Meet our newest trainer, Erika Zewiey, CPT, CES, who joined the team in July.
Hometown: North Reading, MA
College attended: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Favorite sport: Football
Favorite team: Patriots
Favorite childhood athlete: Shannon Miller (gymnast)
Favorite place you’ve traveled to: So far, Ireland (going to Thailand end of December!)
What drew you to The Micheli Center? When I was going to college, I was interested in getting into a program for physical therapy. Once I graduated, I took a year to work at a physical therapy office to build my resume and gain some hands-on observation time. I am grateful for that experience because I realized that I wasn’t completely sure about what I wanted to do. I knew I loved helping others, especially when it was regarding their health and wellness. From there, I wanted to explore my options so I started to work at a chiropractic office doing more rehab exercises, very similar to what I was doing at the physical therapy office. In that setting, I was given the ability to work with more preventative care clients. Subsequently, I was also training small group classes at a few different studios. I loved the fitness field and helping others achieve goals. One thing I wanted to start doing was working one-on-one with clients to better assist with their individual needs. I had seen many people in group settings who I knew needed to work one-on-one with a trainer to prevent injuries and learn about how their body moved. This is what drew me to The Micheli Center: the opportunity to educate and help clients prevent injuries by simply helping them understand how their body moves and how to correctly and safely participate in their desired activity.
How did you develop an interest in personal training and nutrition therapy? I developed an interest in personal training in high school. I played sports and was always active starting from when I was 6 years old. When I was a sophomore in high school I started to go to the gym which is where my passion for working out and fitness started. I wanted to become a certified personal trainer while I was in college, but never followed through until I graduated. It wasn’t until this past year when I fully made my passion into my career.
This past year I not only decided to work as a personal trainer full time, but I decided to get my nutritional therapy practitioner certification through the Nutritional Therapy Association (NTA). I have always been interested in nutrition and wanted to become more educated in the field. I wanted to double major in nutrition in college but I had a busy schedule at the time and didn’t want to put off graduating on time. I am happy with that decision because, as many people know, there are so many philosophies and studies that contradict each other. After some research I found NTA and was very happy with what I learned about the association. I am very much into holistic nutrition and healing the body from the inside out. This program teaches the foundations of nutrition, which are digestion, essential fatty acids, blood sugar regulation, hydration, and minerals.
What are small changes people could make that would have a large impact in their overall health? Even though major contributors to overall health are working out and staying active, many people neglect other aspects. These other factors are our nutrition, our environment, and our mental and emotional well-being. Overall wellness is comprised of taking care of ourselves in three aspects of well-being: physical, chemical, and emotional. One small change that can make a huge impact on your overall well-being is time management – make sure you are having at least 10 minutes of downtime to yourself! Self-care is very important. Drink more water! You should aim to drink at least half of your body weight in fluid ounces (without coffee). Hydration has many huge effects on the body and is one of the most deficient macronutrients. Lastly, move around throughout the day. Just because you went to the gym for an hour doesn’t make you an active person if you spend the rest of your day sitting. There are many reasons why it is important to stay active and not stay seated for majority of the day.
What is your preferred method of exercise either a certain activity or specific regimen? I love HIIT (high-intensity interval training) work-outs along with supersets and trisets. One of my favorite types of exercises are boxing and kickboxing.
Favorite motivational quote (Both! I can’t decide which one is my favorite.) “The one thing you can control is how you treat yourself. And that one thing can change everything.” – Leeana Tankersley “Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.” – Frank Ocean
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