Challenges in the Fitness Landscape

In this Trainer spotlight episode of FITLETE Radio, we get to know Kate Moore.

GEORGE: Introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do and your background.

Hi, I'm Kate Moore. I'm disruptive by nature. I'm a ginger woman of the South who cooks with butter, believes in the art of putzing around, and is deeply familiar with being too much, too fiery, and too big. The other side of the I'm-not-enough coin that so many of us get handed in this lifetime. I grew up playing the roles that I was shown. Girl, woman, wife, daughter, mother. Nice, confused, and right. Small in body and power. Like a switch in the midst of a breakup in my early 20s, that voice came in like a sword in defense of my life and said, girl, this ain't it. It can be better. Go for it. I went for it, and yes, I've looked back many times, but I wouldn't turn around for anything. I've listened to her ever since. Over the years, her voice has gotten louder, and I understand her more. She is wise and firm, and she is fiercely kind. I quit my job in the music business in 2014 because I was told that a woman could be one of two things in that industry, a doormat or a b***h. It was a warning, because I am the latter. I opened up my first gym in Nashville in 2014. It was the gym that I needed. I signed all of our emails. I'm glad you're here, no matter how you're here. We believe that all bodies are good bodies in just the way that they are. I learned to be in relationship with mine just as she is. That gym disrupted fitness as it currently existed. She was living proof that it could be better. I started co-leading Heartfelt Retreats in 2016. They disrupted our circle's idea that having a self-study practice should be fueled by you're not enough and this will fix you, or you're too much and here's how to be less. The retreats grew, evolved, and impacted us all in ways that we never saw coming, because they show you how to be who you are and that who you are is incredibly good. I sold Get Fit 615 in 2021 to Jess Thompson, who's grown and evolved to the physical space into the Radical Wellness Collective. In 2023, after a big move back to my hometown and some huge personal shifts, looking for a place to become a trainer and not an owner, I walked into the doors of More Than Fitness before they were open to the public and the second that I saw Russell Moore, the owner, also a Ginger and also a Moore. He had hand-painted all the dumbbells in rainbow colors. I knew it was my new gym home. I'm proud to call myself a business partner in More Than Fitness as of 2025. Through the self-study program, The Duality of Harm and Healing in Fitness, Yoga, and Wellness, a training and limited series podcast, and through my work as a trainer at More Than Fitness in Richmond, Virginia, I'm here to help trainers, coaches, and clients alike become more fully who they are. I help people bridge the gap between who they want to be and how they actually show up by showing them just how worthy of it all they actually are.

GEORGE: Tell me a funny or interesting story about yourself that help's us get to know you as a human.

Kate: I just threw the best birthday party of, for starters, my life, but also some people who came to it said that it was the best party that they'd literally ever been to. There was an 80-year-old woman named Barbara there, and she had flat out told me that she'd never been to a better party, so we'll just start there. But I've never thrown myself a birthday party, and then I woke up, like, the morning after my 24—wait, no, how old am I? 34? And I was like, it's time to throw myself a birthday party. So for a whole year, I planned my 35th birthday party, and the theme of the birthday party was You're So Easy to Love, and I sang for all of my friends. I hadn't sung in public since I was in high school, and I made the playlist. I flew a friend in from Nashville to play the piano for me. I brought all of my closest friends. There were a hundred red roses in the house. I made my own skirt out of tulle. And yeah, I cried the whole time, and my dad sang with me, and it was the best thing to date that I've ever done for myself.

GEORGE: What strategies do you use to attract and retain clients in your personal training business?

You know, I had a yoga teacher way back in the day who was like, Kate, this is a good thing about you and it's going to be something that makes your life really hard. And honestly, she's right, but it's impossible for me to not be who I am. But the nice thing about that is when I'm out in the world, I am pretty much the same flavor of myself that you're going to get as a personal trainer. So I wear the gym, I wear gym merch all the time. I like, I like to feel like I'm like on a team. And so I wear gym merch out into the world and I love going to a coffee shop or like, I don't know, I like, I like things where people are. And so I go where people are. And before you know it, I'm like chit chatting with somebody at the table next to me. They're like, oh, what is this shirt that you have on? And it's either like something that I do in coaching or it's gym related. And before I know it, I'm talking to this person about my business. They're feeling seen, heard, understood. They recognize that I'm kind. And then a lot of times there's just like there's either just a draw towards me or not. So like I hit them with a little bit of authenticity and then they're like, wait, how do I get more of you? And so like when I help people bridge the gap between who they are and who that like how they actually want to show up. Like what I'm what what I think is like being who you are is the best way to get new trainers and whether that means being who you are. I mean, to get new clients and whether that means being who you are on the Internet or if the Internet like isn't your place. Like, how are you going out into the world and being who you are? And then just like letting people know that also this is what I do for work. But yeah, the best strategy, I think, for getting new clients for me personally. And I do think that this is different for trainers, but it's where the gym merch and then like let yourself be open to talking to people. Because then they'll just see you and they'll see the merch and they'll have that little moment of like brand recognition. Because building like a great book of clients happens one person at a time, and I don't do that. I don't like that whole like toss the net and see who you get. I like that one at a time, like slow build.

GEORGE: What is your process for assessing a new client's fitness level and addressing their goals?

I really think of every single session as an assessment, honestly. My bread and butter of client, the people who I like working with the most is like gym pop. I love working with people who are intimidated by gyms and like just kind of new to movement, honestly, or like figuring out how maybe do they like to move. I love working with people who are trying to figure that out because I, you know, I think we should all be moving because I think fitness is supposed to help you feel good. So one of the things that I think can be really intimidating for people is the idea of coming to a gym and then having to go through this like assessment process where some trainer might take a bunch of measurements or take some pictures and then run you through certain movements and then try to figure out like your VO2 max and like all that kind of stuff. I don't do anything like that with clients. I've never taken measurements. I've never weighed a client. There's not a scale at the gym. So I use, I ask a lot of questions. I ask a lot of questions about like, hey, tell me, tell me what this has like been like for you. Like what is your, what would you say your general exercise routine is like now? You know, like I think people want to be, wow. Yeah. They're afraid they're going to be shamed at a gym. And so I think the assessment process can often feel really shameful because it points out all these places that we need to work on instead of pointing out, hey, you've actually done a great job of this up till now. And I'm really glad that you hired me to help you like move forward. And so I really try to help people like move forward. So I use each session really like an assessment, you know, like every time I learn something new about a client, that's a new little piece of information that I get to take into their very next session. So I think of every session as being an assessment really. And some days we do better than others. Some days it feels like we make more progress than others. Some days it feels like we've regressed and that is just a okay. So yeah, every single session to me feels like an assessment and that my job is to meet people where they're at and maybe give them the next right thing for them.

GEORGE: What certifications do you hold, and how do you stay updated on the latest fitness trends and research?

I hold a bunch of certifications. I'm E-R-Y-T-500 through Yoga Alliance. I'm NASM certified. I'm certified through, what's it called, ICF, International Coaching Federation. And then, yeah, I've just done a bunch of, I love, I've really enjoyed doing a lot of continuing education through yoga. I've really brought a lot of that body mechanics work into my work in the gym. I've done a bunch of barbell stuff, a bunch of kettlebell stuff. Yeah, I just recently did some landmine stuff. But I think a lot of fitness is the basics. I think there's so much noise in fitness. And so when it comes to the trends, honestly, they feel more confusing than anything else. So something that I think that I do a good job of helping my clients do is weed out the noise. And like I said, I work with Gen Pop. So a lot of this really in-depth research and stuff that comes out for elite athletes just simply does not apply to me as a person and as a trainer. And also to my clients. So I do a lot of filtering out noise for people, which is like you can never know enough. And instead, I'm like, hey, fam, you just need to use your body. So while I love doing the trainings and stuff, I keep it really simple for my clients. And then just even in my own workouts, I move my body to feel good. And I don't really care if what I'm doing isn't the absolute most effective thing because I came here to have a good time because that's what makes me want to come back. So yeah, if somebody were to come to me and they're like, I have very explicit goals, I really truly wouldn't be the trainer for them because I'm really not reading all the science. I'm working with really individual people who have significantly more basic needs than fitness generally caters towards. I also think it's super important to have a great network of professionals that you can refer out to when you don't know something.

GEORGE: How do you envision your personal training business evolving in the next few years?

Okay, so George, I totally hear your question. How do I envision my personal training business evolving in the next few years? I'm gonna skip that and I'm actually gonna answer this question. What do I hope to see? How do I hope to see personal training just as an industry evolve? Honestly, I think personal training is so important. People moving their bodies is so, so, so important for our health. And we as trainers know that, but I think so often we get like skipped over. I want for personal training to feel less like elitist and exclusive. I want there to be more and more and more access to having somebody like a trainer, a movement professional, whatever you want to call yourself, on everybody's like life team. So I don't know. I want to, I'm trying to figure out like how do I make myself and my work more accessible to people and just generally overall personal training. And there's not a great system for that yet because the facts are is that like we also need to get paid and make a living. So there's no like subsidies for personal trainers. I mean, there are some, but it does not lead to everybody getting good care, a good trainer, and then that trainer getting like create, building a living off of that work. But anyways, I want to see more of that. So I don't really have an answer for how is my personal training business evolving in the next few years. I want to be able to reach more people, I guess. I want more people to be able to have access to me because I think I'm good for people and I think trainers are good for people. And I love that for

GEORGE: What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing the fitness & personal training industry?

Oh, I think there's so many challenges that are currently facing the fitness and personal training industry. One is that I think fitness and personal training is becoming more and more like exclusive and elitist. And I think everybody needs fitness and personal training, just like every body, you know? So how can we get it to more people? And then I think the second thing is that there's just so much noise. There's so much noise of like best practices for personal trainers, and then there's so much noise for like even what is fitness when it comes to clients. And so I think it's like getting back to like the basics of what's the point? What's the f*****g point in fitness and personal training? And the point is to feel better, to be better at the s**t that you want to be good at, to be able to live your life in the way that you want to. And so I think that there are so many challenges, but honestly, what would happen if we just did the basics?

Want more Kate Moore in your life? You can find her here:

Moore Than Fitness gym: https://moorethanfitness.com/about/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moore_kate/

All her Websites, Podcasts, Courses & Personal training: https://linktr.ee/moore_kate

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