Conversations with Molly McNamee

Today we’d like to introduce you to Molly McNamee.

Hi Molly, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Movement has always been in my life. I did competitive dance and gymnastics growing up. I love sports and grew up playing really any sport with my older brothers. This passion for movement brought me to LA. I moved to Los Angeles in 2011 and became a professional dancer.

Now, I grew up in central Illinois. So, this move was a big one. Going from cornfields to the big city was stressful, lonely and scary. I turned to exercise to help me with this new stress because movement has always been therapeutic to me.

I started going to the gym every day. I met some great people in the city. I started loving my life here. I got my personal training certification (along with about a dozen other certifications). Started teaching fitness classes. And my dance career quickly shifted into a career in fitness after that.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has not always been a smooth road. But the struggles have made me a better person and a better coach.

Being a performer, which I have been all my life, can make you really look at your body in an unhealthy way. My brain is also wired to overthink and over-analyze things, so I was pretty hard on myself when it came to my body.

As a teen, I would under-eat to look a certain way. As a young adult, I would over-exercise to look a certain way. And when I couldn’t keep up with that extreme lifestyle, I would basically disregard my health entirely, eat junk, and barely move. The result of that was: a lot of weight fluctuation, inconsistent energy, low motivation, and general unhappiness. Basically, all the things that my clients come to me now to fix.

About 4 years ago, I suffered a pretty debilitating concussion. I was forced to not exercise for a while. And when I was able to exercise again, I needed to exercise in a different way. Workouts with a lot of jumping would cause me dizziness. Long workouts would burn me out. So, I shifted to a low-impact approach to exercise. And I started doing shorter, more intentional workouts.

Changing my workouts was good for me for more reasons than just concussion recovery. It also helped me find consistency. I had been stuck in that yo-yo cycle for so long and this change broke me out of it! I wasn’t able to over-exercise anymore because of my head injury. And I didn’t need to because the shorter, low-impact workouts gave me the results I always wanted. This concussion opened my eyes to a whole new way of training that my body loves. It helped me break out of my unhealthy patterns. And it is what I now teach to others.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an online fitness coach. I have an online workout platform called MFit Workouts that I run myself. MFit gives you quick and effective workouts you can do at home. The workout programs on my website include a mix of livestream workout classes, on-demand workout videos, and personalized health coaching.

One thing that I feel is missing from most fitness platforms is coaching. Many just give you a bunch of workouts and say ‘good luck.’ At MFit, all of my programs include some level of coaching so that you can get the personalized advice you need to safely reach and maintain you fitness goals.

My goal as a trainer is to help busy people make time for themselves with sustainable workout programs. I help people break free from that yo-yo cycle that so many find themselves stuck in and get into a consistent and realistic fitness routine.

I am very proud of my knowledge of the body. In addition to my fitness certifications, I am also a corrective exercise specialist. Which means I help people fix the imbalances in their body causing them joint pain. Every MFit workout has a bit of corrective work in it. I always keep the joints in mind when I’m teaching. And make sure my clients are feeling all the right muscles and none of the pain in the wrong places.

I had one client come to me last summer who could barely walk she had so much hip pain. She didn’t have an injury, her body was just in need of some corrective exercise. And within just a few weeks, we got her hiking again without pain. Results like that give me so much joy!

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I’m lucky to have the family I have and to have the privileges I have. I wish I could blame everything bad that’s happened to me on luck. And I wish I could say I’ve had a lot of good luck in my life and business.

But, I truly believe that I am where I am today because of my choices and hard work.

Listen, I’m an Irish girl. I do believe in luck of the Irish. I am also fairly superstitious… But I don’t think luck has played a big role in my life.

Pricing:

• MFit Prep: $37
• MFit Membership: $129/month
• Back To Fit: $797

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mollymcnamee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mfit.workouts/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsmollyrae
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwxdGG8wgcBW3KU4HeB0avA

Image Credits
Michael DeMarco, Nathan Lusk, and Laura Burke