I recently had the opportunity to interview Muscle by Maria: a group fitness instructor, nutritionist, and NASM certified personal trainer. With almost 10 years of training experience, Maria has a lot to say about fitness and dieting. Read on to learn more about her and hopefully learn something about the fitness industry.
Entering The Fitness Community
Maria has done cheerleading most of her life, even competing in college at Penn State. When her journey as a cheerleader ended after graduation, she explained having a “gap that I didn’t know what to do with, but I missed cheerleading.” So, through her love for cheer and knowledge about fitness as a competitive athlete, she started conditioning friends and coworkers. Through group fitness Maria was able to find a similar community to her past teams. Once she started working with clients, Maria reignited her passion for fitness and went on to get certified as a personal trainer and nutritionist. Now she regularly participates in body building because the conditioning is similar to cheerleading. It’s so inspiring how Maria has built a successful career based on her love for cheer.
Although Maria is now a full time trainer extraordinaire, this wasn’t her original career plan. She majored in elementary education at Penn State and actually taught for five years before focusing on the fitness industry. She recalled spending every free moment as a teacher making fitness plans, thinking about clients, and longing to be in the gym. This is when she realized her real calling and started training full time. This being said, Maria still has a passion for teaching and works part time at an elementary school. Maria is a great example of how life doesn’t always go how you originally expect, and that’s okay.
Calorie Counting, Diet Myths, and Healthy Habits
Through her role as a nutritionist, Maria aims to cancel myths; people overcomplicate diets and follow too many rules when healthy habits are all that matter. When asked about the importance of nutrition, especially as an athlete, Maria emphasized the need for balance and moderation. She told me “calorie counting can be a useful tool to learn about how much you should be eating but isn’t something you have to do your whole life. Rather, you can use it as a stepping stone into intuitive eating.” Words from Maria: go eat that Halloween candy!
As an avid gym rat myself, I took advantage of my time with a nutritionist and asked Maria about supplements, vitamins, and protein. Unlike many in the fitness community, Maria recommends a natural diet to clients and multivitamins to prevent sickness and “keep the mind and body happy.” She claims people rely too heavily on supplements when they only really help with “0.099% of your results.” Similar to supplements, protein powder can be helpful, but natural forms are better. So our mothers have been right all along; Maria prefers getting protein from natural sources like actual meat, dairy, eggs, and more – only using supplements when absolutely necessary. Sometimes protein powder is a good way to ingest protein quickly or when in a pinch.
When asked about pre-workout, Maria chuckled and said “I don’t care for pre-workout” because it’s sometimes filled with artificial ingredients. She goes on to say if you really need the energy, simply have a cup of coffee, tea, or a cappuccino. If you want the blood-flow aspect of pre-workout, she recommends non-stimulant products and singular ingredients. One point she made which really stuck with me was if you can’t motivate yourself to go to the gym and need to rely on pre-workout for an extra energy boost, you have a deeper problem. Working out should be a natural experience, without stimulants, and if you need them, there is no shame in asking for help to reshape your mindset about the gym. Either that, or sip a cup of coffee before leg day for a cheaper and more natural energy source.
Advice For Women And Girls
Maria started our conversation about personal training by complaining about fitness influencers and their overcomplicated workouts. She says, “We don’t need to be doing these Instagram workouts with so many movements and so many reps” to see progress or feel good about our bodies. She recommends fewer exercises done really well with rest in between; there’s no need to completely fatigue the muscles and leave the gym with your heart rate out of the roof. What she does emphasize is how calories, sweat, heart rate, and soreness are not the priority in a workout, so try to spend most of your training time with weights instead of on cardio machines. Through this she wants to teach girls “they won’t look like a dude if they lift weights: ”Maria is one of the strongest women I have ever seen and I would never describe her as masculine.
When asked about women looking to start their fitness journey Maria simply stated “just get started. There’s never gonna be a perfect time” to kickstart your progress. She also aims to teach clients to be life-long athletes and avoids training people who just want to get in shape for an event. This being said she repeated how important it is to ask for help: so why not start your fitness journey by contacting a fitness professional?
After speaking with Maria I am awestruck. She is one of the kindest, most knowledgeable people I have ever met. She has a deep love for fitness and wants to help people reach their goals. She prefers naturalist approaches to wellness and made me feel so good about my “unhealthy” cravings for chocolate, potato chips, and cake. Inclusivity is part of her business and she goes highly recommended. Go check out her website for more information!