Personalized Strength Training | Skare Spine Rochester, MN

If the thought of walking into a crowded gym makes your stomach drop, you’re not alone.

For a lot of women, especially between 30 and 60, the goal isn’t to become a “gym person.” The goal is much simpler (and honestly way more important): feel strong, confident, and pain-free in everyday life.

You want to lift your kids or grandkids without your back barking. You want to travel, hike, garden, play pickleball, or crush a weekend project without paying for it with days of tightness and headaches. You want to look in the mirror and feel proud of what your body can do and not just what it looks like.

But here’s the catch: the traditional gym environment can feel like the opposite of supportive. It can feel loud, confusing, and intimidating. And when you’ve already dealt with back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, or a history of “tweaking something,” the gym can feel like a place where injuries happen.

That’s why we built something different at Skare Spine & Performance in Rochester, MN: personalized strength training with a state-of-the-art Tonal Home Gym, led by a chiropractor, in a private clinic setting so that you can get stronger safely, without the packed-gym vibe.

Getting stronger in a safe space (that isn’t a packed gym)

Gyms can be great. But they’re not for everyone, and they’re not the only way to get strong.

Many women want to strength train, but they’re looking for a place that feels:

Private and comfortable
Non-judgmental
Guided by a professional
Built around their body, their history, and their goals

Because the truth is, the gym experience can bring up real concerns:

Fear of being watched or “doing it wrong.”
Not knowing what machines to use.
Not knowing what weight to choose
Worrying about injury.
Feeling like everyone else knows what they’re doing (and you don’t).

If you’ve ever walked into a gym and thought, “Where do I even start?”—that’s not a motivation problem. That’s a system problem.

Why many women avoid traditional gyms

Most people don’t avoid the gym because they’re lazy. They avoid it because it doesn’t feel safe physically or emotionally.

Here are some of the most common concerns we hear:

“I don’t know where to start.”

It’s overwhelming. There are endless machines, free weights, classes, programs, influencers, and opinions.

And when you’ve got limited time (because life), the last thing you want is to waste 45 minutes wandering around hoping you picked the “right” exercises.

“I’m worried I’ll hurt my back, knees, or shoulders.”

This is a big one, especially if you’ve had an injury before.

A lot of women have dealt with things like:

Low back pain that flares up randomly
Tight neck and shoulders from work stress
Knee pain going up/down stairs
Hip pain during workouts or walks
Old injuries from sports, pregnancy, or years of sitting

So when someone says, “Just start lifting!” it can feel… risky.

Because what if you make it worse?

“I don’t feel comfortable asking for help in a crowded gym.”

Even if trainers are around, many people don’t want to interrupt someone, feel like they’re bothering a staff member, or ask questions in a room full of strangers.

And let’s be real, some gym environments can feel performative. You don’t want to feel stared at. You don’t want to feel judged. You just want to work on yourself.

Life stage factors make it even harder.

Women from 30 to 60 are often in a season of life where their time and energy are already stretched:

Perimenopause and hormonal shifts that affect recovery, sleep, and body composition
Busy careers with lots of sitting, stress, and “always on” schedules
Parenting, from toddlers to teenagers to college chaos
Caring for aging parents or juggling family responsibilities
Not having time to waste on random workouts that don’t feel helpful

In this stage of life, workouts need to be efficient, targeted, and worth it.

What makes chiropractor-led strength training different

At Skare Spine & Performance, strength training isn’t random. It’s not “just sweat.” It’s not a boot camp. And it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all program.

It’s intentional strength training, built around your movement, your goals, and your body’s history, with a chiropractor, Dr. Nate Skare, guiding the process.

Here’s what makes it different:

1) One-on-one sessions in a private clinic setting
No crowded gym. No feeling watched. No waiting for equipment.

You’re in a calm, controlled environment where the focus is on you, not the room.

2) Direct oversight from a chiropractor who understands movement and joints
This matters more than most people realize.

Strength training is amazing, but only when it matches your body’s needs. When form breaks down or the wrong exercise is chosen, pain can show up fast.

A chiropractor who works with:

spine mechanics
joint health
movement patterns
mobility restrictions
prior injuries

…can spot compensations, adjust the plan in real time, and help you build strength without feeding the problem.

3) Your history, injuries, and goals guide the plan
We don’t just ask, “What do you want to work out today?”

We look at the bigger picture:

What’s been bothering you?
What movements feel sketchy?
What are your goals—pain relief, energy, confidence, performance, longevity?
What does your schedule realistically allow?
What do you need most right now?

4) Our workouts are 30 minutes long

Using Tonal, we can get highly efficient workouts in 30 minutes.

No more spending 2 hours in the gym and not knowing what progress you are making
I guarantee this will be the most efficient 30 minutes of your day.

Then we build a plan that makes sense for your life, not someone else’s highlight reel.

Meet Tonal: Smart strength training without the intimidation

One of the tools that makes our strength training sessions so effective is Tonal an innovative strength system that replaces an entire gym’s worth of equipment using digital resistance.

Instead of stacks of plates, dumbbells, and machines everywhere, Tonal gives you a clean, efficient setup that can handle:

presses, rows, squats, hinges, pulls, rotations
upper body, lower body, core, and full-body training
strength, control, and stability work

What makes Tonal especially helpful for women who feel intimidated by gyms?

It removes a lot of the friction:

You don’t have to guess what weight to use.
You don’t have to “load plates” or set up complicated equipment.
You don’t have to wonder if you’re progressing correctly.

Smart progression and tracking

Tonal can automatically adjust resistance in small increments, so progression feels smooth and safe, not like jumping from “too easy” to “too heavy.”

It can also track your:

range of motion
strength outputs
progress over time

So you can see real momentum, even when life is busy.

And because you’re doing it in a private clinic, you get the best of both worlds: innovative technology + professional coaching + a comfortable environment.

How the process works at Skare Spine & Performance

Here’s what you can expect, step by step:

Step1: Initial Assessment on the Tonal

We start with a conversation about your history and goals, followed by a short exam of range of motion, your joints, and other areas if needed.

We then take you through the initial assessment on the Tonal. During this assessment, you perform four lifts of 10 reps. Based on these lifts, the Tonal provides a strength score and an overview of your upper-body, lower-body, and core strength. After this assessment, it knows precisely which weight to pick for you for every single exercise for your workouts from here on out.

Step 2: Build your foundation

From there, we decide on how many workouts per week you would like to do. Dr. Nate Skare then builds your programs based on your assessment, frequency, and goals.

Most of our movements are centered around function and longevity. Most people don’t need “harder workouts.”

They need the right fundamentals:

Breathing and bracing
hip hinge mechanics
shoulder control
core stability that actually transfers to life
strength through safe ranges of motion

This is where confidence starts.

Step 3: Train with guidance and progression

Your sessions are guided and coached, with adjustments made in real time.

The goal is steady progress—not boom-and-bust cycles.

And the Tonal always knows when to progress you and gives you live feedback of your progression, so you can see that you are gaining strength and making the progress you desire.