Hello and thanks for stopping by to learn more!  The quick snapshot is I’m a mother, wife, MPH, CSCS® (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist), Fertility Exercise Specialist and Master Coach for children and adolescents sports specific or long term athletic development. I’ve been competing in sport or training athletes my entire life and it’s my passion to bring the same principles found in training for sports to all whether you are competitive or not. 

Like you, I have a story.

THE POWER OF THE POSITIVE

“Let’s run,” I would always say to the girl who used to ‘walk’ me to the bus stop. At 6 years old, I already knew that running made me happy and somehow connected that maybe if others did it too—they could be happier. I’ve been encouraging people to harness the power of the positive ever since I can remember, even as a 5th grader when I mailed a young self-doubting boy the book “The Power of Positive Thinking,” by Norman Vincent Peale. His concepts of always seeing possibility and that it’s always to early to quit resonated with me even then.

EARLY FITNESS LOVES

I worked out with Jane Fonda via cassette tapes because it was fun and couldn’t wait to see how Richard Simmons would encourage me on a Saturday morning before I would go to swim practice. I loved ballet and competed in track, basketball and volleyball. I read anything by Dr. George Sheehan, a cardiologist, runner and philosopher – soaking in his ideas of you are only as good as you are willing to work each day – not yesterday, but today – and better yet, right now.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

I never had any interest in following the crowd; always took the road less traveled and was more concerned with reinventing the crowd—a healthier, happier, more fulfilled crowd and in replaying the Rocky soundtrack for motivation as needed.

AN UNCONVENTIONAL RUNNING START

Surrounded by many close-knit cheering cousins, I would often race my dog for girl scout cookies, an idea that only a big brother, such as mine, could create. I rarely made it to those cookies first, but I’d like to think it gave me the desire to keep on trying, no matter what. I later capitalized on this unconventional training to crush the 800 meter and 1600 meter run in high school, earning a 4-year cross country scholarship at Georgia Southern University, where the football team used to call me Flo Jo.

COLLEGE & FIRST JOBS

At Georgia Southern University I soaked in everything athletics, fitness and exercise physiology and landed my first real job as a health and physical education teacher in Savannah. I then worked at the American Red Cross in Health and Human Services, earning employee of the year; then to the hospital working with cardiac rehab patients designing exercise programs for them where I finished my Masters of Public Health degree; got certified as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), then certified as a yoga instructor, then created, partnered and launched Goodhearted Kids, a kids physical activity and nutrition program with the community and Health System itself.

HELLO LA!

All this time, I heard a little voice saying, “More is out there; use your gifts to reach the world through athletics and fitness.” So in early 2000 I traded in my chromed out Jeep Wrangler for a new Volkswagon beetle and drove from Savannah, Georgia to Los Angeles, the fitness capital of the world – to expand my wings and reach my dream of training you to become a faster, stronger, better you  

PERSONAL TRAINING in BEVERLY HILLS

In LA, I started working at a high end gym picking up towels on a 4:45 a.m. shift –a humbling and necessary experience—and worked my way up to a full-time professional trainer working with the who’s who of Beverly Hills and eventually independently with Hollywood’s biggest stars—still not allowed to tell you who they are with all those confidentiality agreements I signed! I then branched out on my own where I started Angie Stewart Fitness, continued to train clients around the clock at a private residence gym, made a national yoga best-selling Yoga for Beginners DVD, was featured “On Demand on Exercise TV” and became an Ambassador for Lululemon where I traveled to races across the country bringing Runner’s Yoga 90210 straight to their pre and post race routine.

HOW I MET MY HUSBAND

Five years later I met my husband. He was working through a small, celebrity-laden private gym, training his clients at the same pre-dawn hours I was. My clients would say to me, “I think that guy likes you.” The truth is, I liked him too. We later married and just like that – I was also gifted a bonus wee little daughter of whom I loved dearly and referred to as my mini me.

WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED

This was the life I led until I gave birth to our son, Stewart Colton. He was everything I ever wanted. And then as “they” say, my whole life changed. My son who came 5 weeks and 6 days early — was healthy, happy and thriving in every way. Me? The early birth was quite a surprise, I endured post labor complications that left me with multiple surgeries and a total of 7 months recovery with limited movement to do anything.  

LOSING HOPE

In the middle of this, I was losing hope.

The walls were closing in more and more each day as I sat there with my precious boy on my lap.

I wasn’t thinking positively. I wasn’t taking care of me.

I wondered if I would ever recover fully and EVER be the mother I knew I could be for this tiny miraculous boy.

THE A-HA MOMENT

Then it hit me. Literally. Like a freight train with a gentle whisper spawned by the help of my husband…“If I don’t strengthen my body and mind, then how I am going to take care of my newborn son?”

That's when I knew I needed to begin again — to train as a reborn athlete from the ground up and as a beginner until I was ready for the next level. “Build the house, brick by brick. Build a solid foundation.” 

This ultimately gave me new perspective and an uncanny way to help athletes, especially youth.

When I train new clients and especially new young athletes I use this perspective of laying an unshakable foundation. We move through pillars of movement efficiency & coordination, then build strength, force production, speed and explosiveness.

And boy does it work! 

THE BIRTH OF ROAD TO AWESOME

That is when I also created an online plan known as the Road to Awesome, a daily 4-week training plan that new moms or clients could use to train with me from anywhere in the world and get everything they needed from —workouts to nutrition to champion mindset. 

Since sharing the Road to Awesome, I've since witnessed thousands of mighty transformations for those who have joined me, including women who were told they would never get pregnant - then worked with me - and DID  

WHAT GOAL SCARES YOU THE MOST? THEN DO IT!

During training, I ask the question, “What goal scares you the most?” Continued with, yet when accomplished will give you the most joy… Because of this question, I decided to set a BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL along with you.

I set a big scary goal too and found myself back on the track in over 20 something years in a collegiate meet with girls half my age. At age 41, I ran as a USATF athlete and ended up capturing the title of Southern California’s Masters Division Champion in the 1500 meter, and later that season, ran seconds away from my fastest mile ever from high school.

What is the answer to this question for you?

THE JOURNEY IS EVERYTHING

I wouldn’t take anything for my journey now. I coach runners, kids, adults, athletes, and witness the improvement, the glory and yes the highs and lows of the journey.

And I am not finished. Not even close.

Because if I haven’t worked with you or your kids yet, there is still more to do.

And if I have worked with you already, then you know my philosophy; there is no finish line – just a big beautiful life filled with waves, peaks & valleys in which to be present, to strive for better than yesterday and to help others along the way.

Yours in the triumph and the struggle,

Angie