Finding Fitness Through Motherhood with Betina Gozo Shimonek

Freestyle:

Yay, there she is.

Betina:

I'm Bettina Gozo Shimonek. I am a long time Nike global trainer, health and wellness expert, and just love to to help the mamas out because I am now a mama myself.

Freestyle:

How did you get into your journey of fitness? What did fitness look like for you to then kind of take it full on to be able to be a fitness and wellness coach?

Betina:

Yeah. Well, Jamie, I really love sharing this because, a lot of people assume because I am, quote, unquote, un in shape right now. I actually wasn't always in shape. I didn't really do anything up until my mid twenties. I played in a band for a living and was very out of shape and was very unhealthy.

And long story short, when I went to a group fitness class and got completely annihilated in the 60 minutes of class that I went to, I started to make big changes for myself and started to see how impactful strength training could be for myself, not only for my body but for my mind. And then I started to see the impact that it would make on the people around me. And then I decided to become a trainer and work with people and then influence them to change their lives and show them that you can do things that you never thought that you could do because it really made such a big difference for me, and I know it can for so many other people.

Freestyle:

It's so amazing. So now you've been in this 10 years, what has the development of from that time you took the class to where you are today? I know you have an app, so I would love to hear kinda how you built out the course all the way up until the development of what you do today.

Betina:

You know, it's funny because I was just talking to someone about this, how before I, you know, when I first became a trainer, you know, it was like, yeah, I wanna challenge people with different kind of workouts and, you know, I was single. I was in my mid twenties. I could do so many different things and I had so much time, But as life happened and life evolved, I realized that not every path is lean on just like this.

Like, life is like this. Right? And the older you get, the more you realize that it's not like that. And so, not even just with my journey as a mom, which just was about 3 years ago, but even before then, like, injuries or big changes and big moves, I realized that people can't just work out super hard all the time. Not for 45, 60 minutes like I thought that of what you needed.

So then I just started to adjust things and make things, more accessible for people. I just wanted to show people that all they needed to do was start, and you didn't have to go hard all the time. So then eventually, you know, I created my own app. I actually was working with Nike. I still work with Nike, Apple Fitness Plus, and I've worked on their platforms and have led workouts for people across the whole world leading these workouts, and I didn't realize how impactful these, like, workouts in your phone could be for people because a lot of times, people don't even wanna leave their house because they may have maybe have never even been to the gym before.

So I love that I could connect with other people that are on a new newer journey of their fitness and maybe are coming back from an injury or a new life change or just whatever it is they're going through, being able to connect through a phone and being able to coach someone through that was just such a fun journey. And I really love that we're now in that day and age where we can connect with people wherever they are.

Freestyle:

Yes. I absolutely love that.