result of IT Band Syndrome, not “bad knees”! TFL and IT Band The Iliotibial Band (ITB) is the sheet of fibrous connective tissue that surrounds a…

I can’t say enough about the importance of fiber! Have you ever cooked with an iron skillet? (If you are my age, you have, if you are younger, perhaps you’ve seen your grandmother use one.) After you are done cooking your meal, what do you find stuck to the inside of the skillet? Grease, lard, oil, FAT! The only way to clean the fat off the skillet is to use lots of water, strong soap to break up the grease, and a Brillo Pad to scrub it clean, right? Now, think of your intestines as your skillet and the fat…

Determined to keep that bikini body, but that nagging knee, foot, and/or low back injury is keeping you off the track? Well, don’t fret! Put your swimsuit back on and take your workout into the pool. Whenever I tell people that I do aerobics in the pool for cross training, I get the same reaction, “How many laps do you swim?” to which I answer, “None. I do aerobics in the pool.” For some reason, when we think of aqua aerobics, we envision a pool full of grannies bobbing around in flowered bathing caps and skirted swimsuits. Not so anymore!…

I am a 20-year (plus) veteran to the fitness industry. I am the owner of SASS Fitness, a personal training business serving an all female clientele in the Sacramento area, as well as the owner of SassFitness.com, a virtual personal training website for women. In addition to owning my own business, I am a Master Trainer for 24 Hour Fitness and a MET-Rx sponsored Fitness Competitor. In these capacities, I travel nationwide for competitions in fitness, extreme obstacle courses and personal appearances representing MET-Rx/Pure Protein/Worldwide Drinks and as a 24 Hour Fitness Master Trainer, I instruct continuing education fitness classes for…