Interview: Chrissy King of Chrissy King Fitness

Today I'm super happy to give you this interview with Chrissy King. I found Chrissy because we have the same business mentor and coach and I was immediately drawn to her energetic and powerful presence. Chrissy is a beautiful and caring person who doesn't fear confrontation and uses her voice to speak up and advocate for herself and others. I admire Chrissy for her ability to show up with authenticity and transparency and uses those to teach and connect with others.
I've really enjoyed getting to know Chrissy and I hope you will too with this interview.

​1) Introduce yourself:
 
My name is Chrissy King, and I’m from Waukesha, WI.  I’m a strength and nutrition coach, powerlifter, writer, truth-teller, and donut connoisseur.  When I’m not working with clients and empowering them to create stress-free and sustainable lifestyles, I spend my time reading, travelling, and hanging with friends and family.  My favorite thing to do when I’m exploring a new city (or even a previously visited city), is search out the best doughnut shops.  I’m basically on a never-ending quest for the world’s best doughnuts.
 
2) Tell me about your business and brand.
 
Chrissy King Fitness is my business and brand.  I used to train in person, but I am now doing only online coaching.  When people ask me what I do, I tell them I’m a strength and nutrition coach, a powerlifter, and a writer.  I enjoy coaching and writing so much and put the majority of time and energy into those two things.  I really enjoy writing about women’s empowerment, unapologetically owning your space and your power, the intersection of fitness and social justice, body positivity, and feminism.  I obviously also talk nutrition and exercise as well.
 
3) What got you interested in fitness and strength coaching?
 
Interestingly, I joined a gym a few years back because I wanted to lose weight and “get skinny.” Those were literally my only goals.  My first trainer wanted me do some strength training.  I distinctly remember telling her that I didn’t need or want to do that because I didn’t want or need muscles.  I just wanted to be skinny.  She asked me to trust her and just try it out so I obliged.  My first thirty-minute session felt like torture, and I couldn’t see a single pushup.   However, after couple of weeks, I started seeing my strength improve.  I got really excited my physical strength improving in addition to seeing small changes in my body and increased energy.
 
Strength training changed my life because it allowed me to be comfortable in my own skin.  I finally stopped caring about being smaller and focused on how cool it was see myself getting stronger.
Lifting gave me a new appreciation for my body and all that it’s capable of.  I changed my focus to being strong and fit for life.  It also helped me realize that I’m stronger and more capable than I thought.  This transferred over into every area of my life and gave me confidence to do new things and stop doubting myself.  Physical strength led to metal strength, and I finally owned my power.
Most importantly, the iron taught me to stop attaching my self-worth to my body fat percentage, the number on the scale, or the size of my waistline.  I developed the ability to love my body through every part of the journey instead of just relegating to love my body when I was finally “skinny.” 
All of these things led to my desire to help other people discover the same appreciation for their bodies, get stronger, and feel empowered in all areas of their lives.
 
4) What's your personal nutritional strategy? Is it the same for you clients?
 
When it comes to nutrition, I vary between counting macros and intuitive eating.  I have been leaning towards intuitive for the majority of the last year.  My main personal priority is ensuring that I eat adequate protein each day.  When it comes to my clients, I really base that on the client.  For some people, tracking macros and/or calories can trigger negative emotions or restrictive habits.  In those cases, I like to go with a habits-based approach to tackling nutrition.  On the flip side, I have clients who really enjoy tracking macros.  If that’s the case, we go that route.  I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way to handle your nutrition.  The most important part, in my opinion, is finding something that you enjoy and that’s sustainable.  That’s the key to long term success.
 
5) Who trained you/who's your coach in the strength and conditioning realm?
 
I train at Winner’s Edge Sports Performance in Waukesha, WI.  This was actually the 2nd gym I ever trained at, and Kirk Remer (owner and amazing friend of mine) is whom I consider responsible for really helping me properly start my strength and conditioning and powerlifting journey.  I have been training with him for over 4 years now, and he does the majority of my programming.
 
6) If you were to train me, what would it look like? 
 
Training with me is really dependent on my client’s goals.  I have clients whose main goals are strength gains with a powerlifting focus.  Those workouts are going to look vastly different from the clients who have fat loss goals and want to be in and out of the gym in 45 minutes.  I think that fitness and programming is highly individualistic so I never treat my clients the same.  Everything is customized to my client’s individual needs and goals.
 
7) What besides lifting gets you fired up?
 
So many things get me fired up, but most recently it’s been creating discussion and dialogue around the concept of intersectional fitness and how race, gender, sexual orientation, and size are very much connected to health and fitness.  We simply can’t talk body positivity and self-love without addressing the need for all people to feel safe, protected, and valued in their own bodies.
 
8) What are the biggest myths around women and strength?                                
 
One of the biggest myths around women and strength is that lifting heavy weights will automatically make them look like the Incredible Hulk.  I actually previously thought the same thing which is why I was hesitant to even begin strength training.  What I didn’t realize at the time is that adding more lean muscle to my body would help me create the “toned” look that I was after and also make it easier to maintain my weight over time.
 
Another myth about women and strength training is that lifting weights is dangerous.  Bret Contreras put it best when he wrote “If you think lifting weights is dangerous, try being week.  Being weak is dangerous.”  While you do need to use proper technique to avoid injuries, lifting weights is super beneficial for women.  It improves our ability to do things in everyday life (functional AF), it improves our bone density, it improves heart health, and it builds muscle.  Besides the ability to lift things in everyday life, the strength I gained from the gym has also made me feel more equipped to handle myself in vulnerable situations where I might need to fight for my life or run from an attacker.  Basically, I’m way harder to kill (a term I borrowed from Steph Gaudreau of Stupid Easy Paleo),
                                                                                                                                                       
9) What's a mistake (or regret you have) that you'd 100% repeat because of what you learned from it
 
I can’t pinpoint anything off the top of my head because to be honest, I don’t dwell on mistakes or regret too much.  I sometimes wish I would have started doing this work sooner, but I also believe that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be right now so I really don’t spend any mental energy on that.
 
10) What are you most excited about right now?
 
Right now I’m most excited about continuing to grow my business and writing more with the intent of reaching more people in an effort to create change in the fitness industry and to add more value to people’s lives. 
 
When I initially got into fitness it was with the intent to shrink my body, lose that extra body fat, get rid of the jiggle…all that stuff.   But what I actually learned from fitness over the years is that I’m powerful beyond measure and that the magic doesn’t happen in shrinking; it happens in showing up more powerfully and creating a space for others to do the same.
It’s my desire to help more women reach their goals whether they be strength goals or physique and fat loss goals, but I also hope that I can help them do more than just that.  I hope I can help women feel empowered, comfortable, and confident in their own skin (like I now do) so that they can focus their energy on doing their work in the world and living their best, most fulfilled lives.
 
11) What's one book everyone should read (related to fitness or not)?
 
This is such a hard question because I’m an avid reader and love so many books, but based on where I’m at right now and current events in the country, I’m going to recommend I’m Judging You by Luvvie Ajayi.
 
12) Where can people find you?
 
You can find me on IG and Twitter @iamchrissyking, you can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/ChrissyKingFitness, and of course, you can find me at ChrissyKing.com
http://www.chrissyking.com
https://www.facebook.com/ChrissyKingFitness/
https://www.instagram.com/iamchrissyking/
​https://www.twitter.com/iamchrissyking/