College Sports: Track & Field (400m, 4x4 Relay)
Current Activities: Strength training (of course), dog walks, and Holiday 5k’s
ACE Personal Trainer
CFSC Level 2
While I grew up playing several sports, I was always academically driven. I attended Bates College where I was able to run on the track team while I majored in Philosophy and Rhetoric. It never really occurred to me that I could go on to have a career in fitness. In my head, that career path was for former pro athletes or other amazing talents. Instead, I followed my academic talents and began working in Public Relations. I worked at three agencies over the course of 7 years, representing brands like Stop & Shop, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and Jelly Belly. The desire to stay involved in sports and coaching never left me, and I found myself getting my personal training certification in 2016. I began working as a coach at Orangetheory Fitness Hingham in 2017, then quit my PR career and launched my personal training business, JKG Training, in 2019, quickly expanding my client base in the town of Hingham and beyond, offering personal and group training for adults, as well as sports training for middle school and high school athletes and local teams. As an athlete growing up, I was coached by a former intern of Mike Boyle Strength & Conditioning, thus learning the MBSC method, which is now the same foundation that Magnitude Strength & Power is built.
When I was 14 years old my freshman year of high school, I was sitting on the wooden floor of the gym waiting with about 60 other kids for the first day of winter track practice to start. I planned to run track to “stay in shape” and try out for tennis in the spring. I was sitting frog style, with my knees knocked in and my feet out wide. Suddenly, a shadow fell over me and I was looking straight up at a giant man - one of the head coaches of the team - who looked straight down at me and said “I never want to see you sit that way ever again.” I quickly fixed my position and never sat that way again. There was a lot of talent in that gym on my first day, and there were much more skilled athletes than myself as my seasons went on, but maybe because I did anything they told me to, the head coaches took an interest in me, and they were always generous with their time. I never broke records, and I was never THE best, but I had coaches that understood that helping me be MY best was worth their time too. And now I get to spend my career paying that same effort forward. *I never did end up trying out for tennis - I ran spring track. And then kept running all the way through college.
I love showing people how good strength training can make them feel, and how much it can change how you view yourself. There’s nothing better than when a client does something they never thought they’d be able to do, like their first chin-up, or a heavy deadlift. Showing yourself how far you can push opens up so many other possibilities in your life.
