We were lucky to catch up with Sylvia Miller recently and have shared our conversation below.

Sylvia, appreciate you joining us today. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?

I got into training people because I wanted to help people. I have never seen myself working with clients who were wanting to be athletes or bodybuilders. My passion was always with people who never thought they were strong. Clients who had gone to other personal trainers and been told that they need to stop eating and run. Or women who were told that they needed to be skinny and not strong, people who want to be mobile and independent as they grow older.

One of my first clients was a woman who was struggling with body issues, depression and gym anxiety. She was so afraid that people were judging her and that she was a complete failure. When I started working with her, she was always down on herself and just did not want to be there. Even so, I make sure to continue to show up for her even when she didn’t want to show up for herself. I helped her to come up with achievable goals that did not have anything to do with weight. We talked about how she could show up for herself in small ways each day. Our session together became full of joking and laughing. She started coming to the gym when I was not meeting with her and doing workouts on her own and began to make friends at the gym. A year after she joined the gym, the difference was visible to everyone. She was smiling all the time, laughing and joking with other members as well as the staff. She was glowing. Yes she lost some weight, yes she is much much stronger. But more than anything she is happy, she is taking on new challenges and she is enjoying life again.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In high school and throughout college, I was not exactly the star athlete. Yes I played sports and was fairly active but was not very athletic. As a woman, the messages that I received were that woman were supposed to be small and thin. I was not either of these things. So I decided I had to make myself that way. I took up absurd amounts of running and started eating less and less. I was almost always hungry and tired. Since I lived in Chicago, I decided to get a gym membership so I could continue running in the winter. While I was a member at this gym, I found a program called “Girls Who Lift.” Ran by Coach Nikki Veit.

I took this program with my best friend and to say it changed my life would be putting it mildly. I started weight lifting and found that I enjoyed an hour working with weights in the gym so much more than I enjoyed hours of running. I felt strong, I took up space. I felt empowered. I continued my weightlifting journey off and on for years. When the world changed in 2020, I needed a way to work off stress and keep myself sane. The original inspiration for my weightlifting journey started teaching online Kettlebell Class. I dove right back in. I took 4 classes a week and then decided that I wanted more individualized approach so I worked with Coach Nikki independently.

One thing that I found out really quickly was that I was not the only person who was a victim of the “woman should make themselves smaller” movement. I decided that I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. I wanted to take on the lies and misconceptions that women should only lift light and do tons of cardio. I wanted to empower other woman to take up space and live their best lives. When I decided that I needed to do what makes my life most fulfilled rather than what society told me to do I began to live my best life and I wanted to share that with others.

I have built my brand on living a fulfilled life. Fulfilled Fitness. Making sure that my clients experience a fully holistic approach to their fitness. I want to make sure that my clients are attending to not only their physical fitness but their emotional and spiritual fitness as well.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Empathy. So often I hear horror stories where someone was seeking help and was met with judgement and cruelty. There is so much misinformation out there. It’s confusing so when someone genuinely asks for help and is met with “eat less” or “eat only fats” or “only protein” or “move more but only this way or that way” or or or. It can be overwhelming. They need to be approached with understanding and facts. Not judgment.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As anyone starting a new career knows, it can be expensive to get education and training while not getting paid. During the time that I was getting certified as a personal trainer, I was working at a bar as the front of house manager. This involved not only long and late night but a drive that could easily be 2 hours. I carried my flash card app, notebook and textbooks with me everywhere. Thankfully it was all digital. I took every opportunity I could to study or read to prepare for my test. On top of that, I took a second job as a part of the welcome team for the gym I work at now. This meant that while I was still learning, I was working 7 days a week. I do not recommend. Once I was certified, I took the leap, left my bar job and started to build my clientele. Though it was months of little sleep and lots of working, it ultimately paid off. But still, I do not recommend.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fitnessgrogu/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FulfilledFitness

Image Credits

Hector Gutierrez; Rafael Aceves