Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikki Steen.
Nikki, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
With over 40 years of dance experience and extensive training as a young, competitive gymnast, becoming a fitness trainer was a natural and easy transition for me. In the two decades since I was first certified as a personal trainer, I have acquired a wealth of knowledge about building strength, recovering from and working around injuries, pre- and post-natal training, and adapting a program to suit the needs of the body at advancing ages. My personal understanding of the challenges in maintaining a healthy body weight – along with issues surrounding diet and body image – significantly influence how I am able to successfully work with those that struggle with weight management. My approach to weight loss and overall physical fitness is driven by my desire to support a healthy lifestyle in a way that is sustainable long term. My goal as a trainer is to design a program that elevates how my clients feel about themselves and about their bodies.
I work from my beautiful, private studio where I regularly conduct both virtual training sessions to those who want to train remotely and in-person sessions that also include the use of professional equipment, aquatic fitness in the swimming pool, full shower and changing facilities, etc.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For the most part, private training has been a really natural and effective way for me to share some of my personal experiences with fitness. The events of 2020 created a paradigm shift for all of us, though and the fitness industry was faced with a significant challenge. To that end, I started training some of my clients remotely and am grateful for virtual platforms that allowed us to uphold our commitments to fitness during that difficult period. I have now incorporated virtual training into my standard fitness practice because I’ve been able to re-engage former clients who moved out of state, avail myself to new clients who aren’t in the neighborhood, and to those who simply prefer to train from their own homes. Of course, I always have and will continue to offer good, old-fashioned in-person sessions, too! 😉
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I believe that physical fitness is an important element of a healthy lifestyle but that it should be treated as one component in a holistic approach to self-care and overall wellness. There is an expression that “we eat to live,” not the other way around! I believe fitness is the same. We don’t live to be fit. We are fit in order to have healthy, full, quality, long lives! To me, this means that a well-constructed, healthy fitness routine should be something that is sustainable long-term. High-intensity, extreme workouts are fine for sport-specific training for advanced athletes in some circumstances; but the general population (and I’m now including myself in that category) needs to engage with fitness in a way that is challenging but moderate and comprehensive. I believe that trainers too often indulge their clients by administering workout plans that are very narrowly focused for short-term results: get skinny fast, get “ripped” abs, tone flabby arms, build bigger biceps, lose love handles, “saddlebags,” etc. This type of approach to fitness is not only cruel (because it is based in punishment and focuses on perceived flaws), it’s also dangerous (because it overlooks the big picture of how various parts of the body work together), and it’s inefficient (because the body will perform more optimally and change more permanently when it’s trained holistically.)
So, I try to get to know my clients a bit, understand not only what their short-term goals are but what their lifestyle requires of them. Are they busy moms and dads? Aging athletes or dancers? Recovering from eating disorders? Healing from surgeries, or trying to not only recover from injuries but avoid them long-term? These details are important to understand in supporting anyone who seeks experience and expertise from a fitness professional. Once I have real understanding of my client’s strengths, liabilities, goals, lifestyle, etc., it’s my job to curate a plan that facilitates building those strengths, mitigating their weaknesses, achieving their goals, and improving their lifestyle. I hope and believe I’ve been doing that for nearly two decades now, and I’m deeply grateful that my core clientele have stayed with me through the duration of my fitness career, from in-person training into virtual training during the height of the pandemic, at various locations at various studios, and finally in my really beautiful private space in Encino. I’m particularly excited that I can now also offer sessions in the swimming pool, which provides a great opportunity for those with joint issues, injuries, and difficulty with weight-bearing to engage in safe and fun, weightless exercises in the pool.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was an outgoing kid, engaged with both my class work and extra-curricular activities, such as gymnastics, dance, singing, acting, writing, etc. My first memories in ballet class were probably at around three years old, then I started taking gymnastics at five and became a competitive gymnast until thirteen when I started dancing very seriously. I danced 20+ hours a week and was awarded a scholarship at the famous Duprée Dance Academy on West Third Street in L.A. After a few years puberty hit hard, which can be challenging for athletic girls; but I kept dancing through it and into my early 20’s when I started focusing more on acting. Then I booked my first cruise contract and spent the next couple of years singing and dancing on the high seas. When I came home from those contracts at sea, dancing in heels on hard surfaces on moving ships, my knees and back were thrashed. Ultimately, it was recovery from my own personal physical battles – puberty, injuries, fatigue, food issues, and more injuries – that lead to my interest in personal training because I wanted to help others have agency over their bodies, contribute to their wellness and especially facilitate confidence.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.steenfit.me
Image Credits
Larry Steen
