Focus on Improvement, not perfection.
It was October 2011 and I had lost 80lbs. That’s why I became a trainer…. Not. I became a trainer because I wanted to help people have a better chance at life, I wanted to show them what life without pain was like, I wanted to show them their body can work for them not against them.
2004 my life was turned upside down by a drunk driver (which I write about a lot) Every thing in my life as an adult some how points back to that night. I spent several months in the hospital relearning how to walk and how to talk. I was on both sides of the scale weighing an unhealthy 80lbs my freshman year and then 205lbs at 5ft 4in after two pregnancies.
I was 21 when the decision to become a Corrective Exercise Specialist and Personal Trainer became my dream and passion. I began to crack open the books and study hard. This helped me in my own health and fitness journey. The more I studied the more Passionate I became.
As my journey in my studies progressed and I got closer to testing the hunt for a job was on. When I tested and passed, I quickly secured a job at American Family Fitness in Williamsburg, Virginia. Here is where my career began. I quickly excelled to a tier two trainer and trained 35+ hours a week. I began to teach seminars to local schools, about preventing sports related injuries.
I absolutely loved my job, so I decided to try it out as my own boss and open a personal training studio August 5th,2013. My studio received a Best of Williamsburg award for recovery and functional training within my first 6 months of opening.
When we received orders 2014 back to Wyoming, my studio was closed down. We also just had baby Raylan. Raylan was about 9 months old when I secured a job at Gold’s Gym in Cheyenne. I loved working at Gold’s, but it came to a halt as I was a high risk pregnancy with baby Wyatt summer of 2016. I had hopes to return back to work after he was born, but life just kept swinging.
I now had a newborn and a 2 1/2 year old that was diagnosed with Autism and global development delay, epilepsy, and later with a diagnosis in December 2018 with SYNGAP1 intellectual disability. My life was about to change. I had uncertainty about being able to juggle personal training schedule and my son’s needs. So I stepped back, from training. That’s what my family needed right?
Boy was I ever wrong. Children with SYNGAP1 intellectual disability struggle with quality movements everyday. Raylan was in physical, occupational, and speech therapy 5 days a week. Further more epilepsy causes your muscles to contract and relax or uncontrollable jerking movements. That is not good on your muscular system. This can cause tightness or loss of muscle tone, which increases the risk of injury.
I thought I was stepping away to help Raylan succeed in his therapy, but by stepping away from training I was doing him a disservice. Knowing musculature and anatomy I could be the ultimate voice for Raylan. I could reinforce what the therapist worked on in clinic, right in our own home. Therapist explain something and I understand exactly what they mean. I could agree or disagree, because I know how your body is supposed to moved as an integrated system.
I began my journey as a trainer not to help people only lose weight, but to help them move better. Now I face the challenge everyday to help Raylan lead a life with functional movements. So here I am once again diving into books to help others, to push them, focus on improvement everyday. I plan to start working as a trainer and a corrective exercise specialist in Cheyenne Wyoming withing the year.
