The Tone It Up Girls' Refreshing Take on the Fitness Industry Will Have You Cheering

At this year's POPSUGAR Play/Ground, we were lucky enough to start our mornings sweating it out with Tone It Up's Katrina Scott and Karena Dawn. The two fitness powerhouses left us feeling grounded, strong, and capable of taking on the day. But, it was their thoughts on the fitness industry as a whole that had us nodding our heads and applauding in agreement. When asked why they work out, and what fitness means to them, Dawn said "Fitness is not a vanity thing for me, it's what made me overcome so many struggles . . . It was fitness that made me fall in love with myself again in my early 20s, to pull me out of the darkness." Scott echoed her sentiment, adding that "fitness is happiness" and that through working out, and finding a like-minded community, "I started to discover myself."

Scott and Dawn use fitness as a way to bring themselves joy, mental clarity, and community. Scott, who gave birth to her daughter last Fall, touched on the annoying societal pressure of "bouncing back" after pregnancy, which is a question she gets frequently as a fitness professional. On the topic, she eloquently explained, "We're not going back. Let's only go forward. I don't want to say I'm getting my body back. I'm going forward." In life, we move forward, we hopefully don't regress, and our process after having a child should be one of moving forward. Nothing will ever be the way it once was, but that opens the door for even more amazing things in the future.

When they started talking about fitness goals, this editor felt like standing up and cheering. Scott told the crowd of Tone It Up fans, "You're allowed to feel better than you ever have before, and feel good where you are right now." Meaning, give yourself permission to be proud of your fitness journey, and if you want to keep going, then keep going. Your fitness journey is just that, yours.