Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacey Karlinsey.
Hi Stacey, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I’ve worked at the Orem family fitness Center for over 21 years. I started here as a fitness instructor and loved teaching classes and seeing my patron’s success in their fitness journey. I offered classes for individuals of all fitness levels and gave them a safe space where they could have fun, make friends and get a great workout. During this time I experienced my own personal growth as well.
I always struggled with my weight. No matter how much I exercised I just couldn’t seem to lose the weight and keep it off. I struggled emotionally as a fitness instructor because I always felt like I was heavier than the other instructors and that I was inadequate to teach fitness to others because of my size.
However, I loved my job, I loved the people and I always have had a passion for Fitness so I kept teaching and also continued working on myself and my own progress. After many years, I decided to hire a personal trainer and nutrition coach. In doing so, I was able to learn some very important lifting techniques and nutrition information that with a lot of hard work and dedication helped me to finally lose the weight and gain the muscle that I had been working towards for so many years.
After several years of success with my own personal goals, I wanted to help other people in the same situation. I decided to become a personal trainer and nutrition coach myself. I was able to work with many people over the years and help them finally achieve their goals! I have continued to teach fitness classes as well, and between my classes and my personal training I have worked with many people on their fitness and nutrition goals and I have loved every minute of it.
Along the way, I decided I would like to have a bigger role at the fitness center where I could work directly with our instructors and personal trainers in providing great programs and opportunities for our patrons. I started out as the lead personal trainer where I was able to help grow our personal training program. I also helped with planning Fitness classes and continued to work as an instructor and personal trainer. Just a couple of months ago, I was hired as the Recreation Program Coordinator at the fitness center, which I’m very excited about!
Truly my dream job that I’ve been working towards for many years. I now have the opportunity to work behind the scenes in running our Fitness programs as well as many other adults, youth, and senior programs here at the OFC. I hope through my education and experience I can help make the Orem Fitness Center a great place for the whole family to have fun with fitness together!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I think I answered this in my story! But I have new challenges as a program coordinator.
One of the main challenges we are finding now will be trying to cover the needs of as many people as we can. Everyone is looking for different ways to get a great workout. We want to offer fun Fitness classes, open workout space, enough resistance equipment, etc to fit all needs. We want many options for all ages from kids to seniors.
The difficulty in this comes from trying to fill the needs of the most patrons we can but also know that we won’t be able to offer everything that everybody wants. We are trying to do the best we can to accommodate the most ideas, suggestions, etc that we are able to.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I would say I’m a very loyal and committed employee of the Orem Fitness Center. We’ve had many struggles throughout the years including a time when for several months I had to teach my classes in a very noisy, echoey racquetball room. Not ideal but we made it work! More recently, we had a two-year period where our location was under construction and we had to move into a less desirable location.
I think of all of my patrons at the fitness center as my family and I wanted to continue seeing them in class every day. Alongside many of our instructors, I helped maintain fun classes and personal training sessions in this location working through the struggles and difficulties that were encountered. Because of this, we were able to continue having our fun classes and it was very awesome when we all moved over together to our new beautiful location!
During the pandemic, many people were struggling to have to be quarantined in their homes and not be able to attend their favorite classes. They were missing their fun instructors, and missed seeing their friends at the gym and enjoying the fun workouts. I worked hard on a project where we took videos of many of our instructors and offered multiple classes available online.
This gave our patrons a connection to the fitness center as well as their favorite instructors and gave them an enjoyable workout they could do at home. When we were able to meet again together, but not indoors, I helped set up an outdoor class program so we could finally work out together again. It was so fun to finally be together again!
Some of the ways that others describe me would be motivating, fun, dedicated, and maybe a little crazy! As an instructor, I think I am known for my outgoing personality. I try and bring a lot of energy and fun to every class to help motivate and inspire others to come and enjoy the great workout. You have to bring a lot of energy to your class when you teach the 5 AM students! It’s easy for me to do though because I’m truly having so much fun teaching that my pure joy is catching! Teaching fitness classes is not only my job but is my absolute favorite hobby and what I love doing most of all.
As coordinator, I consider myself down to Earth and approachable. I want my instructors and trainers to know they can come to me with suggestions, ideas, problems, etc. And that I’m excited to talk to them about it all. I want our patrons to feel comfortable working with me on situations that may arise, questions they may have, or suggestions they’d like to offer.
I want parents of our youth classes to know I’m doing my best to provide opportunities for their children that will benefit the whole family. This isn’t just a job to me, I look forward to coming to work every single day. I love every minute of it!
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I follow several trainers on Instagram that have inspired me. A couple of my favorites are Trainer Lindsey Matthews and Coach Tara Garrison. They’ve also had their own personal fitness stories and they inspire and motivate me to keep working at it even when it gets hard.
Contact Info:
- Email: Smkarlinsey@orem.org
- Website: Oremrecreation.com
- Instagram: @Staceykarlinsey
