Meet Five Louisville Fitness Influencers
Have you ever wondered about the women who publish inspirational work out photos on Instagram? We talked to five Louisville women, who all have different levels of social influence, to learn how they got there and what advice they might have for the rest of us.
Have you ever wondered about the women who publish inspirational work out photos on Instagram? We talked to five fitness influencers from Louisville, who have varying levels of social media clout, to learn how they were motivated and what advice they might have for the rest of us. With any luck, they’ll kick us into high gear and help us live longer, healthier lives!
Five Fitness Influencers
Jaime Warren
IG: @getfit_with_jw
Followers: 1,835
Jaime Warren had been teaching Jazzercise for 10 years, but she wanted to change up her classes — adding more muscle work to the mix. Out of that, her Hip-Hop Cardio class was born. She took music that she liked, and added dance and muscle moves for a full-body workout. She teaches it at several gyms around town, including a Sunday night class, where she leases space in Fern Creek. She charges $5 for the class, and anyone can join.
“Working out is hard,” the fitness instructor tells us. “You’ve got to find something that you love. Try and try again until you find something that you fall in love with.” For Jaime, teaching a fun and challenging class to women got her fired up to do more. Now she has a Facebook page where she gives daily tips and encouragement, and a YouTube channel where she streams workouts.
“It’s fun,” she said. “You go in, and you smile, you laugh, you move … and the next thing you know, an hour has gone by and you’re hot, and you’re sweaty and you’ve gotten a good workout. It’s not about being perfect; it’s not about having the perfect dance moves. It’s just about moving and having fun.”
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Chajuana Rene
IG:@mscjrene
Followers: 7,270
Chajuana Rene struggled with the extra 30 pounds she was carrying around after having children. She tried every fad diet that she found and had no success. Eventually, she hired a personal trainer for $1,600 a year. But even with the personal trainer, she had to go out and find nutrition information and workout on her own between training sessions. She gave up after four months, only having lost 15 pounds that entire year.
She watched a Facebook friend lose weight and finally asked her what she was doing to accomplish it. That’s when she found Beachbody — a fitness system. She lost 12 pounds in 42 days. “I had to shout it from the rooftop!” Chajuana says. She lost about 30 pounds and was amazed at her progress. She eventually became a Beachbody coach and began posting online and on Instagram.
This year, her employer announced that Chajuana and some of her co-workers were going to be laid off at the end of the year — she was all for it. As she puts it, “I said, ‘I’m so ready to do this!’” Eventually, her employer started asking her to stay, and she continued telling them no.
“You cannot give proper love to anyone else that you care about if you are not choosing to love yourself first,” she says. “And unfortunately, there is no one that can do this for you. It has to be you that cares so much about yourself that you treat yourself well. When you surround yourself with a tribe of ladies that are cemented on their health and fitness journey, and they are committed to overall wellness, you, my dear, become a boss at doing the same.”
Laura Wagner
IG: @laurawagner71
Followers: 1,200
Laura Wagner calls herself a “personal development blonde bombshell,” and she has combined her professional career as a psychotherapist and life coach with her love of fitness. When she had her daughter 18 years ago, she gained 70 lbs. “I was lost in this body,” Laura said. Out of curiosity, she walked into a Zumba studio and fell in love. So she got certified to teach Zumba, then she was certified to teach any group fitness class.
At age 40, she found a life coach who focused on weight loss. “The approach was the one that I (now) use with my clients,” she said. “It’s what I call losing weight from the inside out. It’s really looking at your perception of who you are and how you move through the world.” Women often do what she calls “waiting on the weight,” such as planning all the things they’ll do when they weigh a certain amount. She coaches clients to do those things now.
“This is this is your one wild and precious life,” she said. “If you start living as the woman that you want to be — that you think is trapped inside this body — what I learned through going through it myself was, I am here right now. And I can be who I am — that strong, edgy, smart, sexy woman in my body. Appreciate it for what it is and take good care of it.”
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Grace White
IG: @fitwithasd, @a_southerndrawl
Followers: 51.7k, 247k
In 2011, Grace White was in school studying biomedical engineering when she started a fashion blog. That blog turned into a full-time business, and she was making big money as an Instagram influencer. (Don’t worry, she finished school!)
Over time, she began getting interested in fitness and started filming her workouts for her followers. Last year, she branched out and created Fit with ASD, her fitness subscription website — complete with workouts, recipes, playlists, a macro calculator and more.
She had always been athletic, playing tennis and taking group fitness classes at the gym. But she felt intimidated by the weight room. “I was dependent on an instructor, and when an instructor I liked went out of town, I just didn’t work out,” she said. “I just felt really lost. And one day, I was just so sick of it.” She made a plan to visit the weight room after each class and try one move. Eventually, she added on and fell in love with lifting weights.
“For a beginner, when you lift weights, it’s so amazing to see your body change. Because it changes so drastically so quickly!” she said. “It was just so empowering. I became addicted, and it’s just changed my life. It’s one of the most rewarding things to be able to share it on social media.”
Cynthia Williams
Followers: 2,440
Cynthia Williams has worked in the fitness industry for about 16 years. She teaches group personal training classes, has an online fitness business called Lift and owns Mobile Worksite Wellness, a company that provides trainers to businesses who want fitness classes for their employees. Through Lift, she provides workouts for clients who subscribe — but she says that most of what she does online is nutrition coaching, while her in-person clients are mostly interested in fitness.
At age 40, Williams realized that she was in the best shape of her life, so she wanted to take it to the next level. She began training for and competed in the NPC Kentucky Derby Festival Body Building Competition, competing in the Figure division. She won first place in the Masters Over 40 division, and third in the True Novice division. What she didn’t know at the time was that she was 10 weeks pregnant.
Now seven months along, Williams still doesn’t need maternity clothes and is making everyone wish they looked that good pregnant. “I feel like many women give up,” she says. “After they’ve had kids, they’re just like, ‘What’s the point now? You know, this is my life.”
But Williams delivers a different message: “It’s not about having a six-pack; it’s not about being shredded. It’s about being healthy. It’s about living the longest life possible with the highest quality of life possible.”
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