We were lucky to catch up with Jen Benton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
Close your eyes and imagine a fitness / wellness brand. What is the first thought that comes to your mind? If you are a consumer of social media, television, or societal norms, it is very likely that your perception of fitness connects back to weight loss, body size manipulation, or health. When I first became a personal trainer, that was my exact presumption too. In fact that was my goal, to help others achieve the body they desired, to help them lose weight. As time progressed I began to feel uncomfortable and out of place with the rest of the fitness industry. I knew I was meant to be doing something greater. I wanted to blend my therapeutic degree and personal training certification together to do better which is when I landed upon HAES (health at every size) and the body-positive movement.
Diet culture & the mainstream fitness industry teaches us that the only way to be healthy is to have a thin body and if you don’t live in a thin body, then the only way to be healthy is to lose weight. This typically results in doing movement you dread, eating foods you don’t enjoy, restricting foods labeled “unhealthy,” not eating enough food, and no longer knowing how to listen to your body and its needs. And sure dieting typically leads to temporary weight loss, but it also results in yo-yo dieting, which is linked to increasing rates of obesity, diabetes type 2, insulin resistance, cancer, bone fractures, heart disease, higher blood pressure, inflammation, increased mortality, and long term weight gain. Dieting is also one of the biggest triggers for a full-blown eating disorder, effecting every 1 of 10 humans worldwide. So ultimately diets don’t work and typically result in a long list of long term negative side-effects, where’s the health in that?
When I quickly realized I didn’t want to be another fitness professional promoting this mindset I also knew it was going to be an uphill battle as a HAES Certified Personal Trainer in today’s world.
Health At Every Size is a weight-neutral approach to health care. It promotes healthy behaviors like enjoyable body movement, intuitive eating, body-acceptance without the focus on weight loss or weight control. I have made it my mission to stop weight stigma and discrimination based on someones body size. In our culture many people are discriminated against because they live in larger bodies. And weight discrimination is shown to make people’s health worse, not better. We view a fat person and often assume they’re “unhealthy” and “lazy.” These are all stigmas our diet culture has placed on us and I have made it my mission to dismantle these views. Everybody deserves respect and is worthy regardless of their body size.
I approach fitness and wellness in a way that makes movement JOYFUL for my clients. In a way that promotes healthy behaviors that are not focused on weight loss. And in a way that helps my clients feel strong and mobile to live their life to the fullest, to do the things they love to do, and to view their body as more than just their size. If a client comes to me not feeling their typical movement routine that day, we adapt. We pivot and do something that does sound good rather than “pushing through.” We truly learn how to LISTEN to our bodies needs and desires whether thats with movement or with food and that is the true victory; not relying on the societal norms telling what what we “should” do but rather knowing what is truly best for our own body and mind.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Hey, Hi, Hello! I’m Trainer Jen, founder of Frolick Fitness, Therapy Centered Movement. I am a HAES Certified, Body Positive Personal Trainer with my License and Masters in Social work. My mission at Frolick Fitness is to help people powerfully and joyfully connect with their bodies through movement, mindfulness, and therapy. My vision is to have a positive impact on the way people see themselves, to teach them how to care for their bodies, nourish their souls, and stay kind to their minds. Integrity, kindness, trust, and joy are the core principles that my small business is centered upon.
I began my professional career working as a Licensed Master Social Worker in a Children’s Hospital and Hospice that led me to desiring a change, to do something lighter, to shift my focus from helping others have a beautiful death to living a full, strong, and beautiful life. When I first dove into the fitness industry I was blinded by my own biases and diet culture norms that it took a moment to realize exactly where I belonged. I myself didn’t have the right intentions to working out. I wanted to manipulate my body so i could “look like a personal trainer,” whatever that meant. I starved myself to strive for a six pack that genetically isn’t in my DNA. I restricted my body of things it needed and wanted for reasons none other than wanting to look a certain way rather than truly understanding health and happiness. I, thankfully, realized after a few years of working in a mainstream fitness industry that helping others succumb to diet culture norms was not my passion. I knew it wasn’t what I desired for myself personally nor what I wanted my values to consist of professionally.
I found myself enjoying a coffee with one of my clients at the time of feeling lost and confused of what I truly wanted to do, expressing my desire to mesh both my therapeutic role and my fitness role together but being 100% uncertain it was impossible. She mentioned a size inclusive studio opening soon and urged me to reach out. Thinking it too good to be true, it was the beginning of my beautiful journey to cultivating my own business and brand. It was through my journey working with this studio that I became HAES certified and embraced body positivity and body neutrality. However, when Covid hit, like many other small businesses, the studio shifted their focus to be more therapy centered and less movement focused, which led me to embarking on my own journey in building my own business.
The center of Covid was such a challenging time to cultivate a business, but I was blessed with the deepest support of my amazing mentors, clients, family, friends, and loved ones. I have the honor of working with some of the most knowledgable dietitians and therapists who’s primary focus is on those recovering from an eating disorder hoping to begin incorporating joyful / mindful movement back into their routine. My goal as their trainer is to guide them back to movement in a safe and joyful way. I love witnessing my clients complete a movement they never imagined they could do with pride and joy. I also provide therapeutic techniques in real time as we are re-engaging the mind body connection with movement. It truly is a gift to serve a community that has overcome so many discriminations and obstacles and simply want to move for the right reasons rather than giving in to societal norms and feeling like it is a chore. To help them flip the script of what they once thought movement was, to what movement really is, which is play, it’s health, it’s self-care. And movement isn’t a one size fit’s all. What I find to be joyful movement to me may not be the case for my clients. So having the opportunity to help each individual find THEIR form of movement is magic.
You will not find me posting before and after photos of my clients as my most proud moment. Rather you will find me praising my clients for listening to their bodies, for making a hard decision of taking a day off if their bodies are feeling overworked, for knowing when they want to go heavier, for simply leaving their workout feeling so strong and full of joy of all they’ve accomplished. The moments I feel the most proud are when my client’s come to me shocked and proud that something in their daily life that once was hard or impossible, is now possible or even easy. Witnessing that joy elude from their soul is magic. It’s the only gift I will ever need from my client’s, knowing that they’re living and moving joyfully. Knowing they’re capable of doing things they dream of. Knowing they’re intuitively living their fullest life.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Pivot, the pivotal word of 2020, am I right, no pun intended? Prior to covid I was an outdoor fitness instructor or an indoor studio instructor, both of which was in person, hands on! Never did I imagine having to relearn how to do everything I knew, but do it virtually. When Covid first hit, what even was zoom? Many of us had never used it! So everything we did was facebook or Instagram live (talk about awkward). I mean talking to and only seeing literally yourself. But we did it. Then learning how to adjust and lead a class virtually, not having access to hands on assist or even the ability to have a conversation was, well, a learning curve. But it has opened so many doors and cultivated so much growth in me not only as an individual but as a business owner. If you wanted to succeed you had to pivot and adapt quickly. It was fun to take that challenge head on and overcome it. I will eternally be thankful to the patience of my clients as navigating the virtual world was and can still have its moments of toughness. I mean, you are dependent on so many things working, like your computer, wifi, service, bluetooth, etc. And not only for yourself but also of those who you are training. It was like relearning how to build relationships all over again without having that true 1:1 in person connection. Then engaging your clients over a computer screen when they, too were over having to do everything virtually was it’s own beast. I had never been more thankful to my masters degree in social work to help build and maintain relationships during a really challenging time.
And while the virtual world is not perfect, and I am greatful that we can be back out in the community hands on, it has opened so many opportunities I will eternally appreciate. It has allowed me as a small business owner to spend more time back home with my family as I am able to work remote when need be. It allowed me to be there for an extend time as my mom went through breast cancer. It has allowed me to serve clients outside of my area seeking and desiring help. It’s allowed my clients to enjoy their workouts inside with AC rather than in the extreme heat. It has forced me to face things that are really hard or not my expertise, like technology. I’m sure so many of us know more than we ever cared to know about doing things online, but ultimately it truly has been a blessing in disguise.
So for this pivot and for my client’s patient understanding, I truly will be forever thankful.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
Personally and professionally I value communication and loyalty immensely. Every client that enters my world is on a different journey and provides for a unique experience so adhering to their boundaries and confidentiality is top priority. I value each and every single client and human’s life i’ve had the opportunity to impact. These humans are entrusting me with their body, their strength, their mental health, their confidence, and I do not take that lightly. Many of my clients allow me to come into their home for sessions which allows for a different level of confidence and comfortability. Keeping an open line of honest communication is critical in this line of work. I want to always cultivate an environment that allows my clients to be raw in the moment and to reach out when they are struggling. During sessions I consistently check in with my client’s mind and body to be sure everything is feeling safe and okay. Because of this my client’s feel comfortable voicing when something doesn’t feel great or when they simply don’t like or want to do something. Rather than shaming them, we adjust and alter to make the session enjoyable, meeting the needs and desires of each individual client. Proper language and communication really does enhance that time spent with each of my clients. After sessions I am sure to follow up to ensure their body feels strong.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://empoweredbyjen.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trainerjenbenton/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frolickfitnessTX
- Other: I am in the process of re-branding so Empowered by Jen will become Frolick Fitness ◡̈ YAY!