Congrats to our Client of the Month in Somerville: Rachel Waltemyer!
- What is your hometown?
Allentown, PA, I guess, (see Billy Joel’s “Allentown”, however, the lyrics describe the neighboring town, Bethlehem, where I was born, more so than Allentown, but Allentown is easier to rhyme)
- What brought you to DPT?
I was feeling pretty down on myself, which wasn’t unprecedented, but I desperately wanted to change my trajectory. My fitness level was on a steady decline for about 10 years. I was never very good at committing to a fitness regimen, not for the long term. I needed something different that would motivate me and help me get back into running (which I have, yay!!), get me out of bed in the morning, and get me to stop pinning workouts I was never going to do to the secret “You Fat” pinterest board I’d created.
- How long have you been training with us?
1 year as of this month (April 2017)
- What do you do in the “real world?” (job, family, pets, etc)
I work in pharmacovigilance, which is basically the group of folks at a pharmaceutical company who do their best to ensure that the medications are as safe for people as possible. I seem to be married to this Doug person who follows me to DPT sometimes, but then I don’t see him for days at a time… due to our opposing work schedules. My parents still live in Allentown, and I’m the middle child of two siblings, my younger sister is a hipster in Brooklyn (she works at a bookstore) and my brother is an ER nurse/lumberjack outdoorsman who is late for everything because he has to go to the gym first. I have 2 cats, they ensure my life is full of chaos, and they LOVE that I’m trying to teach myself violin. I would rather be camping, chopping wood, knitting, playing guitar, cooking, or driving cars with standard transmission…also drinking scotch than most other things. Notably, I tend to enjoy learning things myself, usually the hard way.
- What is one fun fact that most people don’t know about you?
I was apparently a bit of a problem as a young child. I was impossible to discipline – if my mother put me in time out and left me there I would just walk away. I pulled over our fish tank, told my mother I wanted beer for breakfast, flooded our kitchen, ate all the chocolate from my brother’s advent calendar, cut the cat’s whiskers off and tried to give him a shower. I once “fell” off a bridge into a creek (intentionally because we were forbidden from wading, but I wanted to go in the water) … I’m sure my mother would be happy to tell stories about my other misadventures – if I had been the first born, I would have no siblings.
- What is your favorite exercise and why?
Nowadays, kettle bell snatches and cleans, because they’re all in kgs and I like the metric system. Also, they seemed impossible to me when I first started at the gym both from a weight standpoint and perhaps even more due to the coordination of the movements; I’ve never been particularly coordinated. I also like ab work, it’s always a challenging.
- What is your biggest gym achievement so far?
This might sound minor, but for me, I think it is consistency. The fact that, pretty much every week, I wake up at 4:50am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and somehow manage to get the early-morning-zombie version of myself to the gym; that is huge for me – and, bonus for the rest of the world, I’m a much happier more functional person after my work-outs than mornings when I go straight to work.
- What inspires and motivates you?
The people I work out with at 6a on weekdays are a huge motivator – I’m always impressed by everyone’s progress and ability. It makes me want to keep challenging myself – but on the tough days it just makes me wish I wanted to challenge myself. I also have to give props to the awesome DPT trainers and my brother.
I’m inspired, generally, by places that aren’t cities – i.e. nature, and people who are able to get over themselves and do their own thing.
- What would you say to someone who is thinking about joining or who has just joined DPT?
If you’re thinking about joining – do it, jump in, blindfolded with both feet. Make it happen, you’ll be happier and stronger.
If you’ve just joined, the first few weeks may be super challenging and at times scary and intimidating. Know this, you will get stronger in spite of yourself and there’s no reason to be intimidated by the people doing plyo push-ups, holding a one legged-plank on a physio-ball, or swinging super heavy kettlebells – a) they’re not judging you, they know what it’s like to be you (plus it’s really hard to do plyo push-ups so they’re not really noticing much else) and b) if you’re consistent, you’ll be them soon enough.
Also, do the nutrition program.