Hidden Gems: Meet Camila Mariana

Today we’d like to introduce you to Camila Mariana.

Hi Camila, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve always been super active. I danced professionally for a few years in college and also ran pretty competitively in high school. When I graduated college, I did what most of us do, which is look for a job within my field. I worked in PR in Latin America via Miami for a few years and I was miserable, mainly because I stopped working out at all. I was drinking more, working all the time and I was always angry at myself.

When I would work out, I would do it to punish myself or in an angry way, and something that had once been therapy for me became unenjoyable. I realized that and decided to start walking every day without expecting anything else from myself (no abs, no toned muscles), just focusing on how good it felt to move and making smarter nutritional choices. I slowly started feeling better and to love moving again and decided to make a professional transition into fitness. I auditioned for Flywheel’s barre program in Miami and made it, and when I was about to get approved to teach classes my then fiancé (now hubs), who is active duty in the coast guard, found out that we were getting stationed in Los Angeles. I knew I wanted to teach fitness and I was obsessed with Fly (a prominent cycling and fitness studio at the time), so I pretty much harassed my way into an audition with Elizabeth Hill for cycling cause there was no availability for barre. I had never clipped into a bike or knew how to set it up. I auditioned to Mr. Boombastik, faked it pretty well apparently and made it through to training!

From then, I dedicated myself to being the best trainer I could be. I got my PT certification almost immediately and started training people and designing programs online. I realized that as a dancer and Latina (I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina), there was always this crazy pressure to have to be perfect. Latinx culture is like that. And as a dancer, you’re always looking at your semi-naked body next to other beautiful women so you can’t help but compare, and more likely than not tear yourself down for not being as “small” as someone. Or being in constant fear of being put on weight probation. I realized that these feelings are not isolated to me. And I chose to make it my professional responsibility to help as many women realize that when you remove the aesthetic pressures to look a certain way through exercise, then you start to enjoy it, and the results come on their own. I have now developed my app POWER by Camila (in Spanish), which is strictly tailored towards Spanish speaking women to do just that. Develop a positive relationship with exercise, and lead happier healthier lives.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not going to lie, working at Flywheel was smooth for me. I loved my job, and I was treated well so that was cool. But I originally started working on my app in collaboration with another family member. While still working at Fly. Flywheel closed all of its LA studios in August of 2019 and my app was supposed to launch Jan. 2020. We had been working on it for a year before my partner decided to back out (one month before launch), on the day my stepfather was admitted into the hospital with cancer for the last time before he passed. I had been bouncing around from gym to gym since august and looking forward to this new chapter and then pretty much everything crumbled. I thought it was impossible for me to do it on my own. I was very sad because of the loss of a loved family member as well as the loss of my professional venture. Luckily, my family and friends helped me to keep pushing, although I was a mess along the way. I pushed and grinded and worked and worked and put my head down for another year, and here we are today. I’m so happy I didn’t quit on this.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We focus on empowering Latinx women to take ownership of their lives by shifting their mindset. We shine light on the benefits of performance-based goals instead of aesthetic ones in hopes of helping them develop a positive relationship with exercise. We create a safe space for women to speak about their body image issues to work through these teach them that their body is equally valuable in every state. We educate women about the benefits of a well-balanced nutritional diet for health. And we work out very hard in the process.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I always ran around everywhere, I did all the sports, all the dance classes, I always wanted to hang with the boys. My brother would fight me to try and get me to go home so I wouldn’t play basketball with his friends. I was always hyper and doing too many things for my own good probably.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://powerbycamila.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milamarianaa/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerbycamila
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChcLFo3hZb2FzCGseezrp1w?app=desktop

Image Credits
Gabriel Gastelum