Finding Joy in Movement: A Conversation on Inclusive Fitness
Many fitness and wellness spaces champion grueling workouts, physical extremes, and pain as part of the training process. We don’t know who needs to hear this, but meaningful workouts simply don’t have to be that way.
At Current Wellness, movement is about connection, compassion, and care for your whole self—not comparison or competition. We recently sat down with one of our former personal trainers to discuss what makes our approach to wellness so different.
Discovering a Space for Inclusive Fitness
Annie: What initially drew you to Current Wellness?
Everett: Once I got there, I saw how much effort is put into making it an inclusive space. Coming from a gym that literally excluded me at the end, that was hugely important to me. Everyone made me feel so welcome at Current.
I loved how the space included all kinds of therapies and interesting movement classes (or non-movement like restore yoga). Also having access to all-gender restrooms was a huge relief.
Redefining What Wellness Looks Like
Annie: What makes Current unique?
Everett: Current is the only fitness/movement space I have ever seen that actually puts in a ton of effort to bring folks traditionally marginalized in fitness spaces to the center. I have never been in fitness classes with such diversity in bodies—a range of ages, genders, and sizes.
Very few cis men, who typically dominate the gyms I’ve been to (not that they don’t belong there, it was just a striking difference that felt nice). I felt proud to be a part of that and to get to work with clients I never would have met at another fitness space. I learned so much about myself as well as improving my personal training of others.
The emphasis on doing what feels good to your body in that moment really challenged me to be more in tune with myself. The extra programming and themes added to this as well—rather than focusing on some definition of fitness that was created by tall white cis men with almost no body fat, Current centralizes whole body wellness, and there is a broad spectrum of what that looks like for different people.
From Competition to Compassion: A Trauma-Informed Training Approach
Annie: What’s different about how Current fosters motivation and progress?
Everett: Since I come from a background at my old gym, that’s how I will frame this…I would track every workout at my old gym—what movements/weights/reps/sets, etc. and there was an app where you log these things and then people at your gym could see your score and comment on your workout. And it ranked everyone on a leaderboard. Most of the time this was just people saying ‘good job!’ or something encouraging, but the fact that I could see everyone’s scores encouraged my competitive side and I wanted to lift heavier, be faster, etc. even when it wasn’t the best thing for my body. Several people opted out of posting things publicly and that is a personal choice, but there was a social aspect to it so if you didn’t post things, you would miss out on that. I did like to keep track of things to inform future workouts, but going off of those data alone rather than listening to my body led to injury. My old gym claimed their workouts were ‘functional fitness’ which is true in some regard, but can also lead to body dysfunction if you don’t consider clients as individuals.
At Current, there wasn’t any logging workouts or ‘scores.’ I kept track of what I was working on with my clients, but the goals were more like ‘improving balance’ or ‘hip mobility’ and things like that, which are way more beneficial in my opinion. I always started with asking how they were feeling that day and would modify what I had planned based on that. I could let them know what I had in mind but what we actually did was very client-driven.
For instance if someone didn’t sleep well or was feeling a little dizzy earlier that day, I felt comfortable lessening the intensity without feeling guilty that they weren’t ‘getting a good workout.’ We could focus on mobility or other exercises that I had learned from physical therapists which were difficult, but not in a way that added to whatever didn’t feel right in their body that day. Sometimes it was ‘brain fog’ or something of that nature and I would modify to movements that didn’t require so much focus. We could just play and have fun.
I think once clients actually saw progress in those areas outside of our sessions, it was very motivating to continue working together, because they felt better in their daily lives. They felt more confident in movement, and that was huge progress.
Growing Together: Learning from Every Body
Annie: What has working at Current done for you as a trainer, both professionally and personally?
Everett: I guess I touched on this a bit already, but mainly I had the opportunity to work with people of different sizes and abilities. I learned so much from my clients. We focused on goals that didn’t involve numbers. They challenged me to get creative and figure out what constitutes ‘joyful movement’ for each person. That, in turn, helped me find joy in movement as well. I was going through a very stressful time, and even if just for an hour a few times a week, I was able to get out of my head a bit and into my body. I could be totally present with my clients, and I carried that into my workouts as well.
I learned a lot from other trainers and staff as well.
Does this sound like the shift you need in your relationship to exercise? This is how we approach movement at Current Wellness.
Learn more about personal training with us, and reach out to be connected with a trainer! Our new client special includes 4 sessions for $240.