How I started and why I love personal training. I had a series of memorable events that guided me there. They were events that I never imagined I would go through.

If you were to ask me 17 years ago what I would be doing for a living, my answer would have been teaching dance at the college level and performing.  I never thought my full-time job would be as a fitness professional.

Conditioning

When I was a young girl, I had pleasant memories going to the gym with my mom. I would sometimes take the group fitness classes with her. As I grew older and continued to dance 5-6 days a week, my dance teacher had enforced that we take conditioning classes. Then by the time I was dancing in college in NYC, it was my job to continue my conditioning throughout my undergraduate program.

We had a course called injury prevention and conditioning for dancers. There were my first real experiences learning Pilates mat work and reformer and running.  By the time I was a senior, I was mentoring other dance students in fitness.

After graduation I worked a few jobs, unrelated to dance and fitness, to pay my bills, but continued to dance in a local dance company and keep up with my conditioning.  After three years, it was time to get serious about my dance career. I was ready and wanted to immerse myself into dance, so I enrolled in a Masters program.

MFA in Dance

I was in my glory during the first two years of my graduate studies. I felt like a sponge, embracing and loving all that I was learning. I was at the peak of my dancing career. One of my strengths was jumping and leaping.

Then one morning in early February of 2003, my life came to an abrupted holt. I was jumping and leaping across the floor in modern dance technique, and I felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my leg. As I fell to the ground, I looked at my left ankle in disbelief, because I knew what I had done. My Achilles tendon had completely ruptured. These were painful years for me. However, this was the very thing that changed the course of my career.

During this time I was teaching creative movement to friends, family, and patients of cancer at Gilda’s Club. I continued to teach my class throughout my recovery. They were the best group of people, supportive and still willing to participate. I promise this is leading up to personal training.

Healing

My  PT was the most well-known in the Rochester area for working with dancers and musicians. Her compassion for everyone that came through her doors was incredible! It also was apparent that she loved her work and gave her patients all of her attention.

While I was in therapy sessions with Sue Callan Harris at Callan Harris Physical Therapy, I landed my first personal training job ( I had a few jobs during college as a fitness attendant.)

As the years moved forward, I became the trainer with a lot of patience. I didn’t just train those who needed to lose weight; I worked with many populations, clients that had disabilities, elderly, muscular dysfunction, etc.  Like Sue, I loved helping people with their body.

My first job as a full-time trainer was a rewarding experience. However, I decided to move forward with my own private personal training studio. My business partner Kevin Glor and I love working together, and we feel grateful that we are doing what we love to do, help people!