Become a Force of Nature

Hi! I’m Kate Zanoni, founder of the Force of Nature program and the ACE Method.

I spent more than a decade treating patients in the field of physical therapy and noticed there’s a huge missing piece in the fitness industry when it comes to strength training. I feel called to help fill in the gaps and help build more Forces of Nature because I want you to feel empowered throughout your fitness journey. Let me share a bit about my journey and how I got to this point.

20 years ago, I was a compulsive gym goer. Working out became an obsession and I’d spend 2-3 hours in the gym 6-7 days a week. I did at least an hour of cardio followed by lifting on all the machines and finished with 30 mins of abs. Oh, and don’t forget the static stretching afterwards. I felt like I had to do the most. I thought the more I did and the harder I worked, the more results I would see (insert eye roll here, I know). I did nothing to focus on recovery and didn’t take lifestyle factors into account, either. (double facepalm) 

When I was a freshman in college, I started experiencing back pain seemingly out of nowhere. I had gone from completely obsessive workouts to a stressed out college student getting very little sleep, eating shitty dining hall food and sitting A LOT. I got shuffled from doctor to doctor with no resolve to the recurring pain. My primary care physician sent me to my OB/GYN who sent me to a sports medicine specialist.

Finally, an orthopedic surgeon told me I needed surgery and I’d never play sports or run again. He said the only options for my unresolved back pain was surgery and returning to my active lifestyle wasn’t going to happen. Well, that wasn’t a viable option for me and I refused to let that prognosis seal my fate. After I got a second opinion with no clear diagnosis or solution, I continued pushing through the pain.  

I discovered, through many trials and failures, that my approach to health was all wrong. I was stuck in a cycle of “all or nothing” and it took years of pushing through pain to learn exactly what NOT to do.

I learned a lot on my journey and I have made it my life’s purpose to share the contents of my brain with as many people as I can so that you, too, can unleash your inner badass and feel confident in your abilities on and off the trails.

After a completely unrelated career as a writer/editor, I returned to school. I studied anatomy and physiology, kinesiology and physical rehabilitation. I spent 10 years working in the field of physical therapy treating patients that wanted nothing more than to return to their active lifestyles pain free and without worry of re-injury. I learned even more from real life experience in and out of the clinic and from other movement professionals in the field who questioned the status quo than I ever did in school. Today, I continue to study the latest research in exercise science, neuroscience and pain science to pass that knowledge onto my community.

Over the years, I saw a multitude of specialists and had all the diagnostic imaging under the sun without any definitive answers or a plan to resolve my pain. Among the laundry list of diagnoses I received, I was told I had SI joint dysfunction because of my scoliosis and that I’d have to live with some level of discomfort for the rest of my life. Another provider gave me painkillers for my lower back pain. I only took it a handful of times and stopped completely after experiencing chest pain with each pill. The medication, Vioxx, has since been pulled off the market because it was shown to cause heart attacks and was directly responsible for killing 88,000 people. I dodged a bullet, but I was still in pain.

After struggling with bouts of recurring pain off and on for 15 years since the initial onset, I sought help from an orthopedic surgeon I trusted. (He often sent patients my way for rehab to help them avoid surgery, so I knew he would be honest about my diagnosis and prognosis. He wouldn’t recommend surgery unless it was a last resort). Sometimes I was pain free. Other times my lower back hurt and I felt like I had a pulled hamstring. It was actually irritation of my sciatic nerve masquerading as hamstring pain. When I rotated my leg into a pigeon pose, my hamstrings would catch and send pain shooting down my leg to my knee.

Based on orthopedic testing, I suspected I had a labral tear and hip impingement. The ortho confirmed my suspicion. I spent too many years trying to grin and bear it. I pushed through pain and tried to stretch it away at the gym. I spent time stretching at a yoga studio and took deep flexibility classes at a pole dancing studio in an attempt to improve my flexibility, thinking that was the answer. I knew better but I was my own worst patient and thought I didn’t have time to dedicate to a specific strength training program to rehabilitate myself.  

The 12 weeks I spent attempting prehab was futile. I never had an injury or specific incident that caused my pain. More than likely, it was the way my hip formed naturally as I was growing and the fact that I kept pushing through the pain and trying to stretch it away that caused my labrum to tear over time. My emphasis on stretching and deep flexibility worsened my symptoms and left me with very few options.

Eventually, I developed bursitis in both hips and couldn’t sleep on either side (I’m a side sleeper).  I reached a point where I was in so much pain that I couldn’t workout anymore. Even walking up the four stairs into my condo was agonizing. I threw in the towel and had surgery. 

My surgeon told me what I already knew: I had pushed through pain for too long and focused on the wrong things at the gym. If I had changed course sooner, I could have avoided surgery altogether and bypassed over a decade of undiagnosed pain.

After my surgery, I was still having sciatic symptoms all throughout my recovery. Dry needling helped very short term, but my symptoms would return soon thereafter.

Even as a healthcare professional myself, I still had a lot to learn and a lot of myths to unlearn. I changed my focus from stretching, cardio, chasing “flat abs'' and using all the machines in the gym to active mobility work. I incorporated accessory training to target stabilizing muscles and started lifting heavier weights. I chose a mix of dumb bells, kettlebells and barbell training. I needed weights that weren’t attached to machines so I could strengthen through my full range of motion and focus on developing real core strength. 

I focused on building control instead of HIIT. I intentionally targeted deep stabilizing muscle groups that typical training programs miss. I was able to connect with my core in a way I had never experienced with crunches, sit-ups or circuit machines. Best of all, my hip and lower back didn’t hurt anymore and my sciatic symptoms dissipated.

For the first time in my adult life, I can now squat ass to grass. Prior to switching up the way I trained, I couldn’t squat beyond parallel (even after my recovery from surgery). Now I can spend all day in my ATG squat doing yard work without hip pain and lift my 70-pound dog into my car without tweaking my back – direct effects of the right combination of mobility, strength and control – something you can’t achieve with static stretching, ab routines and hours of cardio. I’m also able to hike 15+ mile trails up and down steep terrain in the Rocky Mountains without hip or knee pain, XC ski in the Sawtooth Wilderness without a peep from my hip or lower back, and SUP the Snake River without losing my balance and going ass over tea kettle into the water below.

I learned how to fill in the gaps in my training so that 3 days per week is enough. I can fill the other days of the week with non-gym focused activities I enjoy, like hiking and SUPing….or I can rest. Either way, I won’t lose progress from not training 5-7 days a week. I learned how to adjust my training as needed based on how I feel each day, prioritize rest days without feeling guilty for missing time away from the gym and build on the basics with a solid foundation because fancy does not equal effectiveness. I want that for you, too.