I’m Amanda(or A-Rod). I'm a personal trainer and lifestyle coach. I wanted to share a bit of my own journey, so you can get insight into why I am the coach and trainer I am today.

Navigating the post-college desk job life in 2013 I hired a personal trainer who I worked with for 4 years. I was feeling sluggish and fat from all the sitting and stress that came with the beginnings of adulting. He helped me nail the basics of training in an apartment gym, and I have continued some form of training ever since.

In 2016, after a breakup, I decided to place full focus on myself, avoid my emotions, and take things to the next level with my first bodybuilding show as a bikini athlete. Post-show, I had so many struggles and learned valuable lessons about extreme dieting, how your metabolism adapts, and how only looking at the short term is a recipe for disaster. I'm adamant now about sustainability over speed, but appreciate the grit, challenge, and sport of physique competitions.

Fast forward 2019, I completed an MBA and decided to once again focus on myself fully (this time not out of avoidance of my emotions). I hired a coach who helped me place in 2 bodybuilding shows, and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. During that time, I became a Certified Personal Trainer and fell in love with using nature as my gym beginning with hiking, then in 2022, surfing took the cake. Now, I'm all about embracing the ups and downs of life mixing athleticism, self-love, seasons, and continual learning.

While I'm open to the idea of future competitions, my main goal is to help others seamlessly include resistance training in their daily life. Coaching keeps you accountable and helps you reach your future self. I've completed specializations in Senior Fitness and in Corrective Exercise because I'm an advocate for helping people find balance, working on any aches & pains, and live a higher quality of life through movement. We're all getting older, and I want to be part of helping people do that with strength instead of fear.

Training means something different to me now. I used to use it to avoid my feelings; it's now the opposite surfing and strength training are how I actually process what I'm feeling instead of running from it. Movement, food, and training aren't just about how you look anymore. They're how you learn to find freedom in feeling more like yourself.