Exercise is a connection between your mind AND your body, nurturing to both.
About me
Hi! My name is Lauren Davia. I love exercising and playing outside, but those aren’t the only things I love. A short list of my many other hobbies include playing with my 2 year old dog Tuna, knitting and crocheting, singing, researching my most recent hyper focus, and exploring the local shops Missoula has to offer.
I’m originally from Colorado and moved out to Missoula to pursue my undergraduate degree in 2021. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Integrative Physiology with a concentration in Exercise Science in 2025. Soon after I earned my personal training certification through NASM. I continued educating myself and started taking Pilates courses through Balanced Body to learn new training modalities. Through all of this learning I deepened my excitement to work with my community and help others find a home in their body through movement. From this excitement Missoula Personal Training L3D was born!
Finding a home in my body was something I struggled with for years. I had a late ADHD diagnosis at 20 and a CPTSD diagnosis that followed soon after. I struggled understanding what tools I needed to help myself. I needed to figure out how to fit myself into this puzzle that wasn’t made for me. I was often upset that I‘d been dealt these cards and wished I could trade them in for something else. This mindset didn’t help me find a home, it created further dissonance between my body and my mind. Taking time to heal and understand it’s not a burden to have a different brain and accept what I cannot change has been a hard lesson for me to learn, but one that has completely changed my mental health. While fitness has always been a part of my mental health journey, it hasn’t always been as a positive thing. There were times I used it as a punishment or something to “keep me on track,” with a more shame centered mindset. Through unlearning a lot of unhealthy habits and mentalities I’ve found the things that work for my routine. Exercising is now a way I take care of myself and find connection between my mind and my body.
This might make it sound like I have it all figured out, I don’t. I have my good days and my bad days, healing has never been linear or easy. Being gentle with myself is a daily practice I have to work on and there are times it feels easier than others. Finding this gentleness while also working towards my goals is something that will always be something I need to work on.
My Fitness Journey:
The beginning:
My main background in high school was entirely cardio sports, I did cross country, swim, and track and field all year round. I didn’t really understand the importance of strength training and I was incredibly intimidated by it. I had no idea what any of the exercises were called, I didn’t know how to use the equipment and I felt so different from the people that I saw in the gyms. I didn’t have the confidence to ask for help, so I avoided strength training that included actual weights like the plague.
This changed when I moved to college and started studying my degree. While I understood the science behind this, I found it hard to apply it because I found strength training very under-stimulating and the mental effort to get myself to strength train was difficult.
Rock Climbing and Approaches:
Growing up in Colorado I had the incredible opportunity to start rock climbing at 16, I spent summers working as a barista so I could pay for new climbing gear and spent the rest of the time outside rock climbing. I was so stoked on rock climbing that I spent literally every waking hour I could getting outside and playing as much as possible.
When I moved to college I unfortunately moved away from my rock climbing friends and ended up having a bit of a hard time lining up schedules with my friends so rock climbing fell to the back burner while I continued my degree. I never stopped climbing, just prioritized it a little less.
This changed when I started seriously getting into rock climbing my junior year of college and that sparked excitement to get stronger. I often had a hard time balancing the right ratio between strength workouts and actual climbing times, something I know other climbers struggle with too. Finding the balance between strength and climbing sessions takes specificity and I’ve found, changes from season to season. No matter what, strength training sessions always make my climbing stronger and allow me to send harder.
Along with this, approaches to outside climbs are almost never kind because the only people that go up them are climbers looking to do a route. Strength training to support these mildly grueling approaches can make all the difference. Having added strength training into my routine, I arrive to the route fresher and with more in the tank to try hard on the climb.
Running:
My running journey started high school as I stated before. I had never run with a goal before and decided my freshman year of high school I was going to do cross country. The first race we did was on the state course…it was hilly, hot, dusty, and terrifying. The girls race started before the boys and I got lapped by the top boys within the first half of the race. I felt incredibly discouraged and thought about quitting. One of the only reasons why I didn’t was because I’d promised one of my friends I’d try the team out with her for a season, and I’m so glad I didn’t give up. The community, encouragement, and confidence I found in cross country gave me even more confidence to join the swim team and do track all four years of high school. While I was never one of the top runners, constantly teetering between Varsity and JV, I was out there simply having fun. I learned what it meant to push my body and got to learn that trying hard and putting time into things pays off and it is so worth it.
From high school cross country I picked up the love of running, something I will forever be grateful for this love of running blossomed when I moved to Missoula because I got to have much better access to trails. I decided to give my first ultra marathon a try: City to Sky. A daunting, but beautiful course with 8,000ft of elevation gain and loss over 33 miles. I knew that because of this elevation I couldn’t only rely on training runs to support my muscles, I needed to strength train. This training definitely paid off. The mind-body connection I learned through the strength training was applied in my running every time I put my shoes on. Strength training made my longer efforts feel easier and my recovery time after was cut in half.
I saw the same results when I added strength training to my marathon block this last fall as well. As a runner I often drag my feet to a strength session, upset that I could be running, I don’t want to pick heavy things up, but the difference strength training has made in my running cannot be denied.
The end:
I still don’t necessarily enjoy lifting weights, but weight lifting is a NECESSARY evil for every adult who wants to recreate outside, do it safely, and do it often. There are still days I have to drag myself to a lift, but it’s worth it because I know the lifting will allow me to do the things I love and get better at them.
