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Goddess to the Core: An Inspired Workout to Maximize Your Fitness, Beauty & Power
Women are constantly faced with choices and demands. They can achieve great success in life, yet they still have a deep, nurturing center that longs to be expressed and fulfilled. They want to be a leader for their families and communities, and attain all that they desire, require, and deserve. How can women fully manifest their power while honoring their fluid and flexible feminine nature?
After traveling down this road herself, Sierra Bender experienced a hard-won spiritual breakthrough and discovered that the answers to her questions couldn't be found in traditional healing systems or in our spiritually disconnected society-they were found, quite simply, within.
In Goddess to the Core, Sierra offers a new way of living with true power and purpose by redefining fitness, beauty, and power for the twenty-first-century woman. Her unique method of healing from the inside out breaks the cycle of stress and disempowerment by developing all four bodies-spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical-to help women reclaim, restore, and rejoice in their core feminine essence.
Cultivate inner knowing to understand one's true nature Learn silence so the mind and heart can evaluate and reflect Work with the breath to deepen emotional intelligence Gain a stronger, leaner, more stable muscular foundation Using an innovative mix of yoga techniques and indigenous spiritual tools such as smudging, prayer, ritual, and meditation, Sierra offers women practical guidance and inspiration for taking back vital energy while rediscovering happiness, health and wellness, inside and out.
"Her unique integrative program offers women a blend of ancient and modern, spiritual and physical tools for strengthening themselves from the inside out. When women leave her workshop at Omega, their transformation is absolutely visible!" —Carla Goldstein, Director of the Women's Leadership Center at the Omega Institute
"...[A] force of nature, an inspired teacher who has through direct experience created an astonishing technique of transformation certain to reveal the goddess within." —Wade Davis, Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society and bestselling author of One River and The Serpent and the Rainbow
"She has seemingly interminable knowledge about how to help women 'be women.' She herself is challenging, compassionate, and radiantly confident, a model of how to balance the warrior and goddess energies women have." —Sharon M., Ph.D., Harvard Medical School executive coach for women
"Sierra Bender is not an academic who was dying to teach because she was afraid of living; she is a "Warrior of Life" who can teach because she allowed nearly dying to release her to discover living." —Warren Farrell, Ph.D., author of Why Men Are the Way They Are and Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say
After traveling down this road herself, Sierra Bender experienced a hard-won spiritual breakthrough and discovered that the answers to her questions couldn't be found in traditional healing systems or in our spiritually disconnected society-they were found, quite simply, within.
In Goddess to the Core, Sierra offers a new way of living with true power and purpose by redefining fitness, beauty, and power for the twenty-first-century woman. Her unique method of healing from the inside out breaks the cycle of stress and disempowerment by developing all four bodies-spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical-to help women reclaim, restore, and rejoice in their core feminine essence.
Cultivate inner knowing to understand one's true nature Learn silence so the mind and heart can evaluate and reflect Work with the breath to deepen emotional intelligence Gain a stronger, leaner, more stable muscular foundation Using an innovative mix of yoga techniques and indigenous spiritual tools such as smudging, prayer, ritual, and meditation, Sierra offers women practical guidance and inspiration for taking back vital energy while rediscovering happiness, health and wellness, inside and out.
"Her unique integrative program offers women a blend of ancient and modern, spiritual and physical tools for strengthening themselves from the inside out. When women leave her workshop at Omega, their transformation is absolutely visible!" —Carla Goldstein, Director of the Women's Leadership Center at the Omega Institute
"...[A] force of nature, an inspired teacher who has through direct experience created an astonishing technique of transformation certain to reveal the goddess within." —Wade Davis, Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society and bestselling author of One River and The Serpent and the Rainbow
"She has seemingly interminable knowledge about how to help women 'be women.' She herself is challenging, compassionate, and radiantly confident, a model of how to balance the warrior and goddess energies women have." —Sharon M., Ph.D., Harvard Medical School executive coach for women
"Sierra Bender is not an academic who was dying to teach because she was afraid of living; she is a "Warrior of Life" who can teach because she allowed nearly dying to release her to discover living." —Warren Farrell, Ph.D., author of Why Men Are the Way They Are and Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say
- GenresSelf Help
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
16 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 10, 2012
Just started and I'm already being rubbed up the wrong way. Somehow being a warrior isn't feminine.
While there were some good points in this book it's also absolutist. My way or the highway style of thinking. I also wanted a great big "citation please" stamp.
Bender has a vision of femininity, a vision that is absolutist and in many ways offensive. She also picks and chooses tropes and ideas, mostly from "native American" sources without citing the source, or tribe and without respecting the cultural context.
The exercises are offered with medical precautions and to modify them, but often without modifications, the photographs of the yoga positions owe more to art than utility.
An example of the absolutism and a couple of chapters that I wanted the "Citation please" stamp for were on page 254
"Our body has its own off and on switch that tells us what our body needsa and craves. [...]
To turn this switch back on, you must tame the stimulants that affect the nervous system, such as white and wheat flour, white sugar, white potatoes, milk products, too much caffeine, and too much alcohol. All of these foods create mucus that numbs our senses and slows down our energy. Mucus carries bacteria, which affects the immune system - and we wonder why we have such diseases as ADD, obesity, food allergies and addiction. It is this simple: we need to eat foods that clean our body, give us more energy, and are easily digested. If not, your body becomes a toxic dump, leading to disease. You can do all the exercise in the world, but if you do not have a healthy eating plan to go with it, you are defeating the purpose of exercising, so throw in the towel and save yourself the burn."
This is a simplistic view of mucus production and flies in the face of most advice, it's also very, my way or the highway thinking, which I find difficult to swallow.
The spirituality in the book is a mish-mash of cultures with a tinge of similar simplistic thinking and a lack of respect for the cultures she's mining. She mixes yoga, buddhism, ancient Celtic, Hindu, Greek, Roman, Christian and Native American beliefs with abandon and I felt a little uncomfortable with the glib way this was done.
It's good fuel for internal debate but I would explore other texts for more information. Her view of female warriors seems to be more domestic warriors than fighters and to be honest in my world there is place for both.
She did kinda lose me at having to give up coffee...
While there were some good points in this book it's also absolutist. My way or the highway style of thinking. I also wanted a great big "citation please" stamp.
Bender has a vision of femininity, a vision that is absolutist and in many ways offensive. She also picks and chooses tropes and ideas, mostly from "native American" sources without citing the source, or tribe and without respecting the cultural context.
The exercises are offered with medical precautions and to modify them, but often without modifications, the photographs of the yoga positions owe more to art than utility.
An example of the absolutism and a couple of chapters that I wanted the "Citation please" stamp for were on page 254
"Our body has its own off and on switch that tells us what our body needsa and craves. [...]
To turn this switch back on, you must tame the stimulants that affect the nervous system, such as white and wheat flour, white sugar, white potatoes, milk products, too much caffeine, and too much alcohol. All of these foods create mucus that numbs our senses and slows down our energy. Mucus carries bacteria, which affects the immune system - and we wonder why we have such diseases as ADD, obesity, food allergies and addiction. It is this simple: we need to eat foods that clean our body, give us more energy, and are easily digested. If not, your body becomes a toxic dump, leading to disease. You can do all the exercise in the world, but if you do not have a healthy eating plan to go with it, you are defeating the purpose of exercising, so throw in the towel and save yourself the burn."
This is a simplistic view of mucus production and flies in the face of most advice, it's also very, my way or the highway thinking, which I find difficult to swallow.
The spirituality in the book is a mish-mash of cultures with a tinge of similar simplistic thinking and a lack of respect for the cultures she's mining. She mixes yoga, buddhism, ancient Celtic, Hindu, Greek, Roman, Christian and Native American beliefs with abandon and I felt a little uncomfortable with the glib way this was done.
It's good fuel for internal debate but I would explore other texts for more information. Her view of female warriors seems to be more domestic warriors than fighters and to be honest in my world there is place for both.
She did kinda lose me at having to give up coffee...
December 20, 2012
Changing my life Sierra.....physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally.....LOVE
Read
July 14, 2025I bought this during my "yoga goddess" phase. It's from Lewellyn Publications, which I now know is not a good fit for me. I would still buy this if I could get it on Kindle though.
July 22, 2025
📘 READING JOURNAL ENTRY
🧠 Summary with Spoilers
This is not a traditional workout guide—it’s a mind-body-spirit manifesto aimed at empowering women to reclaim their physical strength, sensuality, emotional intelligence, and spiritual authority. Bender presents the "4 Body Fit" method, which integrates:
Physical (fitness, breathwork)
Emotional (journaling, inner work)
Mental (affirmations, mindset)
Spiritual (energy, intuition)
The book’s core idea is that women’s empowerment starts with connecting to their whole selves—not just the physical body. Exercise is reframed as sacred movement; sweat and strength become symbols of feminine power.
🧠 Summary with Spoilers
This is not a traditional workout guide—it’s a mind-body-spirit manifesto aimed at empowering women to reclaim their physical strength, sensuality, emotional intelligence, and spiritual authority. Bender presents the "4 Body Fit" method, which integrates:
Physical (fitness, breathwork)
Emotional (journaling, inner work)
Mental (affirmations, mindset)
Spiritual (energy, intuition)
The book’s core idea is that women’s empowerment starts with connecting to their whole selves—not just the physical body. Exercise is reframed as sacred movement; sweat and strength become symbols of feminine power.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2012
Typical mish-mash of appropriated religion. She didn't even bother to research what band her ~native american practices~ came from. Also, she has a really rigid idea of what "feminine" is. I kind of expected as much, but it was very disappointing.
Read
August 24, 2011I LOVE it!!
April 25, 2012
Good book connecting women back to their power and reminding us to tap into it.
November 5, 2012
Sierra really speaks my language. I love this amazing book.
April 15, 2017
Good book. Caught my interest. I just got distracted in the middle and haven't had time to come back to it.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews