I spent the first part of my life growing up playing every type of sport until I graduated college. Throughout that time I was on my own personal fitness journey trying to navigate losing weight and being “healthy”. I quickly realized how much I loved pushing myself and seeing results from working hard. I studied and got my degree in exercise science, and was contemplating going to further schooling to become a physical therapist. After graduating, I took my own training more seriously and developed a lifestyle gym habit, where I met some awesome people who started to come to me for advice. When they began seeing results that’s when I realized I wanted to pursue personal training and encourage people to push and feel great about themselves.
Through a mutual connection I saw the intern position on Facebook (got to love networking through social media), and messaged Brian right away explaining how I was looking for hands on experience with training. I recently told Brian that when I first walked in I was a little intimidated because the coaches were so knowledgeable and the training program was set up so well. Over the course of the 12 weeks, the fusion family made me feel more comfortable and excited about pursuing training. I’ve been able to expand on my knowledge that I acquired in college, and especially learn some new fitness moves like the tate press which I now regularly use in my own workouts.
I’ve got to say I was definitely humbled by all of the different circuits I got to participate in. It reminded me of the type of training I used to do in high school for sports. It was so impressive seeing how motivated each member was and the variety of ages all giving it their best. I think that working out in a larger group is most beneficial for the encouragement everyone gives each other. I hadn’t sweat like that in awhile and I always left feeling so good the rest of the day.
I’ve had a large variety of jobs, but throughout them all I found my love for helping people in the health industry. One moment that stood out to me during one of the training classes was when I was pushing a member to keep going through the last few seconds of a workout and afterwards they thanked me saying how much they needed that extra bit of motivation. That’s the reason why training coaches are there, to help show people what they can push themselves to do even when they think they can’t. This internship has made me get one step closer in the right direction to figuring out what to do with my career. I have the coaches and members to thank for allowing me to get out of my comfort zone and learn everything I could in the past few months, along with participating in some kick ass workouts.
Erin O’Donnell