Chester County has an elaborate new outdoor gym, installed as part of a national campaign to encourage exercise and combat obesity.

The infrastructure is called a Fitness Court and it features seven stations that enable people to get a workout in seven minutes.

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When people think about treating or managing their mental health, therapy, journaling and reading are often among the first solutions that come to mind. While those are all valuable tools, one of the most effective outlets is often overlooked: physical fitness.

At the Lift US Foundation, based in Oakland, leaders emphasize the mental benefits of exercise for adolescents through a strength-training-focused approach. Through its partnership with the NBA Foundation, the organization has expanded its efforts to empower young people and, as founder Mike Jenkins describes it, “create superheroes.”

“The need in the community is very foundational about strength and health in general, physical and mental,” Jenkins said. “I locked in on a term I like to call generational health, and what that means is the young people in our program become the healthiest in their families, and they take those values going forward in their own.”

As for InnerCity Weightlifting, which is based in Boston and Chicago, the organization uses personal training to help people affected by systemic barriers and past challenges build a new path forward. The nonprofit helps individuals with histories of gang involvement earn personal training certifications before connecting them with paying clients.

Though some people may not want to pursue personal training full-time, ICW still provides them with fitness tools they can carry throughout life while also helping guide their next steps into the workforce.

“Learn how to work out safely, learn how to give your friends a workout and then tell us what you need, what kind of jobs you’re interested in, what’s holding you back from some stability,” said ICW’s head of development Ian Kilpatrick.

Fitness to opportunity

From the ground up, Lift US focuses on teaching young people how to understand their bodies through fitness, nutrition education, counseling, mentorship and mental health support, all while helping them develop a future-focused mindset beyond the program.

Seeing a program participant progress through each phase and ultimately succeed is Lift US’s ultimate goal. 

Rucker Johnson Jr. joined the organization at age 10 with a passion for science, art and drawing. Over time, he developed a love for weightlifting as well, eventually earning a spot on Team USA and setting his sights on representing the country at the 2028 Olympic Games.

“A complete human. A complete person, physically strong, mentally strong, academically strong, and not relying on getting a football or baseball scholarship. They are just doing it to empower themselves,” Jenkins said.

Johnson Jr. also branched out to the Hidden Genius Project, an Oakland-based nonprofit that trains and mentors young Black men in technology, entrepreneurship, and leadership. The organization has partnered with the NBA Foundation for several years.

Job pathways beyond fitness

As mentioned before, ICW ultimately helps place participants into jobs even outside the fitness industry, with their interactions with clients playing a key role.

The organization has seen numerous trainers transition into different industries simply by networking and performing well with the people they train. “We had guys get jobs at Toyota because a training client was a manager at Toyota, we’ve had a client start a dog grooming business and hire her trainer as one of the first employees,” said Kilpatrick.

The organization also builds partnerships with corporations such as UPS and Home Depot to streamline job pathways for participants.

Looking ahead, ICW is also focusing on creating more in-house managerial roles for participants who may not want to become full-fledged trainers. Either way, the organization provides volunteers with a sense of belonging and direction that helps them rebuild stability in their lives.

At their core, both organizations aim to build belonging and long-term success through fitness, which is a great place to start.

From enduring some serious physical prep for Baywatch to working consistently with elite trainer Patrick Murphy, Alexandra Daddario’s dedication to fitness is well-documented. She often shares insights on social media, and in a recent Instagram post, the White Lotus star gave an insight into how she trains her core with one powerhouse movement: the reverse crunch into shoulder stand.

Why is it so good? Most traditional ab exercises require repetitive spinal flexion—the process of pulling your chest down toward your knees, like in a standard crunch. This isolates only the upper section of your abs, and for women who spend hours sitting at a desk, it can reinforce a slouched, rounded posture.

Daddario’s movement flips the mechanics entirely since you actively curl your pelvis up toward your chest. In doing so, you target not only your upper abs, but the lower portion and your obliques (the sides) simultaneously, all while keeping your chest open and your neck unstrained. This translates into a much stronger core, better posture and crucial lower back protection. Research also shows that a controlled posterior tilt – the lower-body curl that initiates Daddario’s move – recruits a significantly higher percentage of deep core muscle fibers than traditional crunches.

Daddario then drives her hips directly up into a vertical shoulder stand. This completely removes momentum from the equation (meaning you can’t “cheat”) and forces your abs—particularly your obliques—to balance your body and prevent you from tipping sideways.

She then takes it one step further into a Pilates plow position with her legs overhead, before reversing the movement and, again, using her abs to control the lowering of her entire lower body as she slowly unrolls her spine down onto the mat. The plow portion is optional (and super advanced); the slow, controlled, lowering phase, which happens whether you move into plow or not, is where the magic happens, challenging your core through both lifting and resisting gravity. Inspired? Here’s exactly how to do the move with good form, and how many reps and sets to aim for.

How to do a reverse crunch into shoulder stand

1. Lie on your back (either on a mat, or on a reformer Pilates machine, like Daddario, with your arms anchored tightly to the floor.
2. Engage your core to curl your knees toward your chest, then fluidly press your feet straight up toward the ceiling, lifting your hips and lower back off the floor.
3. Slowly lower down, one vertebra at a time. Aim for 3 sets of 6-8 controlled reps.

Optional progression:

1. As you reach shoulder stand with your legs extended to the ceiling, slowly start to lower your toes toward the floor over your head. Your weight should rest entirely on your shoulders and upper back – not your neck.
2. Keeping your legs straight, use your core to extend them straight back up to the ceiling, then control the descent by rolling your spine down one vertebra at a time, with your legs remaining straight.

Find the Perfect Women’s Health Training Program for You

As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.

After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!

Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.

She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.   

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