JENNIFER SELL 
"My story begins at age 23 as I am 41 now. I picked up my first set of dumbbells while working the counter at an elite gym where I live. I had no idea how to workout, and only had what I would see my mom do in the gym when she would take me with her on days when I didn’t have school. I was always intrigued with watching her workout, but in that time young kids weren’t allowed to workout.
I started light with the weights and did a lot of guessing. Basically whatever felt strenuous to me was what I did, and over time I got accidentally fit! What do I mean by that.. Well, my exterior was looking great, but my interior was suffering. Not having proper form caused me to have a lot of internal pain, but I was always too proud to ask for help.
So as time went on while I remained fit, I was always nursing aches and pains and didn’t always feel good. As a result, I fell off the wagon quite a few times, which would lead to weight gain, and ultimately - depression. I knew it was time to get serious about my fitness when I turned 38, and had been nursing a shoulder tear for almost 3 yrs by that point. I finally asked for help! Met with an amazing trainer who showed me how to reconstruct my muscles using only resistance bands.
It was then I realized there were so many different forms of exercise that I hadn’t discovered or tried and I wanted to learn more. What took me 3 years to fix with my shoulder, was corrected within a few months just by taking simple direction from a trained professional. I decided I needed to be that person. I wanted to be able to help others like myself, who struggle with motivation due to a lack of knowledge of how to be fit.
People are often times afraid of stepping foot into a gym, because they don’t know what to do or think they will look silly doing it. Another big reason - especially for women, is because they are afraid of getting buff and looking too manly. In my experience I have found that simple workouts, mixed with a good diet can actually tone you up and have you looking lean without feeling or looking like you’re too buff.
So, I got my personal trainer certification just over 2 yrs ago, and in recent days got my sports nutritional certification as part of my CEU’s, and I have been working with and helping friends and family achieve their goals without putting them through anything their body can’t handle or should not do. I continue to work a regular FT job and help clients on the side when asked.
I love fitness! I love the achievements I myself have made, but ultimately I love the progress my clients have made and how much of their trust they put in me. Because I was once them, and I know how hard it is to even ask for help let alone work with someone you don’t know or trust. It’s when we learn to get out of our own way that we can finally open ourselves up to something new that will benefit us down the road - but the steps have to be taken today!
Thank you for reading my story, and I hope I’ve helped inspire someone to either take that first step into the gym or in starting a new diet or to becoming an icon in the fitness world by getting licensed and helping others. It’s all worth it!"
