Name: Julia Hoina (Weidner)
What city were you born in Rochester, NY (Yes, there was a lot of snow there. No, I do not miss it.)
What do you do when you’re not working out at Athletic Lab (occupation, hobbies, etc) Professionally, I am a Consultant at Deloitte where I work with pharmaceutical companies on Post-Commercial Drug Pricing and Contracting. Outside of work, when I’m not slaying weights over at the Lab, I enjoy rock climbing at Triangle Rock Club, traveling and generally spending time with my husband, Matt and my dog, Jennifur. A lot of people might not know this about me, but I have a Master’s Degree in Nutrition Sciences and enjoy spending time cooking and developing recipes with Matt.
What’s your favorite exercise? Least favorite I really like pull-ups and toes to bar. I have been rock climbing for almost 10 years and it’s helped me build and maintain strong lats (gotta pull yourself up the wall somehow!). It turns out, strong lats make pull-ups and TTB relatively easy (and therefore fun haha). I’ve enjoyed mastering these skills and have added chest-to-bar pull-ups to my repertoire over the past few months too! I also am starting to like handstand walking! I started working on progressions for hand stand balancing in early summer and am seeing small improvements almost weekly! I dislike push jerks (and most overhead movements), mostly because I’m just not very good at them. BUT, I’m working hard to become more technically sound with pushing movements and I’ve seen improvement thanks to pestering Keith to give me constant feedback on my form (thanks Keef!).
What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment since you started training Even though I got my first ring muscle up this year in the open (WOOO!), I think my biggest accomplishment since I started training has been a mental one. I have always been a VERY competitive person. Shifting from always comparing my performance to others’ to a personal growth mindset has allowed me to be vulnerable at the gym and work on my weaknesses. I tore my Achilles tendon in August 2018 and I had to slow down (like WAY down) and allow myself to be bad (sometimes really bad haha) at all things fitness; I think this was the catalyst for my mindset shift. During my recovery process, I learned to hold myself accountable in ways that didn’t allow me to compare what I could do (or couldn’t do) to what others could do. Carrying this mindset through and beyond my recovery has helped me be ok with being “bad” at skills and helps me set and accomplish small goals while working towards the big goals step-by-step. Oh, and I’m also super proud of taking home first place in a local comp in August this year with my competition teammate, Libby! It marked almost a year to-the-day of my Achilles injury in 2018 and was a nice reminder that hard work pays off :)
What motivates you Six pack abs. Obviously. Ha. Only kind of kidding. I enjoy seeing incremental improvements in my performance through hard work; seeing changes in my body composition is just an added bonus. I know that just because I didn’t get XYZ skill today, it doesn’t mean I’m not capable of it! I like to work on progressions, particularly for gymnastics movements, because I can see small improvements in just a few sessions while working towards putting a full skill together. Then, when I finally NAIL IT (helllllooooo RMU!), I feel super accomplished and like all the hard work I’ve been putting in has paid off! Also, I’m super motivated by everyone that is on the competition team. They’re my gym family and push me to be a better version of myself every day! I love that each person is better than me at something; I’m constantly learning from and with them!
P.S. – Special shout out to Chris Hoina (my brother-in-law and a PROLIFIC coach at AL) for encouraging me to get back into fitness during my recovery this past spring and introducing me to the awesome folks on the comp team!
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