We were lucky to catch up with Nikki Naab-Levy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nikki, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

My journey in the fitness world started with me becoming a group fitness instructor and teaching Pilates. When I first began teaching, I knew I was flexible, but I had no idea that my hypermobility would have such an impact on my fitness experience and pain levels.

I’ve always believed that there’s no such thing as “bad exercise” or “bad movements,” but it turned out that the style of group fitness I was teaching wasn’t the best fit for hypermobility. Before long, I found myself dealing with chronic pain. That’s when I turned more exclusively to Pilates and “gentle” exercise for my own fitness practice, because I was told it was a safer option for people like me.

At the time, the prevailing theory from the people who I had studied under was that “bad” posture or alignment was the main reason why people like myself had so much pain. However, despite my best efforts to “fix” my alignment, my pain wasn’t improving, and my overall fitness wasn’t either. In fact, I was getting weaker, and my pain was worsening. It seemed like others around me were facing the same issues. That’s when I decided I needed a different approach. Despite plenty of warnings that I would injure myself, I started strength training.

Surprisingly, I got better. Not worse. My strength increased dramatically. My pain decreased, I stopped having chronic injuries. Don’t get me wrong, Strength training isn’t magic and there are other tools that can be very important for managing pain and chronic injury. Beyond that Pilates and restorative movement modalities also have their own own unique benefits. In my case, the problem wasn’t that I was doing other things. It was that I wasn’t doing enough progressive loading, which is most effectively done through strength training.

For those of us who are hypermobile, one reason why we may experience pain and injuries is because we lack the necessary strength to handle daily activities and the things we want to do. As we get stronger, our ability to tolerate exercise increases, resulting in less pain and fewer injuries because it’s harder to overload our joints. The message that hypermobile people can’t be strong or shouldn’t strength train is harmful and incorrect, because we can be very physical capable if given the right tools and exercise progressions.

Once I realized the importance of strength training, especially for hypermobile individuals, I sought more education on program design and strength training. Now, my focus revolves around making strength training more accessible and creating programs that consider pain and hypermobility as key factors. Strength training changed my life and my perspective of fitness and what we are all capable. It made realize how much potential we each have.

Nikki, 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?

I’m a strength and nutrition coach with over a decade of experience helping women build strength + muscle, move beyond injury, and develop an approach to eating that feels calm, secure and sustainable while aligning with their goals.

As a symptomatic hypermobile person, I also know how difficult it can be to navigate fitness and nutrition when faced with chronic conditions and chronic injuries. This is why part of my work centers around fitness for hypermobility.

One of my strongest values is body autonomy. I believe that it’s not my job to tell people what to want for themselves. Rather, my role is to give them the space and support to figure out what goals and habits will best serve them and ultimately lead to better health and feeling confident in themselves and their physical abilities.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Empathy. The fitness industry can make fitness and nutrition sound “easy,” but the truth is that things don’t always line up or go as planned even when someone is doing their best. Change is hard and it’s important that people in this field recognize this and are able to support their clients without judgement.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

At this point in my carrier, I love what I do, but the path here wasn’t straight forward. Before I was a strength and nutrition coach, I taught group fitness. I worked as a Pilates teacher. I went to massage school. I dabbled in professional writing. I even briefly pursued a master’s in accounting, but it made me so miserable I returned to fitness.

Ultimately, I’ve always found clarity through the experience of doing, so while there are certainly things I might have wanted to approach differently, I’m not sure I would have figured out what I wanted to be doing without pursuing what felt meaningful and interesting at the time.

Contact Info:

• Website: naablevy.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/naablevyfitness
• Facebook: facebook.com/naablevy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzoK4o–s4n71jT6zmqm8HQ
• Other: tiktok: @Naablevyfitness

Image Credits
Anna Nodolf