We were lucky to catch up with Vikki Gladney recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Vikki, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
Yes, there was a defining moment, and it was deeply personal.
I realized that fitness was never just about physical transformation. It was directly connected to trauma, including my own.
There was a time in my life when I lived in the very domestic violence shelter that years later, I volunteered. I was training women in the same environment, that helped me out of my domestic violence situation many years ago. I thought I was simply going back to give, to pour into others what I had learned. But what I didn’t expect was that serving those women would continue shaping a new level of healing for myself.
Standing in that space again, not as a resident but as a leader, was a pivot point. I saw firsthand how movement restores agency, how structure builds stability, and how showing up for your body can begin restoring your identity.
Helping them heal helped me heal in new uncharted territories.
That’s when I understood that Safe Space Through Fitness wasn’t just a concept — it was purpose. My career as the owner of Natural Measures shifted from training bodies to creating environments where women could rebuild strength from the inside out.
The lesson?
Sometimes the very place that you came broken, becomes the place that defines you, if you’re willing to grow through it.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m Vikki Gladney, founder of Safe Space Through Fitness and owner of Natural Measures. I’m a trauma-informed wellness leader, entrepreneur, and advocate who believes healing can begin in the body.
I didn’t enter this industry just because I loved fitness. I entered it because I experienced firsthand how movement, nutrition, and physical wellness can restore identity.
There was a season in my life when faced hardship and adversity. I was badly injured due to domestic violence, which landed me in transitional housing for survivors. During that time, structure, routine, and safety became anchors for me, as I battled to overcome depression and other challenges.
Years later, I found myself returning to that community and others like it, not as a resident, but as a trainer and advocate. What started as a desire to give back became something much deeper. I realized that I wasn’t just helping women lose weight or build muscle. I was helping them rebuild trust in themselves through physical fitness and engagement.
That’s how Safe Space Through Fitness was born.
Through Natural Measures, I provide personal training, group fitness, and indoor cycling, structured fitness programming, nutrition guidance, and competition prep. Through Safe Space Through Fitness, I extend that work into trauma-informed group and individual coaching, partnerships with shelters and recovery organizations, and community wellness initiatives. My approach integrates physical conditioning with emotional awareness and stability-building practices.
The problem I solve isn’t just weight loss. It’s disconnection.
Many of my clients come to me feeling fragmented, physically inconsistent, emotionally overwhelmed, or mentally exhausted. I help them build structure, discipline, and consistency in a way that restores autonomy. Stability in our bodies often translates to stability in life.
What sets me apart is that I don’t separate fitness from healing. I understand trauma not from theory alone, but from lived experience. I know what it means to rebuild from the inside out. So, when I coach, I’m not just programming sets and reps, I’m helping someone reclaim space in their body.
What I’m most proud of isn’t starting a business or stepping on stage to compete. It’s standing in rooms I once needed and now leading them. It’s watching women who once felt powerless develop strength, confidence, and agency.
I want potential clients and followers to know that my brand is built on integrity, structure, and transformation. I believe in consistency over hype. Discipline over drama. Healing over aesthetics, even though aesthetics often follows.
Safe Space Through Fitness isn’t just about training. It’s about rebuilding. When clients are willing to do the healing work, I’m committed to walking that journey with them.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was the belief that strength meant silence.
For a long time, I thought being strong meant handling everything on my own, in the dark, and not seen. I was raised that way, isolated. It meant not needing help, not showing vulnerability, not letting people see the parts of me that were broken or that needed healing. That mindset was shaped by survival. When you’ve experienced trauma, you learn to adapt quickly, good or bad. You become resourceful. You push through, and meet up with the consequences later.
And that survival skill can look like strength, even in the chaos.
But what I eventually realized is that survival mode and true stability are not the same thing.
As I built my business and began working closely with women navigating domestic violence, recovery, and major life transitions, I started seeing myself in them. I was encouraging them to open up, to build support systems, to trust safe environments, even though I was still carrying undiscovered parts of my own healing quietly.
The backstory is layered with many stories of highs and lows. I had lived in a domestic violence shelter. I had fought to regain structure, identity, and independence. And when I stepped into leadership, I felt an internal pressure to always appear composed and strong, because I didn’t want my past to define me. I had enough of explaining my past.
But here’s what I had to unlearn:
Healing isn’t proven by how well you hide your scars. It’s strengthened by how honestly and transparently you integrate them.
Once I allowed myself to be transparent, not performative, but authentic, my leadership deepened. My relationships improved. My work through Safe Space Through Fitness became more impactful because it was rooted in truth, not image.
The lesson?
Strength isn’t silence.
Strength is safe expression.
Strength is allowing yourself to keep healing, even while you lead.
And unlearning that changed how I show up in every area of my life.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
Other than training and technical knowledge, the most important factor for succeeding in my field is consistency rooted in integrity.
Fitness, especially trauma-informed fitness, is not a fast-results industry if you’re doing it the right way. There are seasons when business is booming, and there are seasons when it’s quiet. There are times when social media looks impressive, and times when the work is happening quietly behind the scenes in small groups, one-on-one sessions, or inside community partnerships.
What sustains you isn’t ambition. It’s discipline.
I’ve had to learn that you don’t pivot your mission just because the numbers fluctuate. You don’t water down your standards because enrollment is slow. You don’t chase trends when your assignment is transformation.
Consistency builds trust. And trust is currency in my field.
Because I work with individuals who have experienced trauma, instability, or major life disruption, they don’t just need a good workout plan, they need predictability. They need to know that the space will be safe on hard days, not just high-energy on good ones. They need leadership that isn’t emotionally reactive to business cycles.
Integrity means showing up the same way when the room is full and when it’s not. It means keeping your word, maintaining structure, honoring your values, and not allowing financial pressure to distort your purpose.
I’ve seen firsthand how easy it is for ambition to become louder than assignment. But my mission, creating safe spaces through fitness, requires steadiness. It requires me to prioritize impact over image, and depth over hype.
Success in this field isn’t built on intensity.
It’s built on repetition, character, and alignment.
And when your work is rooted in healing, consistency isn’t just good business, it’s responsible leadership.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://safespacethroughfi.wixsite.com/safe-space-through-f
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikkigladney
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@naturalmeasurescycling9122
Image Credits
Ralph Vandale
Stephanie Deckard