Play Strong Fitness: Miranda Lyle builds confidence, strength, and community in Park City

Miranda Lyle, owner of Play Strong Fitness, carves a trail in Park City. Lyle combines her passion for mountain biking with her expertise in strength coaching to help athletes build resilience, recover from injuries, and stay strong to play strong. Photo: Miranda Lyle

PARK CITY, Utah — For Park City-based strength coach Miranda Lyle, movement has never been optional — it has been a lifelong calling.

“I went to school for exercise science, and from there, I’ve always been involved in the movement world,” Lyle said. “My first job was teaching dance and gymnastics. Movement and instruction have always been the backbone of who I am.”

After graduating in 2010, Lyle moved to Park City, where she taught strength and conditioning classes and built a local following. However, it was during her years as an exercise physiologist at Park City Hospital that she noticed a significant gap in fitness programming.

“I was seeing people who were going into PT and, upon release,  still not strong enough to handle the demands of their sport, specifically mountain biking and skiing.  By not following up with a proper strength plan with the correct guidance, the risk of re-injury is incredibly high for most people,” she said. “I found myself more interested in not only the injury aspect of fitness and using my background in rehabilitative strength with clients, but also really helping women understand that workouts are not just sweating and feeling exhausted every time. Workouts should feel good, which has always been a huge passion in my coaching.”

That realization led to the creation of Play Strong Fitness, her coaching business specializing in three areas: return-to-sport strength training, women’s fitness, and mountain bike performance. Lyle describes her approach using her signature SEE method — Safe, Effective, and Efficient.

“Movement is a privilege and not a right,” she said. “More people should view exercise and activity as a privilege they get to do, and then work to maintain that privilege for a lifelong period of time.”

“Messy action” over perfection

A central part of Lyle’s philosophy is what she calls “taking messy action.”

“All too often, people say, ‘I’ll start Monday,’ or ‘I’ll start when the timing’s perfect,’” she said. “It turns fitness into a wish list. In reality, if we just take messy action and do the thing — whether it’s reaching out to a trainer or going for an extra thousand steps — it makes fitness less scary. Mishaps are normal. That’s the human experience.”

Another common challenge she hears is the frustration that “what I’m doing doesn’t seem to be working.”

“Usually I find it’s because people have been doing the same workouts for years with no progression, or they’re approaching workouts at random with no plan,” Lyle said. “One of my strong suits is teaching clients the importance of keeping hard days hard and easy days easy. Having a clear strategy can be a complete game-changer.”

She often sums up her approach with three words: Strategy. Confidence. Success.

“This simple shift is often one of the biggest needle-movers — helping people view their workouts as a true roadmap that leads to their goals,” she said.

Biking passion turned program

Mountain biking is at the heart of Lyle’s personal and professional life.

“I’ve been biking for about 13 years now, and I was noticing riders talk about sore hips, knee pain, and stiffness — especially riding consecutive days in Park City,” she said. “There were resources for professional riders, but nothing for recreational bikers.”

In response, she created Off Trail, a year-round conditioning program designed for mountain bikers of all levels. The program follows the rhythm of the riding season with pre-season, in-season, and post-season training to help riders “increase their strength and performance on the trail, while also prioritizing recovery.”

“It has made me a 10 times better biker,” Lyle said. “The fact that I was able to take my two passions, coaching and mountain biking, and squish them together into a program that has helped hundreds of riders has been phenomenal.”

Online training, redefined

Like many in the fitness industry, the pandemic pushed Lyle to bring her coaching online. She now runs her business through a custom app, offering one-on-one coaching, group programs, and do-it-yourself plans.

“The online training space isn’t what people think it is,” she said. “The biggest misconception is that people need someone in person for accountability. But I’ve seen my online clients develop self-discipline much faster. They realize they don’t need to rely on outside motivation — they already have it in themselves.”

The shift has also allowed her to reach clients around the country while regaining balance in her own life.

“Back when I was coaching in person, I was in the worst shape of my life,” she said. “Moving mostly everything online gave me my time back, and it allows me to show up as a better coach for my clients.”

Inviting the community in

Today, after nearly two decades in the fitness industry, Lyle is focused on building strength and resilience for others. She offers free discovery calls for anyone interested in exploring their own fitness goals.

“I really do believe muscle mass is a fountain of youth,” she said. “It’s almost my duty to help teach that. The more people realize movement is a privilege, the more they’ll want to protect it.”

For more information, visit playstrongfitness.com or follow her coaching updates on Instagram.