Boston Marathon Qualifier 2X, Completed 6 marathons, PR 3:29:29
Half Ironman Finisher 3X
Age Group National Triathlon qualifier, competed 3X
5 ACL Reconstructions
Personal Best: 7 body weight chin ups, 32 body weight push ups
Bachelors of Science, Nutritional Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
Degree in Health Sciences, Harvard University
Certified Functional Strength Coach Level 1, Level 2
NASM Certified Personal Trainer, Integrated Flexibility Specialist
NSCA CSCS
Pilates Certified
200hr yoga teacher certified
I fell into coaching and personal training right after I graduated college in 1996. I just moved to Boston and could not afford to pay for a gym. I knew I loved working out, as I had played Division 1 college lacrosse at the University of Pennsylvania. During my time as a high school and collegiate athlete, I became very interested in physical therapy and utilizing strength training, to avoid injury, as I, unfortunately, suffered multiple ACL tears, which ultimately ended my collegiate sports career. When I arrived in Boston, I turned to long-distance running and spin classes as alternatives to running for low impact, and I watched personal trainers diligently (there were no social media at the time) it wasn't long before I got certified as a spin instructor and personal trainer. At the same time, I was working as a nutrition researcher at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), running a weight loss research program and was working to standardize a medical and nutritional approach to weight loss, as well as a standardized questionnaire to be used by the medical community in order to categorize people as medically necessary for our program. I quickly fell in love with the training and nutrition aspect of personal training, and after many years in the research and medical community, realized that my original ambition of becoming a doctor would be better served if I could work with people more intimately and have a great daily effect on their lives. After working in research, then spending time as a pharmaceutical sales rep, then studying for my MCATs, and working as a wellness consultant, I came back to my first love, training, and coaching. I like to joke around that I am probably one of the most "over-educated" coaches in the industry, but the pull of coaching and having interpersonal connections with my clients has always brought me back to the training world. I also think that playing sports at a high level both in high school and college taught me the discipline of fitness and exercise, as well as the time I spent running marathons and triathlons helped me to realize the need to continue to strength train. I think that going thru my various injuries and seeing others around me with similar injuries and setbacks, further propelled my intense desire to make coaching my career.
My turning point was when I was a full time wellness consultant at a healthcare benefits consulting firm. At the time I was also coaching high school lacrosse and trying to coach athletes on the side around my 9-5 job. I had just recently stepped away from an accelerated nursing school program to try to make it work full time on the corporate side. And one morning I just looked in the mirror and said to myself "I don't want to wear a suit and be in the office all the time. I want to be able to actually help people, not just try to lower the bottom line cost for healthcare. That was when I finally took the leap to leave my full time job and take on more clients as a personal trainer and coach. I found that I never woke up in the morning dreading going to work again, and I will tell everyone and anyone, that I have the best "job" in the world!
My passion for coaching is to help my clients and athletes learn how wonderful their own bodies are, regardless of what they think they should look like or be able to accomplish. I truly believe that by learning what you "can" do, versus always focusing on what you cannot, will help unleash the burden of aches and pains and instead propel my clients and athletes to be better, both emotionally but also physically. When you are strong and can do things without pain, you are in control of your own destiny!
