Meet Sydney Stiles of Energized Fitness

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney Stiles.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
In my late 20’s I struggled with a multitude of symptoms, the worst of which were chronic fatigue, brain fog and constant pain. After several years of running me through a vast array of tests from blood tests to a spinal tap, my doctors concluded that I had Fibromyalgia. My treatment plan was to attend a pain management class and a prescription for strong pain medication. I thought that the pain management class was a frightening look at what my future held. Fellow class attendees were all much older than I was and struggled to do basic activities of daily living. Although I was much more functional than everyone else in the class, I still needed a cane or wheelchair to get around a lot of the time due to pain when I walked and my rapidly draining energy level.
I was frustrated and depressed, feeling like my life had stalled, after spending the better part of a year mostly bed ridden because I didn’t have the energy to do anything beyond struggle through my part time job. I gave acupuncture a try, which helped with my pain but not my low energy. I saw a psychiatrist for my depression and was prescribed antidepressants, which made me feel like a zombie. Around this time my dad had been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, and because it is a hereditary disease I was tested for it too. The tests revealed that I had Celiac Disease as well. My dad and I switched to a gluten free diet and quickly noticed that we both had more energy than before.
My parents had gotten a Nintendo Wii Fit to give them a fun way to exercise, and my mom encouraged me to try it. I gave it a shot and thought it was fun. It helped to boost my spirits even though it wore me out. I decided to join a gym in hopes that getting stronger would allow me to do more. Exercising was a challenge especially because I had no idea what I was doing. I started working with a personal trainer who encouraged me to utilize the gym’s pool, hoping I wouldn’t have as much pain in the water as I did on land. It was a good solution and the more I exercised, the better I felt. Eventually I met another trainer who introduced me to the TRX, which is a suspension trainer that uses your own body weight as resistance. By utilizing the TRX I discovered that I could finally do some strength training without a lot of pain because every exercise could be modified depending on how I was feeling that day.
After a few months of regular exercise and eating a more nutritious diet I was feeling energetic and pain free. I was able to return to full time work, and got off the pain killers and antidepressants. Feeling like I finally had my life back, I decided to move from Southern California to Michigan following a visit to a friend living in Traverse City. Living in a place with such a wide variety of amazing outdoor activities year-round with actual seasons (something I never experienced in California) sounded like a great way to “re-start” my life.
As a result of my success with exercise and eating a nutritious diet, I decided to become a certified personal trainer so that I could help others feel as good as I did. Even though I had completed the necessary course work and passed the certifying exam I discovered gaps in my education as I worked with different clients. Consequently, over the next few years I took a lot of continuing education courses, attended fitness conferences, and became a certified specialist in three areas: orthopedic, weight loss, and youth fitness.
After several years of working with a wide variety of clients in various gyms and in client homes, I jumped at the opportunity to join Life Beyond Barriers, an outpatient clinic that specializes in helping people with neurologic injuries. There was a steep learning curve to working with this population, and thankfully the physical therapy staff were happy to answer my many questions, let me shadow and assist them in their sessions with patients. After much searching, I found an Inclusive Fitness Trainer certification course that would give me the education I was looking for. Upon completion of the course I felt I had the needed background to work with many different kinds of people who lived with challenging diagnoses. Though the certification course I took was very thorough, nothing beats hands on experience, I learned so much from each and every client I worked with. Every day was a new challenge and taught me to think outside the box as I developed new exercises to match the goals and abilities of the people I was working with. Despite the successes my clients and I would achieve, the clinic dissolved my position after three years because it was not profitable for the clinic.
I returned to working with clients in their homes, in my home gym, and eventually virtually when COVID hit. Nearly two years ago, I decided to accept a personal training job at the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA in order to help more people in the community. After not being in a big gym for quite a few years, it took some time to feel comfortable there and learn to use the different machines I hadn’t had access to previously. I met and trained a lot of different people, each with their own goals, limitations, and challenges. The YMCA has three different tiers of trainers (bronze, silver, and gold). I was hired as a silver because of my years of experience and broad range of certifications. After being there for a year and a half, I was promoted to gold level.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I experienced several obstacles/challenges over the course of my career thus far. One major challenge was finding clients. Having no experience with marketing or sales, I had no idea how to reach potential clients outside of working through a gym and having a website. As an introvert, I struggled to introduce myself and talk to members at the various gyms I worked at. Eventually I gained clients through my website, and then word of mouth advertising from my existing clients. Once I started working at the YMCA I had a few different avenues to gain clients: guiding new members through the Smart Start program (which familiarizes them with the gym and it’s equipment), teaching a TRX class, personal training requests through the YMCA website (in which the head of the Wellness department matched potential clients with trainers), and eventually requests from members to train specifically with me.

The biggest challenge I faced was with my health. About 5 years ago I suddenly had a lot of symptoms that severely impacted my life. I was often dizzy or lightheaded, had horrible brain fog, weakness and pain in my legs that impacted my ability to stand for more than a few minutes or walk without the assistance of a cane, and severe fatigue. This felt like awful dejavu. It took my primary care doctor a year and a half to finally figure out that I had mold toxicity. I found the source of the mold in my house and hired a company to get rid of it. My doctor put me on a treatment plan for it, and in the short term I felt a little better. Unfortunately, the symptoms didn’t stay away for long and I underwent more testing. Eventually it was determined that I was misdiagnosed all those years ago. Instead of Fibromyalgia, what I actually had was Lyme disease. I found a Lyme literate doctor who explained that my symptoms went away previously because the lifestyle changes I made (healthy eating and regular exercise) put the Lyme into remission. However, because I never had treatment for it all those years ago, I now have chronic Lyme disease. The Lyme reemerged from remission when I had mold toxicity. My Lyme doctor has been treating me for two years now, and though we’ve made major headway on the battle to put it back into remission, we’re not quite there yet. I still have good days in which I feel almost normal again and bad days that I have no energy and struggle to get through the day. I schedule my time with clients in a way that gives me breaks to sit down and refuel. For a long time, I didn’t have enough energy leftover after training my clients to do my own workouts. Consequently, I have gained weight and lost muscle. I’m finally able to exercise occasionally now but I have to only do it on days that I don’t have a lot of in-person sessions with clients.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Energized Fitness?
I chose the name “Energized Fitness” because that is how I want my clients to feel after a workout with me, energized. I train clients virtually and at my home. My business and clients are separate from the clients I work with at the YMCA.
I specialize in working with women who have been away from exercise for an extended period of time, or are living with a disability or are recovering from an injury or illness. I utilize a wide variety of tools in my personal training, though a favorite is TRX. I like the TRX because it can be used by anyone, it’s very efficient – we can do a full body workout including warm-up and stretching in an hour. Every exercise can be modified to make it easier or harder depending on how the client is feeling that day. My personal experience with the debilitating effects of a chronic disease sets me apart from other trainers who haven’t personally experienced that because I understand the fears, limitations, and psychological impact it can have. I’ve successfully helped women reach a variety of goals: significant weight loss, regaining strength and mobility following an injury or major surgery, and regaining confidence in their exercise abilities and themselves.
I offer both personal training and group training, virtually and in-person.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I don’t believe in luck.

Pricing:

• Personal training: $55 per one hour session
• Group training: $35 per person per one hour session. Groups limited to a maximum of 4 participants.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.energized-fitness.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EnergizedFitness/