Madi Richardson is a Tisch sophomore studying Recorded Music at the Clive Davis Institute, but what makes her even cooler is her new fitness blog, Madi Muscle.
An astute member of NYU’s track team and a talented vocalist, Richardson wants to inspire people through her new Instagram account combining both of her passions.
“It’s essentially an avenue I can take to kind of spread my passion,” she explained. “I really love music and fitness and so combining them to create Madi Muscle was — it’s been a big goal for a really long time. A lot of my friends and people I’m in constant contact with have been asking me for workouts — for years, I’ve been writing workouts for other people.”
While she originally created the @madimuscle Instagram in late 2018 as a secondary account, Richardson recently transitioned it to her main account at the start of spring break. For a few weeks now, she has been posting workouts, recipes and inspirational life updates, which we all need right now amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Since the pandemic, I’ve really been using the extra time I have to research new recipes and take more time planning out my workouts,” she told WSN over email. “The move to being remote is a bit difficult but by using gym alternatives — like resistance bands, DIY weights, and bodyweight circuits — I’ve been able to stay on track for my athletic goals.”
In addition to working on her physical health through the account, Richardson has made strides in improving her mental health.
“Also incorporating self care (like going on walks with my dog, reading books, painting) have been incredibly helpful for elevating my mood while being on lockdown!” Richardson told WSN over email.
When asked how she comes up with ideas and how often she posts, Richardson explained her organized scheduling process.
“Before I started this, I forced myself to sit down and make an 8-week plan because otherwise I wouldn’t do it,” she stated. “So I started writing out specific days to post and I try to post every 3 days. There’s specific post times that I’ve figured out so I can keep myself accountable.”
Between workout, recipe and other motivational posts, she uploads Instagram stories almost every day of her daily workouts or challenges for followers to complete that she has researched or created.
Although most of us have a lot of free time on our hands with the practice of social distancing, Richardson explained that she is the busiest she has ever been right now. As a fitness lover, she has been studying to become a personal trainer since last June, but juggling the training with school has been extremely time-consuming. She categorized the account as a hobby.
“The Madi Muscle portion has actually been pretty easy because it’s everything I’m doing already, I’m just videoing it,” she explained.
Because Madi Muscle is only a few weeks old, Richardson is still figuring out her plans for marketing. “I created this just for my peers because they’re the ones that have been asking me for this stuff.”
“I kind of look at it as a communal tool, I’m not necessarily wanting followers,” she said. “I have no idea who my audience is gonna be, that’s just gonna take a lot of time. Right now, it’s just my friends.”
While she has mastered her workout and recipe plans, she is still deciding on how she wants to tie in music with Madi Muscle.
With her Recorded Music major at the Clive Davis Institute, she loves to support her fellow musicians by featuring their music in her workout videos.
“The whole point is to share music, to make music,” she said, recounting her experience at Clive thus far. “I use a lot of friends’ music in my workout videos because I want to give people more attention who I really feel like deserve it,” she said.
Richardson hopes to possibly start posting music features or interviews of musicians on the account too.
“Not a lot of people are trying to combine fitness and music, because I do wanna be an artist as well, and I have music to release, I just want a little bit more — I want people to understand who I am as this athlete and then I want to bring in the music.”
When asked her long-term goals with the account, she admitted that she doesn’t know how it will tie in with her career.
“I just wanna be my own business, my own entity,” Richardson said. “It’s just gonna have to sit, exist, and grow for a little while and then we’ll see. But I just wanna have fun with it, number one, and maybe create a career out of it.”
Along with her goal of becoming a personal trainer, she also hopes to become a recording artist.
“I don’t wanna give up on the whole artist thing yet,” she said. “It’s really hard when you see a bunch of other people struggling with it, and to do that on top of a possible second career seems a little stressful.”
She seems excited about the possibility that she could connect her loves for music and fitness in her future career through Madi Muscle, since music is so necessary in every aspect of human life, but especially fitness.
“Everyone uses music to work out,” Richardson said. “I haven’t met one person who hates music and doesn’t wanna listen to it when they work out. It’s such an important piece.”
If you’re looking for incredible workouts, fun recipes and bits and pieces of inspiration, follow @madimuscle on Instagram.
Email Addison Aloian at [email protected].
