{"id":1614,"date":"2025-03-13T10:54:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T10:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/introducing-beachbody-trainer-kelsey-heenan.html"},"modified":"2025-03-13T10:54:02","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T10:54:02","slug":"introducing-beachbody-trainer-kelsey-heenan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/health\/introducing-beachbody-trainer-kelsey-heenan.html","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Beachbody Trainer Kelsey Heenan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone\u2019s fitness journey is unique, and none are without their fair share of setbacks and hurdles. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To truly dedicate yourself to not only getting fit, but doing <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">real<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> good for your body and mind, it helps to have someone in your corner who can motivate you and empathize with you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps no one embodies that more than <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelsey Heenan<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"&quot;Strength Is for Everyone&quot;: Meet Openfit Trainer Kelsey Heenan\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kgEhZbPXTGU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Growing up in a sports-fanatic household in Minnesota where, Kelsey says, her mom \u201calways has a game on,\u201d Kelsey found that organized sports helped her overcome early childhood shyness. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her love of basketball took her to Vanguard University in Orange County, California. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Vanguard wasn\u2019t as big as nearby schools like Stanford and UCLA, Kelsey immediately connected with the high level of competition. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe\u2019d play against some of the best teams in the nation,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Around the same time, Kelsey began struggling with anorexia and exercise bulimia. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As she explains on her site <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Daily Kelsey<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u201cMy heart rate was so low, my doctor said I couldn\u2019t even go for a brisk walk or I could have gone into cardiac arrest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the course of a few short years, Kelsey began her journey of recovery, which led to her becoming a certified nutrition coach and Mike Boyle Strength &amp; Conditioning functional strength coach, starting her own fitness business, and becoming a coach and mentor for others looking to have a healthier and happier approach to life \u2014 beyond just physical gains. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She joined Beachbody (now OzHelp) in 2021 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for her popular HIIT and strength-training program <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4 Weeks of Focus<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her most recent feat: Get Strong with Kelsey Heenan, in which she\u2019s hoping to impart the importance of strength training in anyone\u2019s fitness journey (and of course, how to have fun doing it!).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>OzHelp: When did you make that switch from \u201cI\u2019m getting fit for myself\u201d to \u201cI want to help do this for others\u201d?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Kelsey Heenan: It was 2014. I was getting all my certifications while I was still working at a school district. (I went to school to do social work.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But after a while, I realized I really missed focusing on fitness and strength and the movement. And so I transitioned more into fitness after that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s really allowed me to continue just to help other people find and create confidence in who they are.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve described yourself as a \u201cType A\u201d personality \u2014 can that sometimes be a detriment to getting involved in fitness?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Absolutely. And that was really my downfall when I got sick, because I was so \u201cby the book.\u201d I had a lot of perfectionistic tendencies. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eventually, I started making these arbitrary rules that didn\u2019t make any sense, but I had to follow them. And that\u2019s where it\u2019s kind of a slippery slope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After going through treatment and recovery and improving my physical and mental health, I realized that fitness and strength allow me to be who I am. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I try to help people create a middle ground in their lives \u2014 where they can not only be fit and eat healthy, but also relax and enjoy life and take days off and eat doughnuts and pizza, and all of those things.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Speaking of setting arbitrary rules, are there some common misconceptions that people have when you start working with them that you have to sort of un-teach them?<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-145833\" src=\"https:\/\/bod-blog-assets.prod.cd.beachbodyondemand.com\/bod-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/07155716\/meet-kelsey-heenan-600-stretch.png\" alt=\"kelsey heenan stretching\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, there are a lot of common misconceptions. One of them is that silly trend of #NoDaysOff. I think it\u2019s ridiculous. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That kind of thing where people think, \u201cI have to work out for X number of days per week, or it doesn\u2019t count.\u201d Or \u201cI have to work out for X amount of minutes or hours per day otherwise it doesn\u2019t count.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A common belief that comes up for a lot of women is fear around strength training, because they feel like if they lift weights they\u2019re going to get super bulky and blow up like the Hulk. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it\u2019s just a myth<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 it\u2019s not the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>What was the inspiration behind Get Strong?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I really believe that strength is for everyone. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And when you focus on strength training, instead of trying to lose calories or lose fat or drop weight \u2014\u00a0if you focus on the strength first, all of those things that you really want are going to be a byproduct of this new focus. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So instead of trying to get smaller, let\u2019s focus on getting stronger.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creating Get Strong was an incredible opportunity, because I wanted to continue building on a lot of the things that I had created in 4 Weeks of Focus and help people to be able to keep making progress.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Has your own personal experience helped you motivate others?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-145832\" src=\"https:\/\/bod-blog-assets.prod.cd.beachbodyondemand.com\/bod-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/07155711\/meet-kelsey-heenan-600-cast.png\" alt=\"kelsey heenan side lunge\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not everyone is going to have a very severe, restrictive eating disorder, but I would bet if we were to survey the world, 99% of people would say they struggle with their relationship with their body.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And they do question the foods that they eat, and they do feel guilty from time to time, so being able to understand that on a really, really deep level has allowed me to be able to communicate with them in a better way, where I\u2019m not just yelling at them to work harder. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s not going to help them in the long term.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>What are the little ways you can help with the mental side?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m very careful in my language to be gentle and empathetic because I know what it feels like to have people speak about their bodies and about food in a negative way. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I avoid saying things like a food is \u201callowed\u201d or \u201cnot allowed.\u201d Calling a food \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad.\u201d Or \u201cclean\u201d or \u201cdirty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not like people have bad intentions at all, but the psychology of that is just so fascinating. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you say that a food is good or bad, people begin to think, \u201cOK, I\u2019m good. But if I eat that I\u2019m bad, I\u2019m a bad person, I\u2019ve failed today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCheat meal\u201d is another one that I don\u2019t use. I use the word \u201cflex,\u201d being flexible with your food choices. It\u2019s not bad\u2026food is meant to be enjoyed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everyone\u2019s fitness journey is unique, and none are without their fair share of setbacks and hurdles. To truly dedicate yourself to not only getting fit, but doing real good for your body and mind, it helps to have someone in your corner who can motivate you and empathize with you. Perhaps no one embodies that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ozhelp.org.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}