13. Group Fitness & Personal Training with April Pavelka

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EPISODE 13: April Pavelka

April Pavelka has so much knowledge when it comes to fitness. She is currently the fitness manager at the University of Utah Campus Rec Center. Her education is nothing short of impressive - a master's degree in strength, conditioning, & fitness, including her certifications in personal training, group fitness and strength & conditioning specialist. It is such a gift to have April here today to share her fitness insights & knowledge with us.

April

The very first group fitness class I ever took, was turbo kick. It's a really old cardio kickboxing, aerobics, you know, knee high socks, and sweat bands, all that fun stuff. I was actually a dance major in college. So my degree was in dance. And a like older dancer, a senior in the program was a group fitness instructor at the time, and she invited me to come take her class. And it was a really easy transition. Because you know, counting music, being able to put choreography together and having that confidence, like lead a class, it was a pretty natural transition. But it was a big difference. For me in the group fitness space from being a dancer, where it wasn't as rigid. It wasn't as intense, I didn't feel as much pressure to be perfect, as I did when I was in the dance studio. And so that's what really drew me the more welcoming and inclusive space, whereas, I mean, you think of like the old school, ballet masters where they, you know, have the rule or and they're walking around, and they're analyzing your body, and you have to put yourself into crazy spaces and crazy postures. And when you go into a group in this class, it's the exact opposite. And you can kind of just do whatever feels good for your body that day. And you're in a group of people that are super welcoming, and they're all there for the same reasons. And so it was a really natural transition for me to get into fitness. And when I kind of like retired from dance, it was a good, a good retirement. A good way to start a real career.

Yeah, so my parents put me in like everything they let me try. I had the rule of I had to, you know, last one season in every sport, so I did tennis and swimming and soccer and dance was the one that kind of stuck. So I started when I was about three years old. all through high school. I did like classical ballet, all different kinds of dance. And eventually, when I got to college, I just decided to major in it. And

Katie: Can you give us insight into if somebody wanted to try going to a personal trainer?

We generally start with, from the technical side of it a fitness assessment, and we kind of split it up into two halves. So we're doing the thing where the trainer is looking at someone and seeing how they move, what's going on in their body. But the really important thing that I focus on with my trainers, and myself when I do personal training is the conversational piece of the assessment. Because the, like you said, someone's new, they didn't really know how to do anything in the gym, right? So they're, they're paying a premium price essentially, to come to someone and say, Hey, I don't know what's going on, please help. And so having that conversation, I call it putting the personal and personal training is really important to get to know like, Who is this person that's sitting across from you, as the trainer? What? What do they do for a living? What do they want to be able to do? I focus a lot on kind of like functional lifestyle movements. So you know a lot of people with whether their goal is to do physique, and so hypertrophy and getting bigger and kind of aesthetic goals, that's a different story, we can work on that that's easy. We have years and years and years of exercise science research that tells us the exact number of sets and reps that those person that those those people need to do. But if you know, we have a 50 year old faculty member that comes in and says, you know, my brother died of a heart attack at the age of 60, my doctor said, if you don't start, you know, getting a healthier active lifestyle, the same things gonna happen to you. That's kind of a lot higher stakes and a lot more personal. And so creating that conversation and that rapport between the trainer and the client. Because the client is really vulnerable in that position, right? Because they're essentially saying, I don't know what to do, please help. And so the sitting down and having that conversation, and not just the trainer, treating the client, like a money making, yeah, job, essentially. So I think that's a really important part of it. Because like I said, we have, we have years and years and years and tons of research about the exact number of sets and reps that someone needs to do to get bigger biceps, right. That's not, that's not the issue. What we really want for personal trainers to do is, like I said, the personal and personal training is good to know, the human being that they are working with. And, you know, helping them move through, whatever whatever they need to do for their life, whether that's, you know, stepping up their stairs, because they're getting older and don't have as much mobility, or they want to reach the top shelf of their kitchen without any help. You know, what, what will make their lives better and make them you know, more functional and be able to live their lives easier?

Yeah. And like I said, like it whether you're deciding to get a personal trainer or not like especially with college students, you're so vulnerable, right? You walk into a gym and you think everybody's staring at you and I Like you said, like, I don't know if I should say that I want to lose weight, like am I allowed to say that? Like, you walk into a gym and think that everybody just knows what they're doing. And you're the only one that feels like they need to change and morph into something that like, belongs there. Yeah. They just need, you know, all it takes is just one person, even if it's not a personal trainer, just one person to say, you know, nobody cares what you're doing. Nobody cares what you're looking at, like, everybody has their own motivation. And, you know, like you said, even if it is to, like, look good in a swimsuit for the summer, you know, that's a great goal two, we can work towards that you can work towards any type of aesthetic or physique goal, but yeah, making it not as personal, right? Yeah. Like,

Vulnerability in group fitness: open up to those insecurities, self-judgements, you might think that but like everybody's looking at themselves in the mirror.

Group fitness classes, nobody's looking at you. They're all I mean, once you enter like a high fitness class, or whatever yoga or Zumba, you have no obligations on yourself, other than to have fun, and just, you know, do whatever workout the instructor is giving and whatever works for you that day. So I think it's, it's so fun to you know, everybody in the same space working towards the same goal, whatever goal may be, it could be different for everybody. But you're all in the same, you all said, I'm gonna go work out at 530. Today, we're in the same room together, working out, working up a sweat, smiling, having fun, I think it's a super magical thing that everybody gets together. And, you know, from the nerdy science side of it, you know, we do see that there's more adherence, exercise adherence, when you have someone counting on you, right? So the instructor one week saying, Hey, I didn't see you last week what was going on? We missed you and, or even just having like a workout buddy saying like, Hey, I'm gonna wake up at 6:30am to go to yoga, do you want to come with me? And so that group aspect of it is so important for exercise adherence and just enjoyment overall. Yeah, I love group fitness. Yeah,

Group Fitness and Focusing on movement for enjoyment.

For sure? No, yeah. So so like, like I said, Yes, we do have rigid research that says you need to do X amount of this type of cardio and X amount of this type of resistance training every week. And but honestly, above all, that the overarching theme is doing what you enjoy, you know, some is better than none. And more is always, not always better, but some is better than none, right? So if you hate running, but you think for some reason, you need to be a quote unquote runner like Don't, don't go run on the treadmill, you don't have to be a runner. Like if you hate the treadmill, don't go on the treadmill. Go to Zumba class where you're supported. And it's really fun, and you're still going to work up the same amount of sweat, you're still going to work hard, but you're going to actually enjoy your hour instead of hating your hour of time. And, yeah, just the whole idea of exercise adherence with, you know, exercise psychology researchers just, you know, not forcing yourself to feel like, like you said, You know, I have to go to body pump, so I can, you know, build muscle, because everyone says that I have to build muscle, you know, whatever works for you, and with your body, and even just how you're feeling day to day, right. So like, sometimes, I mean, I personally have a strength training regimen that I do, you know, three times a week, and progressive overload and all that fun stuff. But there's some days when I just like, wake up and say, my body can't do that today, I'm just gonna go for a walk. And, you know, that is honestly probably better for my mental health and my physical health in the long run than if I just tried to push myself through, you know, a set of resistance training when my body was like, literally telling me don't do this, please stop. And so, you know, like you said, trying everything out. And also on the like, trying out side of it, I think we've heard a lot from students here that group fitness is kind of like a safe space to dip their toes in the water for fitness. Because it's in, you know, an enclosed studio. Granted, there are windows, but you're kind of tucked off in one side of the rec center. So, you know, the, we always say the first step, walking into the gym is the hardest, right? And so they get into the group Fitness Studio, and they're surrounded by those people that an instructor that's super supportive, and everybody that's there at the same time. And, you know, maybe they do take a body pump class, and they learn all these exercises to do and so maybe in like six weeks, they come in and say, you know, maybe I might go out into the weight room and try these same exercises just on my own and not in a class. And so it's a really good way to enter into the fitness space on their own without necessarily needing to take a group fitness class. And so I think that's a really cool thing that we've heard specifically from students here is that it's a really good, like I said, way to dip their toes in the water and have more self efficacy for creating enjoyable workout plans for themselves.

Mindset tools in the fitness space that are helpful

so like that cyclical thing, right? That you said like you wake up like one night you had like ice cream and then you're like how that ice cream tastes really good. Mmm, another scoop. Oh, that ice cream tastes really good to have another scoop and then you're suddenly bingeing and you ate a whole tub of ice cream and then you wake up the next morning with like a tummy ache and your head hurts and and then you kind of get that all or nothing mentality, right? Because social media and all the media in general tells you that you have to, you know, Eat Drink green juice and workout and do Pilates five times a week and all this all or nothing right or else you're not healthy. You're not Well, so I think overall, just breaking out of the all or nothing mindset is pretty important. And ways to do that. It's like, it's a really hard thing to break, right? Because you're like, Oh, well, I just like binge last night. And so that's, that's gonna ruin my whole week. So I might as well just, you know, go all in and eat whatever the heck I want for the whole week. But, you know, like you said, taking the guilt out of it with with things like bingeing and, you know, eating cheat meals or whatever. Something that I personally do is I just, something that I do is I just remove the guilt, and I don't call it a cheat meal, I'm just like, if I want ice cream, like, I'm gonna eat ice cream. And don't restrict yourself and don't, you know, I'm going on a diet tomorrow. So I'm gonna throw away all of my junk food, I'm just, yeah, he hit the ice cream, and then move on with your day. If you wake up one morning and say, I don't want to go to yoga today. Don't, don't, don't worry about it. Don't Don't be hard on yourself. And I know that's harder said than done. But I think breaking out of the all or nothing mentality is that, you know, one bad day or one not perfect choice for what you think your perfect lifestyle should be, is not going to derail the entire you know, your entire lifestyle. skipping one workout is not going to, you know, ruin your whole week, essentially, just the next day, just wake up and see how you're feeling the next day and give your body what it needs. And just moving on. And, you know, it is what it is, I think acknowledging the feelings are also important too, right? You don't want to have that toxic positivity of you know, I'm so healthy, it's okay, I'm not I'm not sad, there's not there was no reason why I binge on the ice cream last night. Like, it's okay to feel the feelings like we like life is messy and suck sometimes. So if you need to have a little extra ice cream to make yourself feel okay, just, you know, acknowledge those feelings that they're real. And the next day, go for a walk, get some fresh air clear your mind and, you know, take a few more steps forward.

Yeah, like almost like lowering the stakes. Right? Like not taking yourself so seriously. Right and like, you know you if you ate a lot of ice cream or a whole sleeve of Oreos one night like like, yeah, just, you know, acknowledge the feelings. be intentional about reflecting why Have you had those feelings, I think that's important to being mindful about what situations put you in certain what we would say spirals or reasons for breaking out of your habits, being intentional and mindful about why those situations occurred. But then lowering the stakes and kind of separating yourself from them. And, you know, figuring out if there's any way that you can, you know, change the environment for the next time that that stressful situation happens, and just being able to, you know, figure out, you know, is there a better way we can go about, you know, handling my feelings the next time, as there are other other ways that I can, you know, deal with my feelings and like, let them out, and still stay on track with whatever goals I'm working towards.

Body struggles and bringing in mindfulness

Yeah, so so like I kind of mentioned before, you know, when I was in college, in high school, I didn't necessarily have the best relationship with food or exercise, just because of, you know, being a dancer. And so much of your performance is based on how you look. And so much of your kind of just how well you are perceived as a dancer is based on how you look. And so, you know, I got caught up a lot in, you know, earning my food or skipping meals, because I wasn't going to be dancing for five hours that day, or spending, you know, hours on the elliptical to burn fat. And then, you know, starting into fitness, and you know, kind of the mental health aspect of it. And even like, you know, it didn't take me until like the past couple years to start getting really into the mindfulness side of it. And like what I was talking about before, like waking up one day and saying, I don't, I can't work out today, I can't, I can't, I just don't, my body doesn't want strength training today. That honestly didn't even start happening for me and like, myself letting go of that guilt until like, past couple years. But now I can kind of see, you know, I feel better. And I'm performing in my own, you know, workouts and teaching classes, I'm so much better now than I was when I was in college, because I'm nourishing my body with good food, whatever I think and not worrying about having to earn certain types of food, or certain types of food are off limits. And being really mindful with the type of movement I do every day. And what my body needs. I'm actually like, I feel like the best now than I ever have. And so I'm really, really focusing on with fitness classes and personal training that are here at the you and just anywhere kind of just, you know, my sphere of influence or whatever. I'm really, really trying to spread that message because like I said, I I'm amazed at how much better I feel now than I did when I was like 18 years old. And so I just want to make sure that, you know, new personal trainers and new group fitness instructors that come into the field, really take that with them and can show their participants and their clients that, like I said, lowering the stakes and just nourishing your body and what feels good and just moving in a way that feels good for you that day. It's Yeah, it's done wonders for me. So everyone should do it.

we talked about this Before to what removing the guilt from it and kind of like almost separating yourself from the choices you make, right? So if you eat a cookie, it's like, well, you ate the cookie, move on, don't feel guilty about it. It was there, it's done. What can you do moving forward to, you know, make yourself feel better, or make your body feel better is that going on a walk is that eating, you know, some veggies with hummus or whatever, and not necessarily, you know, trying to replace or trying to make up for bad decisions. But like I said, just feeling the feelings and acknowledging that it happened. And it was there. And you know, you give yourself grace and that compassion to just move on. I think that was the big thing for me is having to unlearn the rigidity that I thought I was supposed to have with eating and exercise. I think that's been really important.

The old school diet culture of, you know, don't you know, sugar is bad for you don't eat fruit because fruit has sugar in it. Or, you know, you should only drink water soda will rot your insides. I was just like, a lot of little things that built up over time, like really, really tiny, tiny things. From You know, that's that's kind of what was ingrained in the culture. At the time, you know, you see even like 90s like model culture of those really stick than models and that lived only Coffee and Cigarettes that was kind of, you know, the the dance culture that I grew up in. I remember this one specific time. We had just gotten our like two tattoos made to us. But the my like batas was switched with another dancer who was a lot thinner than I was. So her measurements were a lot smaller. So our bodies just got switched and it took a lot of elbow grease and grunting and groaning but I finally got someone to hook me into this essentially like something that made my waist like three or four inches smaller than it should have been. And the costumer when I told her the situation that she had switched the like bodices around the tutus. She said, Wow, I'm surprised you even got that on. And as like a 16 year old I was like I was like, okay, should I not have? Was I really that big? It's just as sort of like, it was never really a really big thing of one person like blatantly saying in my face, you are so fat, you are so ugly, blah, blah, blah. But a lot of little, little pinpricks over time of one person telling me, oh, you had a whole salad for lunch today, I only had half a salad. And, you know, the next person saying, you know, I had to let out your costume because it was, you know, too small for you over time, and, like you said, kind of those external stressors, rather than, you know, stepping back and me saying, Well, how do I feel today? What What do I need? You know, can I make decisions for myself? Or do I need other people to tell me decisions to make about my body? Yeah, just like, a lot of little things over time that kind of built up and, and you know, all those little things over years and years and years took, I probably even say, twice as long for me to unlearn and, you know, get those recurring thoughts out of my brain. And, you know, sometimes they still come where I'm like, maybe I shouldn't eat another role at dinner. And I'm like, Yeah, one role in the grand scheme of things, one role with butter is not going to make a difference. So years of unlearning.

So like I said, classical ballet. need to be thin, tiny, graceful. And then I got to college. And you know, like, like I was mentioning before group fitness is kind of a really good way to dip your toes in the water of fitness. So I took a, you know, I took a turbo kick class and then took a zoom class. And then, you know, I stepped in and took a CrossFit class. And I was like, Whoa, these girls are like, badasses. I was like, I can do that too. And it's just so cool to have like, like, it doesn't matter how much you lift doesn't matter how much weight you lift, you're not doing it for anybody else. I mean, unless you're like, competing in powerlifting, or Olympic lifting competition, but like, you're literally just squatting heavy weight, just to be a badass. And, you know, it's not like you're being forced to learn a dance routine for the enjoyment of others. I mean, granted, you know, you start you go into dance, just like anything for your own enjoyment. But you literally dance, other people pay to come see you for their own enjoyment. But you know, when you walk into a weight room, and you're kind of just like, I'm just gonna go just like slam some weights around just because I can and just because it's cool. Again, kind of like the removing the like, personal aspect of it and separating yourself and just doing it because it's fun.

Yeah, some one big thing that I, in any fitness class that I've been teaching recently, one of the really big kind of like motivational cues that I've been using is, you know, whatever decision you make for yourself is going to be the right one. Yeah, no one, no one's gonna make a better decision for you than you. So whatever it is, whether it's the decision to, you know, try crow post for the first time, or the decision to go up to the 10 pound dumbbells, or even the decision to in your yoga class, say, I'm just going to take Child's pose for this next 10 minutes. You know, whatever decision you make, as long as you commit to it, it's going to be the right decision. In that moment. Yeah,

Yeah. And that's the great thing about college too, is, you know, like you were who we talked about before, you know, you're, it's your first time kind of on your own, making your own decisions, you know, best thing about being an adult is, nobody can tell you that you can't eat an entire cake for dinner, you know, that's if you make that decision, you can make that decision yourself. And so having supportive people, you know, at your college rec center, or in a fitness studio that you go to, or you know, a club sport, or even just a student organization, having those people that support you and kind of the same things that you like to do. So you can start making those decisions for yourself and kind of figuring out who you are. That's the you know, the call, probably, honestly, more important in your college journey than the classes you take. In developing, you know, the person who's going to graduate, not just what you are is a major what you're going to do for a living. Yeah, just that journey of figuring out who you are as a human on the earth.

Available Support Systems

Probably lots of different ways you can find different types of support, obviously, like a college Rec Center is a great first step. Just walk in and find someone wearing a name tag, and ask them what to do. Even if you just go to like a commercial gym. You know, they're there to support you. They want you know, nobody's nobody wants you to fail in life, right? So they're going to help you so whether it's you need to learn how to use the equipment. You know, ask someone that works at the gym or reach out to honestly even like a professor that you have really connected with or maybe your academic advisor. I think academic advisors probably like could rule the world with how many resources they know and can connect you to specifically and in college. You know, depending on your universities with the EU we have the Center for Student wellness and they work on a lot of aspects of you know, physical emotional, sexual mental wellness, even, you know, the your colleges psychology center or Counseling Center. You know, whoever you go to, will be able to point you in a direction if they can't answer the question for you or can't help. They'll be able to point you in the right direction. And honestly, even if it's literally you know, I We'll walk with you to the Counseling Center. Like let's I will walk with you there and show you where the building is, you know, any staff on a campus that you're at will probably be able to, like you said, point in the right direction. And especially so like, me as the fitness manager here, and all of us professional staff, like we do this full time for a living. I literally get paid to help students succeed. And I think a lot of full time staff on these university campuses, like that's what we do these jobs for we like I said, we're working and we don't want students to fail. So you know, going somewhere, walking into any building, I'm sure you'll find somebody that can point you in the right direction. For whatever you need, like you said, whether it's nutrition or emotional health. We're literally here our whole jobs are to support students. And that's my favorite thing to do. So I will never, I will never set anyone up for failure.

Yeah. And honestly, that's encouraged like I even going through, you know, when I was in therapy, recently, and a few years ago, like, it's like, nobody's gonna take it personally, if you say, we're not vibing Well, I'm gonna try something different. You know, you know, certain, certain aspects of that it's actually honestly encouraged, right? And so, figuring out what you need, and honestly, even if you don't know what you need, yeah, I'm just taking the first step and just, you know, walking into the gym and, or even just browsing on the website and seeing what the Rec Center has to offer. You know, do they have Oh, they have a, you know, intro to weightlifting class. I've never done weightlifting, maybe I should try it out. Or, oh, they have a, you know, a belay clinic. I've never rock climb before, let me try that. So even if you don't know what you don't know, you'll eventually find something you don't know about. And you'll find support to get there eventually.

April - Last messages that you want to tell our audience

Yes, overall, you know, find what you love to do. Like I said, kind of separating yourself from what other people think you know what's best for you. Just do whatever the heck you want. If you want to do yoga, do yoga, if you hate the treadmill, don't go on the treadmill. Kind of separating yourself from expectations and what you think you should do. And you know, like I said, your body and your mind are never going to lead you astray. So that's my, I guess, motivational quote for the day. Do whatever the heck you want.