We were lucky to catch up with Maritza Camacho recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Maritza , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

During my teenage years and early 20s, I was very involved in training and thought personal trainers were amazing. However, I was under the impression that in order to be one, I had to look a certain way. This along with a few more things, prevented me from being comfortable in pursuing being a trainer. Fast forward, I became a mom and decided that I had to pursue whatever I wanted as a way to be a better example for my daughter. I also started to meet people that thought they had to look a certain way to even begin going to the gym. This lead me to want to promote fitness for everyone! Allow people to discover that there is a fitness level for everyone. The other factor was having a setting that felt safe for all. A lot of people feel they have to look a certain way before they go to the gym because of the traditional gym environment. For this reason, I wanted to at some point open up my own gym.

Maritza , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As mentioned, I started my fitness journey in my early teenage years. As I got older, I realized that I had learned unhealthy ways to lose weight. This made me want to help promote a different approach to fitness. I became aware of the issues with fad diets and how unhealthy certain diets are. Food Restriction is something that is greatly promoted and I personally think is a horrible thing to do. The second thing was the myth that women should not lift heavy because they will look too “manly” or get injured.
These reasons were a few as to why I became a Personal trainer as well as a powerlifting coach.

I offer personal training, powerlifting coaching, nutritional coaching and recovery sessions.
The biggest thing that I believe sets Uplifting vGym apart is that, is that I understand that life happens and not all clients live and breath just the gym. As a mom, I know I had to stop training due to my daughter getting sick, or last min runs to the store for school projects or picture days. Days when work requires unexpected overtime. The list goes on. I do my best to train my clients to their full potential while also understanding that at times, it is best to program deloads or recovery sessions to allow training to be a positive thing instead of an additional stressor.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I switched to personal training in June of 2019. In March of 2020, COVID happened. I had been working at Xsport and now everything shut down. I had no experience coaching online only in person. I was ready to go hunt for a different career opportunity but my very own clients reached out asking me to do something.
I realized that I loved what I did and I had to figure something out. I pivoted to try virtual zoom hiit classes using what I learned from leading group classes at Xsport as well as things I had learned from CrossFit.
There were plenty of times I wanted to quit and say I made a mistake but my boyfriend helped me continue to move forward. When things began to open up, he offered to help me convert his garage into a gym. I accepted and we grew from there.
It definitely was a scary time, I have a mortgage, my daughter and mother who live with me so a lot of responsibility. However, I knew that I loved seeing the Lives of my clients change for the positive and I wanted to be able to continue to do that.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was the false belief that you have to do it yourself. We are fed this idea that you make it as far as you do because of your own work and that being independent is the best way to go. Now although I am a huge believer in working hard, it is impossible to grow alone. My boyfriend helped me understand that we all need a little help sometimes. I realized that being a team allowed me to grow even more. The support of my team, my family and even some strangers helped Uplifting vGym grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.welcometouplifting.com
• Instagram: Uplifting_vgym
• Facebook: Uplifting vgym