Senior music business major Alex Beasley is a business student turned health and fitness professional who has recently blogged about her expertise on sleep for Huffington Post’s blog, HuffPost. Her two articles thus far are “How to Sleep Like a Caveman” and “You are What You Sleep.”
On April 22, Belmont will host a stop of Arianna Huffington’s “Sleep Revolution” college book tour. The book is about the dangers of sleep deprivation and strategies to counter them. Huffington knows how widespread sleep deprivation is on college campuses, and she wanted to hear from a student on every campus she was visiting about their experiences and what they observe about sleep among students. As Belmont’s Fitness & Recreation Department has worked closely with this event, Director Jaime Zeller asked students to write for HuffPost and Beasley responded. The organization’s director of college outreach felt Beasley was a good match for the content and style of the blog, and her profile was set up and published three days later.
Beasley also runs her own blog, “For the Love of Strength,” providing accessible fitness, lifestyle and nutrition ideas for readers. Beasley explained she began the blog as she realized her lack of a creative outlet for her love of writing and after she noticed the trend in the fitness industry influencing women to realize their capabilities and strength.
“That’s where my blog title comes from. I want to help women love their bodies because they love how strong they are, both physically and mentally – not because they are having to compare themselves to arbitrary societal standards,” she said. “Writing for my blog has not only awakened a creative spirit that I had turned away from, but it has highlighted the importance of human connection and understanding.”
Beasley is a nationally certified personal trainer and is currently continuing her education at level one of NASM Women’s Fitness Specialist and Precision Nutrition. “For the articles on HuffPost, I start with personal experience and then research other people or organizations who are living out those practices as well to cite and give just a little more validity to what I’m putting out there,” she said. “When I began working in the health & fitness field, I made it a point to ‘walk the talk.’ I never tell someone to do something that I hadn’t or wouldn’t if the situation were reversed. Of course there are some exceptions to that rule, but if I put it out there as advice to others, I’m most likely walking the talk.”
