Margie Askinazi

I am a 49 year old woman and grew up in Brighton, suburb of Rochester, NY. After graduation, I attended the Rochester Institute of Tehcnology and earned my BS in Criminal Justice.  After graduation, I continued my education at Syracuse University for my Master's in Social Work.  I have been married for 25 years and have 2 wonderful children.

In 1985 I became interested in fitness. I was not an athletic person. In high school, I was usually the last to be chosen for a team in PE. In 1985, my sister dragged me to an aerobics class at Empire Fitness, a local gym, and I haven't stopped since. I was a member there for 10 years.

If I thought about my future in a differeny way at that time, I may have gone down a different path. I may have chosen exercise physiology or something else in the fitness field as my careen instead of social work. I don't regret continuing with social work though. It has given me a different perspective of what some clients are going through and the struggles they may have. I have learned to be a great listener and can help clients in a different way than many other trainers.

I left Empire Fitness in 1995 and immediately joined the Rochester Athlitic Club (RAC). From there my interest in fitness grew.

I was a social worker at Crestwood Children's Center for many years and in 2003 decided to leave social work to pursue my growing interest in fitness and health.  I earned my indoor cycling certification from Mad Dogg in February 2003 and began teaching cycling classes at the RAC. My love for fitness grew quickly and  in June 2003 earned my group exercise certification from AFAA and began teaching total body and boot camp classes as well. I was soon up to teaching 13 classes per week and my career in fitness began. My favorite classes to teach were cycling and total body conditioning. In addition, I began personal training in 2005. Toward the last few years of my employment at the RAC I was teaching 8 total body and cycling classes per week. I stressed the importance of form, safety and injury prevention. One of my goals was to teach members propper form so that when exercising on their own, they wouldn't injur themselved and they were educated on the purpose of each exercise and muscle group to make sure they were effective for them.

In June 2005 I earned my Personal Training certification through AFAA and began training at the RAC. After 3 years of training at the fitness club, I decided to open up my own personal training business. My facility, A NU U Personal Training opened in January 2008 and has been growing ever since.

In December 2013 I decided to leave the RAC so that I could focus on growing my personal training business. This was a very difficult decision for me because the members were like family. I had a lot of guilt for leaving the club. I felt like I was betraying the members and abandoning them. I have seen a lot of them since then, and feel much better. Some of my clients are members and they keep me posted on things going on at the club.  in November 2014 I missed teaching so much thar I decided to teach again. I now teach cycling classes at our local YMCA.

My personal training business is growing steadily. I am honored to be a part of each and every one of my client's journeys to health, fitness and wellness. My goal is to develop my business so it grows into a large fitness facility, to educate all that is willing to learn about fitness, safety, wellness and health. Another goal is to help clients love themselves, love their bodies and be proud of their accomplishments.