Hi friends! Jenna Jozefowski here, but you can call me Jenna J. 🙂
I’m a semi-retired professional dancer, dance teacher, personal trainer, kettlebell instructor, and (former?) yoga teacher who finally got tired of living and working in a world that seems to have this fitness thing so ass backwards. I got fed up with all the #fitspo and fat talk. So tired of making myself sick and tired so I could uphold the narrow minded image of what our culture sees as “healthy” and “fit”. But I LOVE what I do, and didn’t want to leave it behind. So I decided I’d rather change the game, call out the BS, extract the good, and help others learn to use movement as a way to build themselves up, rather than tear themselves down. And now?
I help active women learn to lift & get strong with equal parts challenge & compassion.
If you are involved in body-focused occupations and activities like I am, you likely deal with daily struggles that come from having your identity wrapped up in your appearance. I give women who like to do hard things tools be more chill in their approach to fitness. I call BS on mainstream health and fitness myths and encourage you to question whether or not it you’re following arbitrary rules or fitness advice that wasn’t meant for you. More recently I’ve started exploring the intersections of fitness and anti-diet culture and all the gray areas in between. And for those of you who also teach and coach: I help you use this knowledge to better care for yourself and be a force for good for others who wish to pursue fitness from a truly healthy place.
Maybe you’re a bit like me?
I used to spend all my free time trying to “earn” calories on the elliptical. I was perpetually trying to shrink myself, mostly wishing that my arms (my biggest body hang up) were smaller. The thought of “getting fat” or “letting myself go” was the the scariest thing that could possibly happen to me. I spent my life either completely avoiding sugar altogether (I actually didn’t eat bananas for about 6 months straight!), or feeling completely out of control anytime I was in the same room as a birthday cake. Finding yoga helped me to mellow out a bit. But things really came to a screeching halt after I completed 2 rounds of a popular 30 day elimination diet (no sugar, dairy, alcohol, grains, legumes, corn, soy, or joy) and my pants were actually TIGHTER when I finished. WTF? Turns out my hormones were a wreck and my thyroid was completely out of whack.
As I was sorting out that hormonal shit show, I was also a brand new personal trainer. I had started learning more about strength training at the same time as I started learning about concepts like Health At Every Size and body positivity. It was a mindfuck of contradictions. But I knew one thing for sure: lifting heavy weights gave me permission to be ugly and gritty for the first time in my life and I loved the way it made me feel. I was learning new skills. I felt like a badass! And that physical strength translated into physical and emotional strength. In a world where women are expected to be small, sweet, and submissive, strength training felt like an act of resistance, and I couldn’t wait to share that.
I also learned pretty quickly that we have far less control over our body shape and size than we think we do. I knew that if I was gonna continue to work in the fitness industry, I was gonna have to do it without selling fat loss.
Easier said than done. But here I am doing it.
Through my own journey to self-acceptance, I’ve discovered that you don’t have to run yourself into the ground to be healthy, fit, or the best version of yourself. In fact, you have a whole ass life to live and so many amazing qualities outside of fitness. There are plenty of reasons to work out besides burning calories and being “bikini ready”. That it’s okay to eat carbs. That women can do whatever we want, and finding the right kind of movement for you is empowering and can make you feel strong AF. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to anything–especially when it comes to food and exercise. That diets don’t work.
Most importantly I learned that until you can make peace with your body, you’ll NEVER be satisfied–regardless of how thin you are or how many impressive things you have on your resume.
They’re all different flavors of the same shit sandwich.
Speaking of credentials, here are some of mine:
- BA in Dance from The University of Akron with a minor in Business Administration
- NASM Certified Personal Trainer
- Trauma Informed Weightlifting Foundations Course
- Strongfirst SFG Level 1 Kettlebell Instructor
- DV8 Fitness Kettlebell Instructor
- Coaches Corner Kettlebell Coach-Damali Fraiser
- Body Positive Fitness Alliance Affiliated Professional
- Girls Gone Strong Certified Pre- & Postnatal Coaching Specialist
- Yoga For All Certified Instructor
- E-RYT 200 (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher) from White Lotus Foundation
- The Nutrition & Body Image Coaching Course-Jessi Haggerty
- Cecchetti Council of America Grade IV Teacher’s Certificate (ballet)
- Tap Teacher Training Certificate from the American Tap Dance Foundation
- iTap Online Tap Teacher Training-Hillary Marie
- 10+ years of experience teaching yoga, group fitness, and personal training
- Nearly 20 years of experience teaching dance (tap, ballet, jazz, contemporary)
- 11 years as a professional dancer (Joel Hall Dancers II, RASA Dance Chicago, Chicago Dance Crash, Chicago Tap Theatre, and many independent choreographers)
- Choreographer (Dance Chicago, Inaside Choreographic Sponsorship Event, Rebound Dance Festival, Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, Kaleidoscope Dance Festival, Chicago Freelance Dance)
A passion for helping others to become the happiest, healthiest, strongest versions of themselves (in every possible sense of those words!)
You can see what some of my colleagues and clients are saying about me here!
Putting heavy weights in the hands of women and helping them surprise the shit out of themselves about how strong they actually are is my JAM. If you’re SO over using your workouts to shrink yourself, done obsessing over your weight and size, and are ready to use strength training to enhance your life, not consume it, I’d love to work with you too!
When I’m not lifting heavy shit, swinging a kettlebell, dancing, wiggling, or teaching/coaching any of the above, I can usually be found wearing polka dots and petting my fur baby Lucky (an adopted Poodle/Coton de Tulear mix). I have a toddler son who I adore, but you don’t see much of him online because I’m a whole ass human outside of being a mom (and also he’s too young to consent). I fucking love to use adult language, though I’m not the biggest fan of adulting. My dance students are a huge inspiration to me, and directing my youth company fills me with so much pride and joy. Want to know more? Here are a few things most people don’t know about me…
My personality and personal style are very much like Jessica Day’s (Zooey Deschanel’s character on the show “New Girl” and her monologue about breaking for birds and rocking a lot of polka dots speaks to my entire being.
I have no tattoos but if I got one it would be “Be Curious Not Judgmental”, inspired by the quote from Ted Lasso.
I’m an Enneagram 7 with a hard 8 wing, ENFP, and was diagnosed with ADHD in my 20’s.
I didn’t start ballet until I was 16, but still managed to make a career for myself as a dancer.
I never went to prom and I’m not mad about it. High school sucked.
There are really only 3 foods that I don’t like–ranch dressing, salt and vinegar chips, and spearmint flavored gum.
Cold brew coffee is the way to my heart. Even better if you mix it with sparkling water, which is highly underrated.
I’m a raging feminist, very left leaning politically, and I’m not afraid to talk about it on the internet.
Do you like to do hard things but you’re trying to be more chill in your approach to fitness?
I can help.