Today we’d like to introduce you to Weezy Shumaker
Hi Weezy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started working in fitness full-time as a group coach in 2016. I was always proud of my ability to help people modify any workout to suit them – push-ups don’t feel good? No stress, let’s find a press that does feel good.
When I got pregnant with my first son, I had a lot of questions about how to adjust my workouts to suit the needs of my training body. None of the trainers I worked with at the time had any valuable suggestions other than “just take it easy” or “listen to your body.” This is the moment that my journey as a coach and as a fitness enthusiast changed.
It was the first time in my fitness journey that I felt truly frustrated by the lack of knowledge around me. Noticing this caused me to notice and feel frustrated by other things. Once I started paying attention, I noticed how much people were modifying around pain or restriction rather than getting to the root cause of why there was pain or restriction in the first place. In my haste to modify programming to suit them, I had been well-meaning but complicit.
I became obsessed with the idea of helping people solve problems rather than work around them. And I became obsessed with the way we approach fitness reflecting our real lives.
Now, I solve problems like –
-I can’t squat, kneel or carry things for long distances, so I’ve lost the ability to comfortably garden.
-I am scared to walk down stairs for fear of falling.
-My body is not strong enough to carry around my squirming child or grandchild.
-I am recovering from surgery or birth. If I’ve been through PT, I was cleared… but I am not where I was and I don’t know what to do now.
These are just some of the many problems I’m solving with my clients.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been the smoothest road, because when I say that I work in fitness, that is often not taken seriously. I am a part of a collective that is creating real change in the spaces in-between healthcare and fitness, but we work in a field where many have a weekend certification and are then permitted to work with clients.
It can be hard, as a lay-person, to tell who is qualified to handle complex problems, and who isn’t.
Once my clients get over the initial phase of wondering “Does she know her stuff? And is she willing to admit when she doesn’t?,” I find that we often have smooth sailing.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I work in fitness, but more than that, I work in helping people find and reclaim their active lives.
I’ll share one example.
I work with a client who had to stop coming to group class because she started chemo. After all her surgeries and chemo were done, she worked with a PT to regain the ability to walk. At that point she got cleared from PT.
Do you think she was ready to jump back into the types of things group class is doing? No.
Well, that’s where I came in. We’ve been working together for about 6 months.
I could tell you that she rear-foot elevated split squats 30# dumbbells for reps and that she’s regained sensation in the back of her right leg. I could tell you that she’s learning to manage her breath to control the ways she responds to stress. These are all true.
But I’d rather share that she is finally marrying her partner this fall after being engaged for years, scared to set a date and not make it to that date.
I’d rather tell you that she turns her work phone off on the days she’s not on call.
She climbs up and down stairs without any pain or hesitation.
She preps her lunch rather than work a 12 hour shift without eating.
I helped her become the person she needed to be to do the things she wants to do.
And now that she can do them, we’re inventing – on the fly – what she’d like to do next that she thought was out of reach for her. That’s what I do.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
People can work with me in-person in Columbus, OH, or remotely from anywhere with internet. The first step in working together is to have a meeting to make sure we are actually a good fit and I can help you. If I’m not a good fit, I will go out of my way to find the person or people who are.
The best way to support me without working together directly is to join my email list at https://wildweez.com/opt-in/ or by connecting with me on Instagram. My username is @coachweez.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wildweez.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachweez/
