Nicknames have always been a tricky thing for me. First, everyone wants to call me “Char” which I hate because it sounds so ’80′s and also, no, if I’m going to be a Bender I’d for sure be Air and not Fire. (Yes I know Air is taken. This is my fantasy, hush.) If you’re going to truncate my name, call me by the last half — Lottie. Or even “Chari” is preferable. Second, the only thing that rhymes with Charlotte is. . . harlot. Not good!
And yet I’ve always wanted a cool nickname. Isn’t half the reason for playing sports so you can get a pair of sweats with something like “Godzillah the killah” across the butt?? (True story – saw that one at Culver’s the other day. It took everything in me not to run up and ask the afflicted teen for the backstory.) Well, I finally got me a nickname! My Lifetime Fitness trainer Steve, and correctional exercise expert, calls me “Quad Dominant”! As in “Stop leaning over your front leg in that lunge, Quad Dominant!” Aww!

At the beginning of May, I definitely was quad dominant. This is a problem because it means that you use your quadriceps muscles (on the front of your thigh) as your primary movers rather than your glutes (your butt), which is really inefficient since your gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in your body. It can also cause functional and structural problems since the imbalance pulls your spine and pelvis out of alignment – and you know the old saying “If your core ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Or here’s another one to stitch on a pillow, courtesy of Ryan Svenby one of the Vikings cheerleaders trainers: “A tight butt is a tight gut!”

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