We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alba Hatcher. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alba below.
Alba, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
Twenty-five years later I’m able to share this with you today. I’ve been blessed to be able to say that my very first job honestly gave me tools I still use today and it all started when I was nine years old. See my experience as a young child wasnt the easiest, moving a lot wasn’t helpful. I didn’t know it back then but age nine would be the last major out of state move I’d have. With my challenging childhood my father was rather stern to place me in a martial arts class. Seven years later I had my first paying job as a martial arts instructor. At the time I dreamed of opening my own studio, and I had a friend that was going to open it with me, but relationships change and activities change and for which I started dance. Shortly after that, I too also started to teach dance and create my own choreographies.
And then I got married.
Now marriage is wonderful and I’m so blessed to have my husband, however, for a short time, I lost myself. I was so busy being trilled with my new husband that I stopped taking care of myself and my body. The body I once had that could do anything and move however I wanted wasn’t the case anymore and in a short 3 years I lost a lot of what I had worked half of my life for; I was overweight, a good 60 pounds, I was unhappy, and full of all the negative feelings that came along with it. So with my husbands encouragement I went back. It didnt take long to realize I had “grown out” of martial arts. It wasnt where my heart felt happy anymore and I wasnt prepared to work with children again so I went for dance.
In my previous years, there was a woman that I used to teach dance to, of which she owned an all women’s gym. While my marriage was definitely a defining moment in my life, the choice of my career was a defining moment I had to make by myself and for myself.
It didnt take long for me to start working at the gym full time, however, I was at the front desk, I hadn’t yet broke free into who and how my career would forever change! Here I was everyday, in a gym, still overweight myself, and everyday I had women asking me; what should I eat?, how do I workout (insert muscle group here)? I would look at myself and say (not out loud, I wasn’t that brave), “have you looked at me? Are you sure you should be asking “me” those questions?” I didnt have the answers, but I wanted to. And in order to be able to help them, I had to be able to help myself first.
So the journey began, and in six months I had lost those 60 pounds, I had found my confidence and I had enrolled for my first personal training certification. The beauty of having been in the gym first was that I had seen the difference between the “good” trainers and the not so good ones, and they all had something in common, it was an additional certification in a course called biomechanics. THIS was it, this was the one. I left my first class, made my first call to that darling hubby, so excited, so enlightened, and just a ball of energy, my husband couldn’t understand what I talking about, I was talking so fast. Turns out it was just a stepping stone. Because in my route of deciding I wanted to know what my instructors knew, took my to Ortho-Kinetics. Oh how I loved Ortho-Kinetics but that was just another stepping stone. See up onto this point and with the knowledge I had gained, I felt like I could look at someone, know what was wrong with them from a muscular standpoint and knew exactly what needed to be done. But there was a catch, I couldn’t legally do anything about it. SO back to school I went, this time for a therapeutic license in bodywork therapy which would allow my to manipulate muscles, encourage activation here, muscle release there and reprogram the body and points of pain, therefore assessing and alleviating pain patterns, increasing function and range of motion and honestly just bringing the body back to balance.
I can’t say that I had a single defining moment and I’m not sure anyone really does.
What I had was many moments, all of which played a very important role to who I would become and how I would help people. Do I still use martial arts? Yes, many foudational pieces plus I’ll still make sure a girl knows how to throw a decent punch in self defense. Do I still use dance? Absolutely, not sure if you know this but the moment you become a mom, it’s like hips forget how to move, my clients, and myself need a bit of that to feel like ourselves sometimes. Do I still use what I learned as a nationally accredited and certified personal trainer, of course, I’ll never give up that title and its a root part of what I do with clients everyday once it was combined with biomechanics. P.S. every personal trainer should take that class, it would probably change 80% of what they do with a client. But my FAVORITE part, my really true blessing of life in this career is the change I get to make with all the pieces. Bodywork when things hurt and bring it back into balance, exercise to stabilize and bring the pieces back together, the fun stuff I can throw in to regain confidence in my female clients and all of it with what mattered in every course I took which was passion, and caring, all with love. It started as my own journey and now I get to be a part of another woman’s journey to become a better version of herself and often times more that what she ever thought possible.
Alba, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a bodywork therapist in the state of Texas, a nationally accredited certified personal trainer and Ortho-Kinetics Specialist. My specific area of expertise and knowledge of the human body allows me to work with ladies who have had previous injuries or surgeries and bring the body back into its natural and God designed healing pattern. I am a believer that the human body was beautifully created to heal itself, and if you give it the proper fuel and exercise it in the way God intended, it can and will do amazing things! I help ladies get the the root cause of their pain. I’ll take the time to review medical data and a full and complete medical history to find the patterns. From stroke patients, amputee, to the mom that just wants her life back and maybe her knees give her a hard time. The range of my clients is huge and I love it that way!!
The women that typically hire me are well educated, they’ve probably been to several physicians and/or physical therapy and recogize the importance of taking care of the one body they have. They’re also usually a mom or have been a caretaker of some kind to another, maybe they’ve lost a piece of themselves or maybe theyre seeking their full potential, whether sports specific or in hobby.
We offer bodywork therapy, corrective exercise and personal training both in person and virtually.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
I think the most important thing for anyone that works with the human body is to never stop learning. The human body has not been figured out, it hasn’t all been discovered and I honestly I’m not sure it ever will be. Every person has their area of expertise and an area of the human body that interests them, and even that piece is just a sliver. Do what you can to make that sliver larger, knowing you’ll never have it all figured out and thats ok. The biggest mistake one could make would be to think they dont need to grow.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Remember that woman in my story that owned the gym, gave me a start? She tried to start legal matters with a cease and desist because my business name was “Train With Alba” and my business practice was as I was taught by The Cooper Institute. Not everyone wants to see you succeed. Basically I had become her competition and she didnt like it. This was at the very beginning and before the years it took for my education so it wouldn’t matter anymore anyway but I could have been scared, and it could have railed my whole path. The truth is she inspired me to do more and be more. At the time it looked like a mountain but now looking back the challenge of it all was a grain of sand.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://trainerinpink.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trainerinpink/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/trainerinpink
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC6STA3gtlRrHhHEI3jkwKFA
- Other: @TrainerInPINK
Image Credits
The Ortho-Kinetics Institute Charlie Spencer – Fixed Focus Productions