My Journey Into Becoming a Fitness Professional

In 2000, I developed a passion, some may say obsession, for fitness. I had gained quite a bit of weight after high school, and I started working out as a way to lose weight and get healthier. I became addicted to the gym. Exercising was the highlight of my day, every day!

After reaching my weight loss goals, I decided I wanted to learn more, and I hired a personal trainer. My trainer, Alex, introduced me to new resistance training concepts and pushed me to my physical limits. I loved it. I was so inspired by my training sessions that I decided I wanted to become a trainer one day as well.

I was in college, but hadn't decided on a major yet. I chose Sports Medicine, but later changed it to Exercise Science. I wanted to make working out and helping others reach their fitness goals a part of my life forever.

I volunteered in the Valdosta State University Weight Room, and was mentored by Coach Michael Doscher, the Strength and Conditioning Coach. He recommended that I pursue a certification by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the only accredited certification in the field. I took his advice and got the study materials.

As a senior in college, I got a job as an student assistant in the VSU Fitness Center. Along with another student, I taught a basic physical fitness class to freshman and sophomores. I was able to gain lots of experience helping others while still in school. I was also competing in powerlifting competitions, and trained at four different facilities with different people. I was so eager to learn everything I could from as many people as possible.

I registered to take the certification exams for the NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. It requires a four year degree in a health science field, so I would have to wait until after graduation to receive my certification. This title requires individuals to be extremely knowledgeable in human anatomy and physiology, exercise testing and prescription, considerations for special populations, as well as be familiar with how to train athletes to be better at sports performance. I studied more than I have ever studied for anything, and I was super nervous. It was more difficult than I imagined, but I passed!

I received my certification in 2004 while completing an internship at Dekalb Medical Center Wellness Center in Atlanta. I got a few clients through the Wellness Center, and worked hard to try to give them appropriate programs.

After my internship, I stayed at the Wellness Center for a few more months to get more experience. I trained a few people and taught some group fitness classes, but then life got in the way of my career for a couple of years. I got married and had a baby, moved back to my hometown, and then got divorced not long after.

I gained a lot of weight when I was pregnant, even though I worked out until right before I gave birth to my son. I was eating a lot, and only exercising about 45 minutes a day. After tipping the scales at 237 right after my son was born, I decided I had to do something about my weight. Who was going to take an overweight fitness professional seriously?

I got serious about my diet again, and created a weight loss workout plan for myself. Over the course of about a year I lost around 80 pounds, and I finally had my athletic physique back!

I was ready to jump back into my career, but wasn't sure of how to get clients. I thought I should I have gone to school for marketing instead of Exercise Science. I started hanging out a the gym as often as possible, and throwing myself into my workouts.

Then, in 2008, I discovered Zumba® Fitness. I had always loved world music, dancing, and culture. It was a perfect fit for me! I started doing the DVDs every day, and got hooked. After a few months, I wanted more Zumba® than just videos, but there were no live classes in my area. I decided to take an instructor training workshop, which turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I started teaching Zumba® not long after, and then my career took off. I had students who were looking for a personal trainer, and I started getting more and more business. I worked a regular job during the day, and trained clients and taught classes early in the morning and after work.

My clients started getting results and telling thir friends. Word spread about how my Zumba® students enjoyed classes, and my business grew and grew. In January 2011 I was able to quit my day job for full time fitness!

I have to give credit to my son's awesome babysitter, who kept him at odd times so that I could build clientele. I used to have a client at 4:30 am, and she was willing to take him, still sleeping, at 4:00 am! Sometimes it was after 8:00 pm before I was able to pick him up in the evenings as well. I am truly grateful that I had so much dependable help caring for my son.

Now my days are a little more normal, and I am able to make my own schedule. I can participate in school activities with my son, as well as take off work whenever I need to. I am incredibly blessed to have a job that I love that pays the bills.

Body sculpting classes this week at Anytime Fitness

This week I will be subbing lots of body sculpting classes at Anytime Fitness. I am super excited about teaching different formats!

I'll be teaching Iron Body Monday through Thursday morning at 6 am. During Monday's class, we will work legs and shoulders. Tuesday, we will focus on chest, arms, and abs. Wednesday's class will concentrate on back and shoulders, and we will work legs, arms, and abs on Thursday. Every class will have cardio and flexibility training as well.

Monday and Friday, I will be instructing Total Body Sculpt at 10 am. We will get a fun, full body strength training workout with added cardio. This class will blast lots of calories, as well as tighten and tone muscles.

I will teach Zumba® Toning Wednesday afternoon at 5:30, followed by Yoga at 6:30. I used to teach Zumba® Toning weekly, so I am looking forward to doing it again this week. I've missed the moves, as well as all my awesome students!

Classes at Anytime are included in their Functional Training Monthly Package, or are $5 for an individual class. No sign up required. Group fitness classes are a great way to stay motivated, learn the basics of strength training, and work your body in new and different ways. Hope to see you in class!

I'm baaaaaack!!!!!!

Around nine months ago, I started having these coughing fits after high intensity cardio, or if I was around allergens such as smoke, dust, or pets. I didn't think much of it, and figured it was just a temporary problem and would surely go away after a while. A few weeks went by, and I started feeling like I couldn't get enough air in my lungs while I was teaching Zumba®. My son had asthma as a baby, and I still had some of his albuterol inhalers lying around, so I started using them as needed.

I had no other symptoms indicating that I had a cold or any kind of infection. I simply couldn't breathe very well while exercising. I had no idea what was going on in my lungs, but it was definitely starting to affect my performance during my Zumba® classes. I wouldn't think about my breathing issues prior to getting on stage to teach, and within minutes, I could barely focus on teaching because I was worried about my next breath. On several occasions I had to sprint out to my car to grab my son's inhaler during the middle of my class, and use it in order to continue.

I went on a vacation over the summer, when I didn't exercise at all, and I thought maybe my body just needed some rest. I figured that my lungs would be fully functional when I returned to working out.

No such luck. I was struggling to breathe within the first few minutes of doing any kind of cardio. Plus, I had started to wheeze at night at little. My son's inhaler was getting low, so I finally decided to go to the doctor. He asked me lots of questions, and he said it sounded like exercise induced asthma. He prescribed me my own inhaler to use prior to exercise, but told me I need to come back for testing if it didn't work or I had to use it when regularly when I wasn't exercising.

Puffing on the inhaler worked great prior to jogging, lifting weights or general physical activity, but not so much for Zumba®. I would use it before class, and then have to use it again two or three times over the course of a one hour class just to be able to go through the movements and breathe at the same time. I felt like I wasn't being fair to my class participants because my lungs couldn't function properly. I was too concerned with just inhaling and exhaling to be effective at instructing, although my students didn't seem to notice.

I also started having to use the medicine to control my wheezing. I would wake up several times each night with labored breathing that would only subside with a puff from the inhaler. I starting needing to use it every few hours on the weekends, even when I wasn't exercising at all.

My son got a trampoline for Christmas, and I was just as excited as he was about jumping on it. One afternoon we were playing on it for a while, and after about ten minutes I had to stop because my chest started closing up. I'm like a kid and can't just lightly bounce on a trampoline. I like to jump as high as I can, and do flips and crazy stunts. I go all out and I love it. Well, when I got off, I could not breathe. I started coughing and coughing and gasping for air. I had to run and frantically search for my inhaler. It took me a few minutes to find it, and I was struggling so hard to breathe, I thought I might need to go to the emergency room. After a few puffs off the device, I was finally able to catch my breath, but that was the final straw. I was going back to the doctor.

I went back and they used a spirometer on me to determine my lung capacity. I had to blow into a machine all different kinds of ways, as hard as I could, as long as I could, and more. All that blowing made me seriously lightheaded! Then they gave me a mask and hooked it up to a nebulizer machine so that I could inhale the medicine vapor. After several minutes on the nebulizer, they removed the mask, and I had to blow in the spirometer again a multitude of ways. Then the staff went off to analyze the results.

They concluded, that yes the medicine improved my lung function, so I needed to be on an asthma maintenence plan. I received another kind of inhaler called Dulera to use every morning and evening. My healthcare provider told me to continue using the albuterol inhaler before exercise to give the medicine time to get into my system, but that hopefully I wouldn't need it anymore.

Within a few days, I wasn't wheezing at all, and only had to use the albuterol inhaler during Zumba®. It's been about two weeks since I've been using the Dulera regularly, and just the other night I finally taught a full class without having to struggle for air!

I think my aerobic capacity has diminished a little since I have been unable to really push myself, but no doubt I will get it back quickly. I am so relieved that I now have my asthma under control! I can focus on teaching and motivating my students without worrying about my next breath!

Both my parents were diagnosed with asthma as adults following healthy childhoods, so maybe it's genetic. I remember spending nights in the emergency room as a child because my dad had lots of severe asthma attacks. It could have also been caused by all the Newports I smoked in my twenties. Whatever the reason, I am so glad that our medical technology is able to solve my problem. It would be horrible not to be able to succeed at my career because of a health issue.

Now that I have my breathing back, my students can again expect me to push them to their limits. I love teaching group fitness classes!

Maintain, Don't Gain Holiday Challenge Success

Many Americans succumb to the lure of holiday treats while trading in regular exercise for Christmas parties and visiting with family, and end up several pounds heavier at the first of the year. To combat all the splurging, I organized a Maintain, Don't Gain Holiday Challenge for the participants in my Zumba® class at Valdosta Parks and Rec, and I was extremely impressed with the results!

All the students who wanted to participate in the challenge weighed in during the first week of November. I would weigh again the first week of January, and anyone who maintained or lost weight during the two month span would receive one free class pass, and all those names would be put in a random drawing for a free 10 class punch card and other Zumba® goodies.

I posted some motivating status updates on my Facebook page to help participants remember to indulge in moderation and keep up the physical activity over the course of the challenge, and continued to remind those who came to class about it as well, but I didn't conduct any midpoint weigh-ins. It was really up to each individual to have the willpower to not gain weight over the holiday season.

I began post weigh-ins last week, and finished up just prior to Zumba® last night. There were 36 people who weighed in at the beginning of the challenge. Out of those, 21 participated in the post weigh-in. Of the 21 who weighed, 15 either maintained or lost weight. Three participants lost over 10 pounds, and 6 lost between 5 - 10 pounds! I am very proud of all those who accepted the challenge!

Several participants told me that they ate smaller slices of pie or went out walking after a large meal because they knew that they had to weigh-in after the holiday. I am so glad that my challenge helped motivate people to make healthier choices during a time most are overindulging. I'll definitely be holding the Maintain, Don't Gain holiday challenge again next year!

Zumba® is for anyone and everyone!!! Please check out my promo video.

UPDATED GROUP FITNESS CLASS SCHEDULE 2013

MONDAY: 8:30/9:00 am - Curves Circuit with Zumba® at Curves on Northside
4:30/5:00 pm - Curves Circuit with Zumba® at Curves on Northside
6:00 pm - Zumba® at Moody AFB Fitness Center Annex

TUESDAY: 6:00 am - Boot Camp at Anytime Fitness
4:15 pm - Zumbatomic® at Brooks County High School
6:00 pm - Zumba® at Valdosta Parks and Rec

WEDNESDAY: 8:30/9:00 am - Curves Circuit with Zumba® at Curves on Northside
12:00 pm - Zumba® at Moody AFB Fitness Center Annex
5:30 pm - Zumba® Toning at Anytime Fitness

THURSDAY: 6:00 am - Boot Camp at Anytime Fitness
8:30 am - HOT HULA fitness® at Valdosta Nutrition
9:30 am - Yoga at Valdosta Nutrition
6:00 pm - Zumba® at Valdosta Parks and Rec

FRIDAY: 12:00 pm - HOT HULA fitness® at Moody AFB Fitness Center Annex