Body Liberation Playground

a community of real-ass humans who are cheering each other on as we befriend our bodies, heal from wounds inflicted by diet culture & fatphobia, and playfully reclaim MOVEMENT as an act of self love.

Here are six wild & audacious visions I am holding for you & your body

You learn to listen to each other and actually like each other. It feels like you and your body are on the same team, choosing to go on adventures together. (PS I’m talking about your today-body not your aspirational someday-body.)

You become friends with your body.

1

You trust yourself to move your body your own way.

2

You intuitively move in ways that feel nourishing, supportive, fun, and like a true expression of who you are. You let go of all the shoulds and give yourself permission to do what feels good.

And if you occasionally wake up feeling extra creaky — because we all do — you feel confident in your body care tool kit. You don’t stress because you know that you’ll be able to help yourself get back to feeling good, and you’ve got compassionate people you can ask if you need help.

You feel strong, capable, and flexible the moment you roll out of bed.

3

You feel genuinely grateful for your body.

4

You appreciate it in all of its ups and downs. You honor its ebbs and flows. You treasure it, even when it disappoints you.

It doesn’t even faze you, because you know that health and weight are not the same thing. That pleasure is accessible at any size. That bodies of all sizes and weights can be strong, flexible, capable, and playful.

You cackle loudly anytime someone suggests you need to lose weight in order to get what you want out of life

5

You feel like a brave body liberation badass who is part of a team

6

You don’t torture yourself in lonely shame spirals about how your body looks, or how your body can barely do that thing that used to feel so easy. Because when you feel wobbly, you have deeply caring people to go to who really get it.

Hi, I’m Hannah Husband.

I am a body liberation coach (former personal trainer) and I believe these six things belong to all bodies.

Okay, now let’s talk about what gets in the way.

I’ve been supporting humans with their bodies since 2012. First as a personal trainer, then a pilates instructor, then a small group strength training teacher, now as a Body Liberation coach.

Over the years, I’ve listened to a lot of people.

What I’ve noticed is that most people have the same issues - which disguise themselves as an individual failing - but which I would suggest are a cultural problem.

if you’ve ever said to yourself…

“I know what I need to do... I just struggle to make time for it”

“I feel great once I start moving, but it’s so hard to get going”

“I know what I need to do... I just struggle to make time for it” “I feel great once I start moving, but it’s so hard to get going”

“At the end of the day I’m exhausted and I just can’t be motivated to do one more thing”

“I lack self-discipline”

“At the end of the day I’m exhausted and I just can’t be motivated to do one more thing” “I lack self-discipline”

“Everyone else’s needs seem more important, and I always end up putting myself last”

“I need someone else to tell me what to do”

“Everyone else’s needs seem more important, and I always end up putting myself last” “I need someone else to tell me what to do”

… you are not alone.

We all think it’s our fault that we can’t make time to be with & move our bodies.

It’s not.

The truth is, we live in a culture that doesn’t value embodiment.

A culture where we aren’t allowed to be the cyclical seasonal animals that we are.

Instead, we are taught to strive for the holy grail of consistency and linear progress.

Capitalism (and its colonial white-supremacist underpinnings) sees the body as an unruly robot whose main job is to support the brain – we value intellectual work over anything body-centered.

Tending to our physical bodies is the last thing on everyone’s to-do list.

Ironically, the only way we can experience this life is IN A BODY. There’s no other way to ride this ride.

And yet.

We all struggle to listen to our bodies' needs & desires, and to tend to their wellbeing.

This isn’t a YOU problem. This is a cultural problem.

We must name that and place it outside of ourselves.

This won’t make these cultural pressures magically disappear, but it is an essential first step in reclaiming our autonomy.

And guess what? It’s much easier to do this in community.

Those of us seeking to love and honor our bodies, and to do so actively in physical practice, are fish swimming against the current of today's culture.

It feels exhausting, because it IS exhausting.

We can make it a little bit easier by doing it together: supporting each other, witnessing each other's resilience, fierceness and commitment.

We get to remind each other that we aren't weak or broken – we are struggling against a strong cultural narrative. We are brave revolutionaries, and revolution is a long game.

And.

Culture is made by people.

The more of us that join this movement, the closer we get to a tipping point where that culture changes.

So what IS the Body Liberation Playground?

On the Body Liberation Playground, we are exploring a seasonal way of tending to our bodies.

We are unraveling the cultural narratives that keep us stuck in a cycle of shame-fueled bursts of exercise, followed by “falling off the wagon” back into sedentary stagnation. We are playfully exploring movement that truly serves us. And we are making space to honor the many feelings that come up when we turn towards our bodies as allies, after years of being at odds.

This is a space to be gentle with yourself.

A space to honor the parts that feel hard about existing in and moving our bodies (especially the parts we have decided shouldn’t be hard).

This is a space to go at your own pace, choose what feels right for you, and be tenderly supported by others doing the same.

We lovingly commiserate, we celebrate the tiniest wins, we cheer each other on, and remind each other that we are doing our absolute best, even when it doesn’t feel like our best is enough.

It’s a space to feel not-alone with the absurd & deeply infuriating inconsistency of meat suits.

It’s the body-positive group chat you didn’t know you needed.

BLP is a membership community hosted on Mighty Networks. It’s like a facebook group before Meta became The Worst. It’s private — no algorithm, no ads — the only people in there will be folks who have filled out an application, and then received a personal invitation from me.

We have monthly live calls, and a feed where you can post any question or vent about what just happened at the doctor’s office.

Together we explore a seasonal framework and monthly themes that support us to root into body trust, center our own pleasure, and create a consensual & intuitive relationship to movement.

So, who tends this space?

I do! Hi! I’m Hannah.

I am a body liberation coach and gender-expansive witch, committed to supporting folks who feel left out of, or harmed by, mainstream fitness offerings. I have always had a special knack for making misfits feel at home. I collect introverts (literally all of my best fiends and my partner) and I take great pleasure in hosting parties that even the most socially awkward folks can enjoy.

I love hosting intimate group experiences because unshaming happens when we have permission to show up exactly as we are, in connection with others.

When we all feel safe enough to bring our weird & wild selves, actual magic happens.

What we’re up to on the Playground

We follow a seasonal framework with monthly themes that support us with the HOW, while leaving complete freedom as to the WHAT.

Lemme splain.

HOW you relate to your body, exercise, and the way your brain works is more important than WHAT you actually do.

Your WHAT might be…

  • getting into a habit of checking in with how your body feels at least once a day

  • learning to strength train for the first time

  • practicing seeing yourself as “hot”

  • taking up running

  • making space to move playfully and without goals

  • building stamina so you can keep up on a hiking tour through Italy this fall

  • getting back to movement postpartum

Let’s explore movement & body tending…

  • in partnership with your body (feels like you & your body are on the same team.)

  • with a foundation of evidence-based fitness science (stripped of diet culture nonsense) that honors your seasonal ebbs & flows, and varying capacity.

  • centering pleasure - honoring your likes & dislikes, and your sensory needs.

  • in alignment with your vision — anchoring your practice around who you are, and what is most important to you.

Together we will support you in discovering HOW to do your WHAT…

Here’s what you can expect each season

  • We gather live on zoom to explore what is coming up for each of us around that month’s theme. This is a potent opportunity to share what’s real, be seen & supported, and inspire each other with our collective wisdom. It always amazes me how one person’s share will be the perfect nugget of nourishment for someone else listening. Even when you feel like you just rambled and have no idea what you said — when you allow yourself to unpack your brain, we all benefit. We get to feel not-alone in the most healing way when we hear each other’s raw, un-curated truth.

  • There will be weekly invitations like journal prompts, short movement practices & rituals, and polls to check in.

  • We have a growing collection of pre-recorded movement snacks (20mins or less) and movement meals (20mins or more). Help yourself any time!

  • We are also collecting resources (podcasts, weight neutral health care directories, body positive fitness offerings, meme therapy, book recs…). This is an ever-evolving collection that grows with the community. Got a good rec? Add it! Looking for a rec? Ask!

wondering if this is the space for you?

this is for you if…

you aren’t ready to do any kind of movement yet -

you are welcome and you belong. We will hold you so sweetly in you resistance and not-readiness, because the secret to finding your own motivation to move is to allow yourself to be still as long as you damn well need to.

you’ve had an obsessive relationship with exercise in the past,

or used it for self punishment or to “make up for” things you ate. You’d love to have a healthy relationship with exercise, but you’re scared to even try

you deeply desire to feel at home in your body.

Your body doesn’t feel like your own right now — either it never has, or there has been a dramatic change that caused the rift.

you’ve been burned by fitness and wellness offerings in the past.

So many of us have gotten so hopeful when we found a class or a program that seemed like it would help us finally get moving with joy and fun and no fatphobic BS just to find out it was diet culture disguised as wellness.

you loathe the gym but long to feel stronger.

You can’t imagine setting foot inside a weight room, but you kinda think you might love lifting heavy shit.

you are exhausted and you’d like to feel more energized and resourced.

You often feel overwhelmed and want to feel grounded & capable in stressful situations.

Let’s get you and your body on the same team. Let’s laugh & cry and remember how our bodies WANT to move. You deserve it — and you deserve besties who deeply know & see you along the way.

Are you ready to play with us?

We open the doors before each season begins

at the summer & winter solstices and spring & fall equinoxes

Doors are currently open until Oct 7th

Join us!

You have two choices for how to pay:

$27

Per Month

If it would feel most aligned for you to pay monthly and have the option to cancel at any point, we invite you to sign up for a monthly subscription. It will auto renew on the date that you joined, and you’ll receive an email reminding you that you’re going to be charged 10 days in advance of the auto payment. It costs a tiny bit more per month than paying in full, because it costs us a little more to run each of those payments.

$300

Per Year

If it would feel good to make a commitment to yourself and to this community for a full year, we invite you to pay upfront. This is a huge help to us: having a yearly budget gives us so much freedom to plan for amazing offerings and guest teachers for the year ahead. It might also feel good for you to pay once and not have to think about it again for 12 months (less personal admin — yay!)

NEW!

Take a moment, and feel into your body. Which option feels right?

Go with that one!

If neither of these options are financially accessible for you, but you want to be here, we want you to be here.

Send us a message here and let us know what amount would be doable for you, monthly or annually, and we will set it up.

FAQ

  • I am a nonbinary person who presents very femme, so I tend to draw in women and femmes. But I firmly believe communities become the most rich & resilient when they are diverse and varied. This playground is open to anyone who has felt left out of or harmed by mainstream fitness & wellness offerings, including but not limited to:

    Folks in larger bodies, smaller bodies, and folks who claim “fat” as the neutral descriptor that it is.

    Folks who are disabled, living with chronic pain, managing mental health variations, and/or living with chronic illness.

    Folks who are trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and cis (including cis men.)

    Folks who have a history of disordered eating, and/or chronic dieting.

    Folks who are queer, bi, pan, and straight.

    Folks who are neurodivergent (Hannah, your host has ADHD!)

  • You can — no questions asked, no hoops to jump though!

    **If you opt to pay monthly,** you can cancel anytime. You’ll get an email 10 days before the auto-billing happens so you have a chance to check in with yourself about continuing.

    **If you opt to pay annually,** you can also cancel anytime, but we aren’t able to offer refunds on paid-up-front memberships — so take the time you need to make an embodied decision that aligns with your needs!

  • It’s a buffet — eat what you want, leave what you don’t. There is no need to “finish what’s on your plate” ever. The whole point of this space is to practice trusting our own wisdom, as we feel it in our bodies. To that end, I invite you to trust yourself to know how much to show up for and how often.

  • You are welcome here! Doing movement is not a requirement. If you are feeling big resistance to moving you body, this space is for you. Full permission to not move for as long as it feels right.

Ready to join us on the playground?

$27

Per Month

If it would feel most aligned for you to pay monthly and have the option to cancel at any point, we invite you to sign up for a monthly subscription. It will auto renew on the date that you joined, and you’ll receive an email reminding you that you’re going to be charged 10 days in advance of the auto payment. It costs a tiny bit more per month than paying in full, because it costs us a little more to run each of those payments.

$300

Per Year

If it would feel good to make a commitment to yourself and to this community for a full year, we invite you to pay upfront. This is a huge help to us: having a yearly budget gives us so much freedom to plan for amazing offerings and guest teachers for the year ahead. It might also feel good for you to pay once and not have to think about it again for 12 months (less personal admin — yay!)

NEW!

Take a moment, and feel into your body. Which option feels right?

Go with that one!

If neither of these options are financially accessible for you, but you want to be here, we want you to be here.

Send us a message here and let us know what amount would be doable for you, monthly or annually, and we will set it up.