Dr. Susie Spirlock

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Dr. Susie Spirlock Helping you get under the barbell, reduce injuries, and fall in love with strength training.

10/27/2026

I grew up in the 90s.

Peak era of “the smaller you are, the better.”

Thigh gaps. Low-rise jeans. He**in chic.

Women were basically rewarded for looking like they could be knocked over by a light breeze.

(it kinda feels like history is repeating itself right now *sigh*)

That stuff sticks to you.

It teaches you, quietly, consistently, that being super skinny, soft, delicate, shrinking, is what makes you feminine, what makes you acceptable, & makes you “good.”

So of course younger me tried to follow the script.

Eat less. Be less. Don’t be “too much.” Don’t be loud. Don’t be strong. Just stay small and everyone will clap for you.

But the minute I found lifting, the minute I started getting actually strong, that whole narrative started to crack.

Honestly, THANK GOD.

Strength gave me something the 90s never did:

A body I could trust.
A voice I could use.
A presence I didn’t apologize for.

It turns out feeling powerful feels a hell of a lot better than feeling dainty 💅🏼

Looking back, I’m not mad at younger me!

She was doing the best she could with the messaging she grew up on.

But I’m so damn proud of the version of me who decided to rewrite it, rep by rep, year by year, even when it felt uncomfortable, even when it went against everything we were taught to want.

So if you were raised on that same “be tiny and quiet” culture, I see you.

But I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to carry that into your adulthood.

Burn that urge to be small.

Build the strength you were never encouraged to have.

And take up the space your 90s-era self never knew she deserved 💛

10/26/2026

Who said you need an expensive pendulum squat machine to absolutely OBLITERATE your quads? Because this bench-and-barbell setup would like a word 🥵

This single-leg pendulum squat is one of the variations in our current Supple Strength block, and she’s SO damn saucy. Here’s why:

1️⃣ MORE STABILITY. The bench provides support so you’re spending less effort trying not to fall over and more effort challenging your quads.

2️⃣ LOTS OF KNEE FLEXION. Depending on your setup and available ROM, you can train through substantial knee flexion and load the quads at longer muscle lengths. Very fun for hypertrophy.

3️⃣ A MORE UPRIGHT TORSO. The setup can let your knee travel forward while keeping your torso relatively upright, potentially shifting more of the demand toward your knee extensors.

4️⃣ ONE LEG AT A TIME. You can challenge each quad independently without balance becoming the main event.

5️⃣ ADJUSTABLE MECHANICS. Foot placement, bench height, and barbell positioning all influence the moment arms and where the movement feels hardest throughout the ROM. My biomechanics-loving brain eats this up.

6️⃣ LESS WEIGHT, PLENTY OF CHALLENGE. Unilateral work means you can make those quads WORK with relatively modest external loads.

And before the biomechanics police clock in: this isn’t an exact replica of a commercial pendulum squat, and it doesn’t magically provide constant tension. The resistance profile depends on the setup!

But for a garage gym quad exercise? An absolute MENACE.

Want more creative, thoughtfully programmed strength training without having to figure it all out yourself? This is exactly the kind of variation you’ll find in Supple Strength 🌶️

SAVE this for your next leg day, check out Supple Strength, and tell me: when are you trying this absolute FILTH??

PSA: women 👏🏼 need 👏🏼 strength 👏🏼 training 👏🏼Yes, your group fitness classes, cardio, Pilates, HIIT, & combo moves have ...
10/23/2026

PSA: women 👏🏼 need 👏🏼 strength 👏🏼 training 👏🏼

Yes, your group fitness classes, cardio, Pilates, HIIT, & combo moves have their benefits!

AND you still need true strength training in your programming for preservation of muscle mass, strength, bone health, & longevity ☺️

Link in my bio to join my group strength training program AND since the new 8 week training block just started — use code PSLSZN to get your first month for $9.99 💅🏼

To my girls: how long did it take you to realize that you needed strength training in your programming too??

10/22/2026

I genuinely cannot believe we’re still having conversations about what women are “allowed” to wear while exercising.

If a woman wants to train in a sports bra and “booty” shorts, fantastic!

If she wants to wear an oversized T-shirt and sweatpants, also fantastic!

If she wants to wear a GOSH DARN LORAX SUIT, ALSO FANTASTIC!

No outfit tells you a damn thing about her character, intelligence, self-respect, or how seriously she takes her training.

The idea that a woman showing some skin is somehow an invitation for men to comment on her body, question her morals, or joke about her “being a whore” is fu***ng exhausting.

Women already face enough barriers to getting into the weight room without having to worry about whether some dude thinks their shorts are too short.

You don’t have to like what someone is wearing.
You don’t have to understand why they’re wearing it.
Nobody asked you & it’s none of your damn business.

Wear whatever the hell you want, and go lift some heavy s**t & run some fast miles 💅🏼

Listen, I KNOW how this goes 🙂Your hip starts bothering you, so you save a reel with 3 exercises for hip pain. Your back...
10/21/2026

Listen, I KNOW how this goes 🙂

Your hip starts bothering you, so you save a reel with 3 exercises for hip pain. Your back flares up, now you’ve got 4 more. Someone tells you your glutes aren’t activating, so into the saved folder goes a clamshell variation. Then your algorithm realizes you’re in pain and suddenly every third post is telling you that your SI joint is out, your pelvis is rotated, your core isn’t firing, your fascia is dry (wtf?), and apparently your left big toe is responsible for everything bad that has ever happened to you.

So you keep collecting exercises hoping eventually you’re going to stumble across THE ONE.

And some of those exercises might actually be great exercises!! I post exercises on here too!!

But an exercise existing on Instagram and an exercise actually being appropriate for YOU, appropriately dosed, progressed over time, and integrated into the rest of your training are two very different things.

Rehab shouldn’t be an endless scavenger hunt for increasingly specific corrective exercises.

At some point we need to figure out what you can currently tolerate, what you actually need to improve, and then TRAIN those things. We need enough consistency to see whether something is working, enough load to create an adaptation, and an actual progression so six months from now you’re capable of more than you are today.

And eventually, rehab should look a whole lot less like rehab and a whole lot more like TRAINING.

So yes, save the exercises if you want!!

But if your saved folder has 847 of them and you’re still bouncing from one thing to another every time something hurts, you probably don’t need exercise #848.

You need a damn plan 🤝🏼

Which is exactly what my team and I do online with people all over the world with our Remote Rehab Coaching 😉

Be honest, how big has your “Pain Folder” on instagram gotten? 👀

Her forever home is the moon, but I’d give anything to have her back in my arms one more time 🫶🏼“I'm an astronaut, you'r...
10/20/2026

Her forever home is the moon, but I’d give anything to have her back in my arms one more time 🫶🏼

“I'm an astronaut, you're the Moon
I stare at you, I sing to you
I circle you

Even anxious pups need the Moon
I howl for you, I sing to you
I circle you”

I’m the astronaut, and she’s my forever moon 🌕

10/19/2026

What if January didn’t have to feel like starting over, again??

You’ve got a little under 3 months to get stronger, fitter, and healthier BEFORE 2027 starts, so why not start building some of those habits, now??

🎃 Want me to handle the programming for you? The brand-new 8-week PSL: Pump, Spice, Load block is LIVE, in my group training program, Supple Strength, where you get access to FIVE programs for $37/month!

So tell me, what’s ONE thing you want to accomplish before 2026 is over? 👀

Somewhere along the way, we started treating mechanical stress on the body as something we should be avoiding instead of...
10/16/2026

Somewhere along the way, we started treating mechanical stress on the body as something we should be avoiding instead of recognizing that it’s quite literally how our tissues adapt 🙂

Your tendons, muscles, bones, and joints are exposed to mechanical stress every single day, and when that stress is appropriately dosed, it’s one of the primary reasons those tissues become stronger and more capable of handling future demands.

Yet I constantly see exercises being labeled as dangerous because they create compression, shear, tension, or some other form of mechanical stress on a particular structure.

Okay??? And???

The presence of stress tells us absolutely NOTHING about whether that stress exceeds someone’s current capacity to tolerate it.

A movement that is excessive for one person might be perfectly tolerable for another. A load that someone struggles with today might be something they can comfortably handle six months from now. And even within the same person, tolerance can fluctuate depending on fatigue, recovery, training history, and how much work they’ve already accumulated.

This is why context matters so much more than simply identifying which forces are acting on a tissue!!!

We cannot simultaneously argue that tissues need mechanical loading to become more resilient while treating the existence of those same mechanical forces as evidence that an exercise is inherently harmful.

The goal of exercise isn’t to eliminate stress. It’s to develop the capacity to tolerate MORE OF IT 👏🏼

10/15/2026

The Lorax speaks for the women 🤌🏼

The ones told to stay “small,” to “tone,” to do more cardio, to stick with light weights.

But if you aren’t training for strength, power, and muscle, your body is quietly losing all three.

Starting in your 30s, you naturally lose 3–8% of your muscle mass every decade unless you actively preserve it through heavier resistance training.

Less muscle = weaker joints, less capability, more falls, less functional mobility, and more.

Add in bone density decline (especially after menopause) & that’s a perfect storm for fractures, pain, and the kind of “fragility” women are wrongfully labeled with.

But the cool part is you can stop it!! Even reverse it!!

Since muscle and bone are living tissue, they respond to mechanical load aka resistance training.

Pilates, yoga, walking ARE great forms of movement. But they don’t cut it for long term muscle growth & bone density.

When you lift weights, your bones get stronger.
Your metabolism is supported.
Your tendons thicken.
Your joints get nourished.
Your body literally rewrites its code to become harder to break.

This isn’t only about aesthetics, but more-so LONGEVITY!

Lifting gives you power, independence, and protection.

It’s how you keep hiking at 60, carry your kids without pain, and do the damn things you love without fear of “hurting yourself.”

If you’re not lifting yet, the Lorax needs you to start, NOW.

I made a program to get you there, and we start a new 8-week training block Monday October 5th 🤓

1️⃣ Designed by a physical therapist & strength coach
2️⃣ Access to FIVE different programs to fit your lifestyle, group chat, detailed exercise videos, weekly form checks, & an amazing community.
3️⃣ Perfect for women who want to stop shrinking and start adapting

You deserve more than “safe and light.”

You deserve to be strong, capable, and anti-fragile!!

The Lorax has spoken, & you should listen 😉

Come join my group program, Supple Strength 💪🏼

WHERE ARE MY ADAPTING WOMEN AT?!

10/14/2026

Bulgarian split squat 8-8-8’s 💀

Where your quads cry, your glutes ascend, and your will to live is tested!!!

8 reps with two dumbbells.
8 reps with one dumbbell.
8 second mid-range isometric hold.

Then switch legs and question every life choice that led you here 🙂

As evil as they feel, Bulgarian split squats are one of the most effective lower-body movements you can do.

They train single-leg strength, balance, stability, and control all at once. You can’t hide weak links here!

If your glutes aren’t pulling their weight, if your core isn’t locked in, or if your foot control sucks, this movement will kindly expose it 💅🏼

They load your legs hard without needing a ton of weight, which means less spinal fatigue and more pure muscle stimulus.

They also challenge your coordination, hip control, and force production in a way that transfers beautifully to running, jumping, lifting, and just being a functional badass human 😎

So yeah, it blows.
But it also BUILDS.

And around here, we love a little pain with our progress 💁🏼‍♀️

You’ll find these in the newest block of my group training program, Supple Strength, along with a ton of other moves that have the members bullying me in the group chat lol.

I personally LOVE Bulgarian split squats. Should I talk to my therapist about this?

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