Relationships with fitness tend to ebb and flow — there are high-energy periods spent chasing new PRs, moments focused on maintenance, and stretches that feel uninspired. They may even include a brief break-up, which was the case for Casey Sines.

The Los Angeles-based 35-year-old grew up in a family of athletes; her mom a basketball star, her dad a golfer and baseball player. “They joke that I came out of the womb, and it was like, ‘Which one of the balls do you want?’” she says. She paved her own path, falling “madly in love” with volleyball in seventh grade and becoming a Division I athlete at the University of Memphis and Butler University.

Burnt out after college, Sines moved to the West Coast, got a job in finance, and went cold turkey on exercise. “I did almost nothing fitness-related at first,” she recalls. “I was just like, ‘Nope, nothing.’”

But when she noticed changes in her mental health, she found solace in group fitness. Sines realized she was more likely to push her limits when she worked out in a studio surrounded by others. It helped that it satisfied her thirst for a little rivalry, too. “I think many athletes love the showboating aspect of group fitness — you can have other people that you can compete with and kind of, like, show off with,” she admits.

Annie Rapaport is, in her words, on top of her health. Just 10 weeks after giving birth to her first child, she was back to business at Equinox Highland Park. Three times a week, she comes to the Dallas Club for strength training with her Coach and one-on-one sessions with her Pilates instructor, both of whom she’s worked with since 2019. She’s partnered up with a nutritionist, practices pelvic floor therapy, and gets bodywork. 

Yet, she’s quick to admit that this season of recovery is anything but easy. 

“Postpartum is rougher than pregnancy,” she says of the last nine months. “Like, saddle up. I had a lot of body pain, and there were moments where it was hard to even hold [my daughter] because I was just aching so much. And, I don't know, I think pregnancy just took a big toll on me and my body.”

There’s an element of cognitive dissonance. Rapaport says she’s been feeling all the positive emotions — fulfilled, happy, grateful, obsessed with her baby — and she understands it can take years to feel like yourself after having a child. But at the same time, she finds herself criticizing her body. “I don't look the same. Like, I'm not the same,”  Rapaport says. “I feel like I've changed a lot, and that's a little bit hard to accept.” She’s been suffering from lower-back and shoulder pain and moving slower than she used to. And the physical changes are paired with the stress of running a business and being a mom, partner, and friend. The mindfulness practices that were woven into her routine pre-pregnancy? There simply isn’t space in this current season. 

“I definitely feel like I'm still a bit in survival mode,” she adds.