How Fitness Became my Career

I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t active. 

Many of my early childhood memories include training for children’s fun runs by running laps around my neighborhood with my mom or dad, racing bikes with my brothers on the same half mile loop behind our house, trying (and failing) to get good at soccer with my elementary school friends, and having a short term love for gymnastics from the ages of 8-10. 

Since then, I have dabbled in many athletic endeavors: kids triathlons, track and field, cross country, weight lifting, yoga, rock climbing. My family joined a Crossfit gym the summer before my 8th grade year. While Crossfit continues to be a controversial form of exercise, especially for children, we were given nothing but the best instruction. We had attentive coaches, and we were taught the importance of pushing hard but also knowing when to scale back so we wouldn’t injure ourselves.

Growing up in this environment as a young girl was the turning point in my understanding of fitness, health and longevity. Through conversations at our gym, I learned about the correlation between diet and exercise, and developed an understanding of how high-intensity training– coupled with appropriate rest– can benefit metabolism. And most importantly, I learned how to perform olympic and power lifts at the age of 13. With that, I learned a valuable lesson that not only fueled my athletic training over the years, but eventually paved the path for my career. Without a foundation of strength training, whether for sport or everyday life, you are robbing yourself of true potential. 

Strength training should be a non-negotiable part of life for every single person. In sport, this framework enabled me to get a lot faster and stronger, which translated to better cross-country and track performances as a middle schooler on a high school team. Eventually, I learned how to pole vault, which became my main focus and got me recruited onto a D3 college track team at the University of Rochester. 

Now, as an adult, I don’t necessarily train the way I used to during the Crossfit era, but I do use strength training as a tool to help prevent injuries in running, and also to prepare my body to support itself as I continue to age. I may only be 28 years old now, but it’s never too early to start paying attention to how your body moves and feels during day-to-day activities. 

If we simply wait until walking up the stairs leaves us hunched over for air, or until getting up from the floor unassisted becomes an impossible task, we are doing ourselves a disservice. 

The good news is, it’s almost never too late to get started focusing on your health. Every day is a great day to do something kind for your body. My training mantra is that something is always better than nothing, and with over 20 years of exercise under my belt, it has become my goal to help everyone I can to realize the importance of strength training to feel good and capable in their body.