Breaking Muscle is team of experienced professionals dedicated to providing comprehensive strength and conditioning, and mind/body wellness programs. We draw from our education, experience, and empirical research within our community to provide full scale services to athletes, coaches and consumers. Breaking Muscle specializes in Olympic lifting, powerlifting, functional fitness, yoga, and mind/body modalities. Breaking Muscle utilizes the latest research, products, and equipment to provide services to advance human health and performance.
 
Mindith Rahmat, Founder
 

Mindith is the Founder of Breaking Muscle. Although she has an MA in Clinical Psychology, her passion has always been health and wellness. An avid dancer in high school and college, she became an RYT 500 Certified Yoga Therapist early on in her career, and was always passionate about the science of optimal performance.

 

She would go on to become a CrossFit enthusiast and a certified CrossFit coach. A shoulder injury sidelined her for nearly a year, during which time she explored rehabilitative practices to avoid invasive surgery. Eventually, Mindith would go on to pursue the art of Russian kettlebells and gain back full mobility and strength.

 

Mindith started Breaking Muscle to share her knowledge and passion with friends and family, and it has continued to grow and gain avid followers around the world in multiple disciplines. Having studied under Yoga masters like Sara Powers, Baron Baptiste, Bryan Kest, Shiva Rea, and Rod Stryker, Mindith’s vision was to bring masters of all disciplines together on Breaking Muscle.

 

Mindith, her husband, and their four children live in Southern California where she is actively engaged in pursuing new passions in bodyweight training and creating programs for women. Mindith is still active in her yoga practice, and continues to provide pre- and post-natal yoga training.

 

Jessica Hedrick, Business Development and Creative Strategy

 
Jessica is an athletic enthusiast. Her truest passions are movement and creativity. A team member of Breaking Muscle since the site’s inception, she handles Business Development and Creative Strategy. She graduated with a B.A in Psychology from the University of Central Florida.

 

Jessica started her athletic journey at age 6 in the area of competitive ice skating. She competed on the national competition circuit in ice skating, as well as in equestrian showing riding (English style). She continued her athletics through high school in track & field, specializing in hurdles relay team and 200 meter hurdles. Jessica also studied Martial Arts and Kickboxing and went on to win two US Opens in sparring.  

 

Over the last 13 years Jessica has been pursuing a more creative athletic journey, studying and teaching dance, yoga, and musical movement. She is currently training with Suhaila Salimpour, an internationally acclaimed performer, teacher, and choreographer. Jessica was the 15th student internationally to pass her SSSD L3 Certification and is actively working towards the advanced L4 certificate. Jessica loves mixing up her training to keep it fresh with body weight exercise, Russian kettlebells, and swimming.

 
Becca Borawski, Managing Editor
 

A lifelong writer, Becca found her way to a career in health and fitness through martial arts and CrossFit. After graduating from the University of Southern California with an MFA in Cinema-Television Production, Becca worked as a music editor for film and television. Soon after graduation she started studying martial arts. Though she started with traditional martial arts it was not long before she discovered mixed martial arts (MMA) and her path was forever altered. She began training in Brazilian jiu jitsu (BJJ) and muay Thai and started working with professional MMA fighters, building websites, working on fight promotions, and producing videos.

 

As a competitor in BJJ herself, Becca wanted to get stronger and fitter. In 2005 she discovered CrossFit and became a student at CrossFit Los Angeles. In only a couple of years she became CrossFit Level III Certified, left her career in the film industry, and dedicated herself full time to coaching. She has since been certified through CrossFit in Olympic lifting, powerlifting, nutrition, endurance, and kids coaching. She also held an NSCA-CSCS from 2006-2008 and is a certified IndoRow instructor. In addition to coaching adults, she founded the CrossFit LA Kids program in 2010, where she taught children ages 5-17.

 

Becca regularly takes on new sports and activities, which have included indoor rowing, rock climbing, hip-hop dance, fencing, and most recently, cycling, powerlifting, and

Forrest Yoga. She believes taking on new things makes her a better athlete, writer, and coach.

 

Nicole Crawford, Editorial Coordinator

 

Nicole's passion is helping women stay active and strong during and after pregnancy.  She is a certified personal trainer and women's fitness specialist (NASM) and a pre- and post-natal fitness specialist (AFPA). Nicole thinks all moms should have the opportunity and support they need to stay fit and enjoys working as a volunteer trainer and doula at crisis pregnancy centers. She is also completing DONA International's requirements to become a certified birth doula.

 

Nicole has her Masters degree in philosophy from the University of Leuven, Belgium, where she wrote her thesis on the ancient Greek characterization of nature and movement. She loves running, kettlebells, dance, and yoga. The primary obstacles to her own fitness are her love for books, homebrewed beer, and good food. You can find her on Twitter and Facebook or at her blog.