Fitness in Color

Advocating for racial representation, equity, and inclusion in the running community.

Carolyn Su first got into running to try and control an eating disorder. She used it as a weight loss tool and spent her early running days counting calories against miles run. It wasn't until much later that she started to enjoy the sport and find other runners she could connect with.

As Carolyn became deeply immersed in the online running culture, she started to notice a pattern; most of the runners featured and reposted on Instagram pages, interviewed for podcasts, reported in publications, and amplified across social channels were White and from affluent neighborhoods and backgrounds.

She started exploring hashtags like #asianrunners, #myrunninghair, #nativewomenrunning, and #latinosrun to find runners who looked like her and that she could relate to. The more she researched the more people she found that inspired her.

In 2018, Carolyn started featuring runners of color, first on her own Instagram account, tagging the posts under #diversewerun (a play on “united we stand”). Positive comments and messages rolled in and she decided to create the platform Diverse We Run as its own IG handle. 

Carolyn uses the platform to write weekly features of Black, Indigenous, and Runners of Color, to advocate for racial representation, equity, and inclusion in the running community.

Carolyn's goal with Diverse We Run is to broaden perceptions of social norms, to challenge runners to discover new runners to follow and share about, and to connect with runners whose life experiences hail from different cultures.

We also talk about the current rise in Hate crimes in the Asian American & Pacific Islander community.

Donate to Stop AAPI Hate

@diversewerun

@irunfortheglory

@fitnessincolor_

@sidbap

@PYNRS_

Bringing premium wellness experiences to marginalized communities.

What started in the basement of a lower Manhattan gym with a few classes, has turned into a Black wellness phenomenon.

After discovering the world of exclusive boutique fitness studios in New York City, in 2016 Briana Thompson created Spiked Spin - a hip-hop-inspired soul-cleansing physical sermon moonlighting as a high-intensity spin class and Brooklyn's first Boutique Cycling Studio.

Bri grew up in Queens, NY where she danced and ran track competitively before moving to Maryland and then to Georgia. She graduated from Hampton University, an HBUC in Virginia, and landed a job in Digital Advertising back in NYC. It was during her time in this world that she found her love for boutique fitness experiences. While she loved attending the high-end and high-priced classes, paid for by her clients, she rarely saw other people who looked like her in these spaces.

Bri found her love for high-intensity cycling and combined it with her passion for rhythmic movement and hip-hop culture. She became an instructor by night while maintaining her corporate job at CBS by day. One class led to two classes, which led to a full schedule as she slowly built Spiked Spin.

Spiked has grown into a space that welcomes and represents 'the majority' of those who do not fit the perfect frame and picture that has come to define wellness in our time.   

@bri.monee

@spikedspin

@fitnessincolor_

@sidbap

@PYNRS_

Be Intentional... 

In an age of excessive consumption, Chef Beanz encourages you to add intent to the energy that you ingest. 

Born to teen parents in Camden, NJ, once the murder capital of the country, Chef Beanz (Quan) grew up in a violent environment and was emotionally unbalanced.

He had the opportunity to go to school in a different district and started playing an instrument but still had one foot in his old, violent neighborhood. It wasn't until he was literally yanked off of a stage by a mentor while trying to show off for his friends that his life took a different turn. He started focusing on his school work and became a wrestler. It was the stability he needed to find his footing.

Charting his own path, Chef Beanz lives in Los Angeles where he spreads his love and knowledge for being present and intentional about what you consume; mind, body, soul, and spirit. 

He's a creator and creative, an entrepreneur, and overall optimist that lives to inspire you to find what brings you inexplainable joy.

@Chef_Beanz

@Transparency.Series

@fitnessincolor_

@sidbap

@PYNRS_

'Girls are strong and we’re only getting StrongHER'

In college, Sal Nakhlawi weighed about 200lbs. She ended up hiring a nutritional coach who helped her lose 50+lbs, and in that process, found a love for powerlifting.

Sal's personal experience with health and fitness led her to create StrongHer Girls to coach womxn to be the strongest version of themselves, inside and out.

Part of Sal's coaching philosophy focuses on the relationships between a positive self-image, mindful exercise, and their effects on the brain.

@StrongHerGirls

@fitnessincolor_

@sidbap

@PYNRS_

This is a heavy episode. We didn't edit much of it because we felt it was important for you to hear and feel the pain and experiences that Black Americas feel when Black people are senselessly murdered. 

The 2:23 Foundation is an organization formed in memory of Ahmaud Arbery that was created to prepare young people for social justice advocacy through establishing a scholarship fund in Ahmaud's memory. Today is the anniversary of Ahmaud's murder. The 2:23 Foundation is hosting a virtual event for members of the global running community to come together and run 2.23 miles in Maud's memory.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE VIRTUAL EVENT AND CONTRIBUTE TO AHMAUD'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND

I am joined on today's episode by two co-founders of the 2:23 Foundation Coach Jason Vaughn and Demetris Frazier Sr.

@223fdn

@fitnessincolor_

@drf_xiii

@coachjasonvaughn

@sidbap

@PYNRS_

BBC Newshour freelance reporter Paige Sutherland joined two groups in Boston, MA who are working to normalize running and Black people enjoying nature. 

This is a replay of two BBC Newshour radio stories covering the Boston chapter of Outdoor Afros and PIONEERS Run Crew. Both stories aired separately around the world in January and February of 2021. 

Special thanks to freelance reporter Paige Sutherland for producing these powerful segments.

Support the PYNRS Performance Streetwear Launch at www.fundblackfounders.com/pynrs

4% of Physical Therapists are People of Color. That number is even smaller for Men of color.  

Dr. Kenneth Nwosu is the Managing Partner and Clinical Director of Bay State Physical Therapy Boston. And there aren't many others that look like him.

Kenneth discovered the field of Physical Therapy after breaking his ankle in high school and spending 8 months in a cast.

He progressed aimlessly through college in the Kinesiology program until he failed a class in his final semester of Senior year. He was forced to take a year off between undergrad and grad school to retake the class the following spring semester in order to receive his degree.

This was a pivotal moment in his life that allowed him to put into perspective what it meant to apply himself fully to what he does.

You can expect to hear:

- Kenneth's childhood growing up in Nigeria

- Kenneth's experience coming of age as a teenager in the City of Boston as a Black man

- How he became the first man of color to receive a doctorate degree from Sacred Heart University 

- Why he decided to give up an opportunity to work as a traveling Physical Therapist to work at a location in his neighborhood. 

- How Kenneth turned around a struggling location and became a Managing Partner

- How his walking group program attempts to address the 30-year difference in life expectancy between Roxbury and Back Bay residents 

The percentage of African Americans in physical therapy education programs has hovered around 3% throughout the past decade (according to a report from UCS)

Bay State Physical Therapy

@fitnessincolor_

@sidbap

@PYNRS_

www.pynrs.com

The first African-American male to represent the US at the Summer Olympics in the sport of rowing. 

Aquil Abdullah has been “the first” and “the only” for most of his time in the sport of rowing.

The only Black kid on his rowing team throughout high school and college. The first Black man to win the Diamond Sculls race at the Henley Regatta and the first to qualify for the Olympics.

Aquil signed up for rowing because he wanted to “goof-off” during the last semester of his senior year at Woodrow Wilson High School, the only public school in DC with a rowing program.

He quickly realized that rowing was HARD and he enjoyed the challenge. In just a few short months he made it onto the Varsity boat.

He got the attention of the George Washington University Rowing coach setting in motion a journey that led him to the Olympics. 

But not without grit, hard work, and hustle.

You can expect to hear:

- What it takes to make it to the highest level

- Living in motels and sleeping on sofas as an Amateur pursuing the dream

- Missing qualification for the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia by 0.33 of a second

- Battling back from qualification heartbreak 

- Opening himself up to new opportunities that led him to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens

- What the Olympics After Party is like 

- Finding his dream job as a Software Engineer and Rowing Instructor at Hydrow

Connect with us:

Aquil Abdullah, OLY

@fitnessincolor_

@sidbap

@PYNRS_

The first Black Woman in Canada to become a Nike Trainer

Moving from Jamaica to Western Canada with her mother at a young age, Rebeckah Price was the only Black girl in her entire high school. She had to navigate understanding Black and what Black meant while being the only one.

This led to Rebeckah intentionally failing her high school English class in protest of the curriculum because it portrayed Africans as cannibals. 

After high school, Rebeckah moved to Toronto for college, in search of community and more people who looked like her.

Rebeckah's first experience practicing yoga was a prenatal meditation and visualization class. She struggled to stick with it because she could not identify with anyone in her classes. It was only later that she learned about the origins of yoga in South Asian and African cultures. 

You can expect to hear:

- How Rebeckah learned to navigate white spaces while code-switching

- How the universe and stars aligned to provide a path for Rebeckah to become a yoga instructor

- How she incorporates Rastafarian culture into her yoga teaching in practice

- Why she decided to create classes exclusively for BIPOC

- Why knowing and understanding your body is imperative for advocating for yourself as a Black woman.

Connect with us:

@rebeckahprice

@thewellcollectiveto

@fitnessincolor_

@sidbap

@PYNRS_

"The overnight success is created by years of work"

Geoff Janey has built JET Boston into a successful boutique fitness studio over the last several years. But it wasn't always easy!

Struggling with weight for most of his life, Geoff abandoned a salary based accounting position to learn more about the human body and transform his life. 

He first needed to hire himself as his own trainer before starting on his journey of creating a brand that has led him to where he is today.

You can expect to hear:

- How Geoff started renting space by the hour on Boylston St to meet clients which eventually led to him take a lease on a 200 SF office space 

- The importance of taking your time while building a team for your small business  

- Why building a community-first business was the difference between making it or going under in a year like 2020 

Connect with us:

@Punchiito

@Jet.Boston

@SidBap

@Fitnessincolor_

@PYNRS_