Growing up, my parents tried to put me into sports and anything athletic, just like any young kid is. I was in gymnastics for a couple of years and then soccer for a couple of years. I liked it at first but then hated it after a while, so I stopped. I have never been a particularly “sporty” or athletic person.
When I was around 10 or 11, I watched the Selena Gomez movie, “Another Cinderella Story”, and during all of the scenes where she was dancing, I turned to my mom and said, “I wanna do that”. Soon, I was signed up for dance classes. Turns out I suck at hip hop but I picked up on jazz, ballet and musical theatre style dance pretty quickly. I finally found something that would keep me busy and active because along with not liking to participate in sports, I was also homeschooled.
Soon, I was at the dance studio 5+ hours a day, dancing, singing and acting. I finally found something that made me happy, kept me active and helped me make friends.
I participated in MANY classes and competitions along with rehearsing by myself at home over the course of about five years.
Then came a musical I was in, “Legally Blonde”. I played Vivienne and loved every minute of it. Then, on the second to last show, I knelt down for a dance move and heard/felt a pop in my left knee. In that moment I knew something was seriously wrong. I finished the show and when I got home, my knee was the size of a cantaloupe (not exaggerating:( ). My parents and I knew that something was wrong and I needed to see a doctor. Being a stubborn musical theatre kid, I did the closing night show on a lot of ibuprofen and a knee brace.
After seeing the doctor the next week and getting an MRI of the knee, we were told that I had not just torn something, but shredded my lateral meniscus. The doctor told me I would need surgery as soon as possible. During this surgery, they ended up taking out 75% of that meniscus, leaving a lot of bone-on-bone friction. They told me I would never dance again. Not fun. I was crushed.
After months of physical therapy, I was back on my feet and decided to actually go to a public high school. There, I participated in the theatre program. Shockingly to my orthopedic surgeon and myself, I was dancing again in musicals. It was not perfect and I would pay for it sometimes afterward, but it was worth it to me. I worked hard and was able to do the thing I still loved.
After high school, I entered college at the University of Arizona as an Acting BFA major. I only had to take one dance class for this degree and it was during this that I realized I did not love it as much as I did and risking my knee was not worth it to me.
I had only known dance as my main form of athletics and activity. I was lost, feeling badly about my body image and not knowing what to do. Then, during the end of my freshman year, I found the gym. At first, I had no idea what I was doing and it was not healthy. I thought that doing a bunch of cardio and not eating a lot would help my body image. It actually made it worse. I knew that I loved the gym but I was not doing things correctly.
I started doing research, following a bunch of fitness influencers on Instagram and reading articles and form tips for different exercises. Soon, I caught on and learned that sometimes, less is more. I started lifting heavy and bringing down my cardio and started to LOVE the results. The gym turned into my stress reliever and something that I looked forward to during the day. Soon, my friends started asking me to take them with me to teach them how to workout. I realized I loved it. Teaching people how to properly workout and how to do it in a healthy way was gratifying and a lot of fun.
Then I realized I could turn this into a career. So during the summer after my junior year, I signed up for the National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer program. I studied hard and passed the test a few months later. About a week after passing the test, I got a job with LA Fitness as a personal trainer. I was thrilled and learned so much during my time there.
I realized that I wanted to help people and make them feel confident in and out of the gym no matter what their overarching goal is.
If your goal is weight loss, I want to help you.
If your goal is muscle gain, I want to help you.
If your goal is weight gain, I want to help you.
If your goal is easier movement in the mornings when you wake up, I want to help you.
If you goal is to train for a bodybuilding competition, I want to help you.
If your goal is just to learn how to perform certain movements, I want to help you.
No matter what your goal for fitness is, I want to help.
So let’s get moving.
-Rebecca Galcik
Reps With Rebecca 