Sarah Hannah Gomez

MY NAME IS SARAH HANNAH GÓMEZ. I’M A FORMER SCHOOL LIBRARIAN, A SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST IN THE BOOK WORLD, AND A WRITER. I HAVE TWO MASTER’S DEGREES AND AM WORKING ON A PHD, AND NONE OF MY DEGREES HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH FITNESS OR PHYSIOLOGY. I KNOW. IT MAKES NO SENSE THAT I'M HERE.

I was not a very active kid. I was not an athlete in high school or college. I didn’t think being fit was for someone like me – someone with a breathing condition. Someone who didn’t care about team sports. Someone with tummy issues and mental health issues. Someone without the money for a personal trainer. Someone with jiggly thunder thighs. Someone not particularly coordinated or graceful, even though her name ironically means “full of grace.” Someone who didn’t feel pretty 90% of the time. Someone who preferred reading, writing, and social media to other activities. I would never be an active person, and certainly not an athlete.

I was wrong.

During a particularly dark time in my life, when my mental and physical health were at their lowest and I was professionally dissatisfied and contemplating suicide, I started buying groupons for fancy gyms and looked for cute exercise clothes for sale online. Somewhat by accident, I found that there were ways of moving and using my body that made me feel a little more in control of myself. First it was swimming and cycling, which my body remembered the mechanics of from when I was young. I liked my indoor cycling classes, but the idea of actually teaching it sounded horrible.

Then one day I found myself listening to music and mentally choreographing a workout, and it was over. I signed up for an instructor workshop, and here I am. And in what has become a habit for me, I've slowly gained more certifications, each one after previously having a "yeah, that was fine, but instructing it sounds like a nightmare" moment. I guess I'm into proving myself wrong.

My approach to fitness and wellness is intellectual, not spiritual. I think that's what brings people to my classes. I use humor, metrics, grit, and diverse music (read: not one long stream of the same genre, but a combination of hip hop, pop, rock, guilty pleasures, and indie underground hits) in my classes, and it's helped me connect with clients as young as six months and as old as 76. I don't go for fake or Suzie Sunshine, but I'm genuine and passionate about fitness, and that shines through. I'm not your average fitness instructor.