Dismantling the "fitness mold" (and replacing it with your whole self)
My name is Deniece.
I’m a trainer, educator, and lifelong learner. I’m fascinated by people’s stories; intersectionality—and what it takes to bring them into health/wellness spaces. In short, the intersections of people’s lives are so unique, yet we try to place people into these confining boxes.
As a trainer, and learner, I want (and want you) to bring your whole self to the gym. If you want to achieve whatever goals you may have it really does take an alignment between your body, mind, and soul. It takes an integrated approach. A commitment to go beyond the sets and reps and work from the inside out. All of this starts with acknowledging your own, whole, beauty.
This is hard. Trust me, I know.
I’m a recovering perfectionist on a mission to redefine fitness in my perfectly fabulous flawed body.
As an educator, the biggest challenge I see people go through is a lack of confidence. A distinct absence of self-assurance in whatever educational or fitness goals they’re pursuing. So much of that is people feeling like they’re tumbling down into the dark space between their reality and the mold they (have been brainwashed) think they need to fit.
We need to get rid of that mold.
That mold is a trumped-up image that doesn’t serve to motivate. It’s toxic. It’s a tool that pushes people into rigid boxes. It excludes. Most importantly though: it doesn’t help people get healthy.
For trainers, dismantling the mold starts with empathy. My client relationships always start with simple acknowledgments. It’s such a simple but surprisingly uncommon act: seeing someone. Verbally articulating the beauty and value that you see in front of you. With these simple, thoughtful, compliments you can start to redefine the mold in people’s minds. The reality is that, as trainers, we do have some power to shape what “health” and “fitness” looks like in our client’s minds. It’s amazing that we can use that power to turn that mold into a reflection.
People’s bodies and souls are beautiful.
We have the privilege of helping them reclaim that awe and amazement of what they have always been capable of doing.
We get to go along for the ride .
It’s true, people’s bodies and souls are beautiful—but you don’t know what you don’t know. Creating a space where everyone can thrive takes a real willingness to be a lifelong learner. An openness to discovering new ways to train.
Simply Put
If you start to see that someone needs to go in a given direction—don’t resist them just because it isn’t something that you haven’t done before. Follow their flow. The worst thing that can happen is that you learn how to do new things. That’s not a bad worst-case scenario.
Finally,
Bringing your whole self to the gym can’t happen at just any gym for any person. Creating a gym where people can bring their whole selves means creating space for people to be their authentic selves. To be vulnerable and lifelong learners. It means creating space for effective apologies that repair harm. It means creating space where you can ask yourself where all the Black patrons are, rather than overlooking it. It means investing in accessible infrastructure (ramps and gender-neutral washrooms). It means not using a fitness platform that is stuck in a world of gender binaries.
It means constantly pushing, evolving, and progressing to make that space more accessible.
In sum, it’s important to embrace our imperfections. It’s the ground floor for personal (r)evolution.
But who knows—I’m just a recovering perfectionist on a mission to redefine fitness in my perfectly fabulous flawed body.