Anyone looking to get started with a fitness routine knows that it’s not quite as easy as it sounds. Sure, you can lace up a pair of running shoes and start jogging or fire up a video and bang out some bodyweight exercises right at home, but there’s a barrier that remains for a lot of folks: the feeling that they don’t really “fit” in with fitness or that exercise isn’t for them.
Here at SELF, our mission is to change that, both with the articles we publish and the images we choose. Despite what scrolling on social media may have you think, fitness is for everyone—and we want to help welcome you into the fold. One small way to do that, we believe, starts with the models we highlight to take you through each and every workout we put out there. That’s why our Everyday Athletes have been at the core of our fitness content for years: We want you to see yourselves on the mat, in the weight room, or on the track, so you can feel empowered to make fitness your own.
We’re so excited to introduce our Everyday Athletes Class of 2025: Over the course of the last year, we scoured the New York area fitness space to find the real-world fitness folks who exemplify our #TeamSELF values that everyone deserves a spot on the floor. This year’s group are marathoners, strength coaches, physical therapists, life coaches, dancers, and everything in between. They’re stroke survivors, poets, foster cat rescuers, activists, and flat-out inspirers. They work with folks looking to deadlift double their bodyweight, nail a tricky yoga pose, exercise comfortably through a POTS flare-up, or simply move in a way that feels affirming for their bodies. Keep on scrolling to learn more about our Everyday Athletes 2025 and keep checking back to see them demoing our workouts for the year to come! (Can’t wait? Click on over to SELF’s newest workout program, 6 Weeks to Stronger, to see some of them in action!).
Lauren Leavell
Katie Thompson
Social: @laurenleavellfitness
Age: 33
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation: Personal trainer and group fitness instructor at Lauren Leavell Fitness
Favorite thing to do outside of fitness: Foster and rescue cats, coach and support other small fitness businesses.
Least favorite exercise: Barbell bench press.
Lauren Leavell started working out 14 years ago, and when she decided to make it her career nine years ago, she felt pulled toward barre: “I loved the way moving my body made me feel, and I wanted to be part of that process with and for other people,” she tells SELF. “Particularly in barre, there is not a lot of body diversity, and I thought it was important to model that. I wanted to see more barre teachers like me.” From there, she expanded into other areas of fitness—she now also teaches HIIT and mobility, and takes on personal training clients—and maintains a weight-neutral approach with all of it. “People come to me and they work on whatever they want to work on in their bodies without an aesthetic or weight loss goal,” she says “Instead, we’re looking at how they feel, how they move in their daily lives, and how we can do that together.” It’s a way of training that supports clients for the long haul. In fact, Leavell recently had a client tell her that they knew they’d be able to attend a class of hers in their third trimester of pregnancy and during a POTS flare because she always offers the modifications they need to feel comfortable in their body. “As someone who works constantly to make fitness more accessible, this was truly high praise and made me feel like all the care I put into my classes is paying off!”
Chad Ryan
Katie Thompson
Social: @chaddyboychadd
Age: 46
Location: Sunnyside, New York
Occupation: Personal trainer, group fitness instructor, and life coach.
Favorite hype-up workout song: “We Found Love” by Rihanna.
Best way to recover after a tough session: Foam roller, baby.
Around 10 years ago, Chad Ryan first got into strength training when he joined up at Mark Fisher Fitness in NYC. It was there where he met a “trifecta” of coaches who encouraged his own path into the field, as Ryan tells SELF. “It was magical and inspiring to witness and be around,” he says. “The superb coaches mixed fun and fitness, gave excellent cues, and were a part of making me feel stronger and later very seen and acknowledged.” Three years later, he decided to turn it into a career; he got certified as a functional strength coach and in kettlebell training. “I still lead with their spirits inside me and all of their wisdom and knowledge they left on my very impressionable heart,” he says. Now, he’s motivating clients of his own, as a lead fitness coach at Mark Fisher Fitness and privately at ChangeWithChad. One way to do it, he believes, is to encourage consistency through “patience and persistence—a beautiful blend of the two,” as he explains it. “It’s about taking that second step,” Ryan says. “You can’t fully assess a fitness facility or coach or experience without having data. Go back another time, at least two visits, to make comparisons” and determine if you’ve found the community that makes you feel seen, encouraged, and motivated.
Amber Edwards
Katie Thompson
Social: @thick.amb.fit
Age: 28
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Occupation: Occupational therapist and strength coach
Favorite kind of exercise: Anything with kettlebells—they work on strength, mobility, and conditioning all at once.
Biggest gym pet peeve: People who lift too heavy and compromise on form.
As a licensed occupational therapist who works with geriatric patients with chronic illnesses, Amber Edwards can see firsthand the benefit of encouraging movement in everyday life. Problem is, lots of older folks aren’t able to take advantage of it, either due to lack of access, or simply because fitness can be intimidating to get started with. “I would love to see more opportunities for this population to increase not only their strength, but also their confidence—and that will translate into their daily routine and help reduce the risk of mortality,” she tells SELF. The same benefits hold true for people in a lower age bracket as well. A former track and field athlete, Edwards has relied on strength training not only to help her qualify for regional and national meets, but also to guide her through life’s challenges. “Even during my lowest moments, fitness was a tool to assist me to never give up, keep me grounded, and to always remind me of the things I can and can’t control. It became more than just something I liked to do as a hobby—I wanted to make it a lifestyle and help others feel the same way.”
Zach Bergfelt
Katie Thompson
Social: @zachbergfeltpilates
Age: 35
Location: Manhattan, New York
Occupation: Fitness instructor for private and group classes
Favorite thing to do outside of fitness: Traveling with my husband or catching a Broadway show.
Best feeling in fitness: There’s nothing quite like the pride I feel when a client conquers an exercise or sequence they never thought possible.
Zach Bergfelt first fell in love with fitness as a dance major in college. At first, he started with Pilates as a way to cross-train, but it later grew into his focus: Now, he’s a “jack of all trades” in the fitness space, teaching Pilates (mat, Reformer, and Cadillac), cycling, and other classes too. “I wanted to make all bodies feel welcome, and I wanted to make everyone feel like they had a voice in fitness,” he tells SELF. The best way to foster it? Bergfelt believes that sustainable fitness comes from finding a routine that’s your routine—not a carbon copy of someone else’s or one that’s chockfull of things you think you “should” be doing. “If you hate running, don’t run,” he says. “Do a dance cardio class, go for a walk, do whatever you feel like that’ll give you joy, sweat a little bit, and get stronger your way, not someone else’s.”
Winnie Yu
Katie Thompson
Social: @dr.winnatlife
Location: Chinatown, New York
Occupation: Orthopedic physical therapist and certified strength and conditioning specialist
Favorite way to recover after a tough workout: Compression boots and sauna.
Least favorite exercise: StairMaster—I don’t have the patience for it.
After doctors told her that her “body wasn’t meant to run” due to her history of injuries as a teen, Winnie Yu was left frustrated—and determined to prove them wrong. “I was told from a young age that I would just live with some level of pain down the road,” she tells SELF. But after becoming an orthopedic physical therapist, she realized that it didn’t have to be that way. “With proper programming, I’ve managed my body’s ability to heal, to get stronger, to get more mobile, and to inspire and guide others to do the same,” she says. In fact, Yu was able to run the 2023 New York City Marathon side-by-side with her best friend, and finish, as she describes it, a “completely pain-free race.” As a physical therapist, Yu emphasizes the importance of exercise for longevity and better movement versus simple aesthetic benefits. And that encompasses an overall change she’d like to see come to the fitness space too: More focus on function, less on achieving a certain “look.” “As I started working in the medical world, I began to realize that strength is what we should strive for, not just being lean,” says Yu, who says she grew up in an Asian community that valued thin bodies. “I would love to see more women feel comfortable with starting their fitness journeys with the goals of becoming healthier and not to just fit societal norms of beauty.”
Heart Gardener
Katie Thompson
Social: @transyogateacher
Age: 36
Location: Queens, New York
Occupation: Activist, organizer, and MSW student at Columbia University’s School of Social Work
Favorite time to work out: Midday—get some work done in the morning, take a break, get into my body, and then get a clear mind for the rest of the day.
The one exercise that makes you feel confident: I’ve been having a lot of fun kicking up into forearm stand and handstand lately, which are two poses I never thought I could do.
Heart Gardener got his start in yoga from an early age—before he was even born, you may say. “My mom did yoga when she was pregnant with me,” he tells SELF. “And she introduced me to meditation and chanting when I was young—say, age two—and so it’s always been a part of my life.” But it wasn’t until his early 20s when he started to take the practice more seriously. “I was looking for healing. I was very lost with who I was, so I came to yoga to deal with trauma and emotional distress,” he says. “The goal of yoga is self-realization, and through it I realized I was trans and finally found self-acceptance, which is the most liberating thing I’ve ever experienced.” Still, he acknowledges it was often difficult to find instructors who shared his identities. So as a way to hold space for others who felt the same, he became an instructor himself in 2017, and started teaching Queer, Trans Yoga in his hometown of Washington, DC, in 2019. “I was able to share a practice that saved my life with others in ways that felt like a true honoring of the gift of yoga,” he says. Making the time to move his body is imperative, but it’s not always easy to find time for—something that Gardener knows a lot of other busy folks struggle with too. One tip? “I’ve just been setting timers for 10 minutes,” he says. “Then I just get on my yoga mat and move my body. It doesn’t have to look a certain way; I don’t even need to stand up. It feels good to move and kind of play around, sometimes I dance and get funky with it.”
Francine Delgado-Lugo
Katie Thompson
Social: @francine_formfitnessbk
Age: 48
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Occupation: Strength coach and co-owner of Form Fitness Brooklyn
Biggest gym pet peeve: When people don’t put their weights back.
Favorite kind of workout: I’m currently in love with upper-body push work, and I’ve been bitten by the running bug once again.
Francine Delgado-Lugo first started running as a way to manage stress 20 years ago, and soon began racing everything from 5Ks to half marathons to marathons—plus some Spartan races for good measure. Then she fell in love with weightlifting. “I had a great experience with a trainer—I learned how to be strong and confident in my own body, so I wanted to give back,” Delgado-Lugo tells SELF. She earned certifications in personal training and weightlifting, and partnered with two of her best friends (also trainers) to open Form Fitness Brookln, a gym dedicated to fostering an inclusive environment. “We as women have been taught for way too long that being small is what matters, and I believe you can be strong and beautiful and healthy at any size,” Delgado-Lugo says. Form Fitness also emphasizes functional strength—as does Delgado-Lugo in her own workouts. “Fitness is life,” she says. “There is nothing like feeling strong and being able to withstand standing in a line for a long time, being able to carry my own groceries, pick up my kid, and do for myself.” What’s more, it provides the “me” time a lot of folks are lacking. “Being in the gym, you have to shut everything out, and just be there with your weights and your workout. Fitness shows me that I can trust myself, rely on myself, and love myself.“
Jessie Diaz-Herrera
Katie Thompson
Social: @curveswithmoves
Age: 37
Location: Bronx, New York
Occupation: Joyful movement instructor and cofounder of Power Plus Wellness
Favorite hype-up workout song: Definitely “Beso (Fruta Fresca)” by Wakyin, especially before teaching a dance fitness class.
The one exercise that makes you feel confident: We’ve recently been picking up 100+ pound sand bags and throwing them over our shoulder, and it feels so badass!
Jessie Diaz-Herrera grew up as an athlete, starting with softball as a kid and later taking up rugby and dance. “I’ve been in an active body my entire life,” she tells SELF. “At every weight and in every shape my body has taken, she’s always been active, and I’m so grateful for that.” As an adult, she started with group fitness, leaning into CrossFit, Pilates, and, yep, dance too, and became an ACE-certified group fitness instructor so she could help others find their own place in fitness. That’s why she founded Power Plus Wellness (PPW), “a community where movement is a source of joy, not punishment.” For Diaz-Herrerra, it’s also been a lifesaver. In 2022, she experienced a major stroke that left the right side of her body paralyzed. “Movement, paired with pouring myself into PPW, became my path to recovery,” she says. “It healed my body and mind, and it reminded me just how precious life truly is.”
Natalia Perez-Segnini
Katie Thompson
Social: @talathanyou
Age: 33
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Occupation: Yoga instructor; strength and conditioning coach; and movement, mindset, and breathwork coach
Favorite thing to do outside of fitness: I’m a big fan of cooking, and I like to write songs/poetry/notes that feel like novels.
Best way to recover after a tough workout: Recovery yoga flow, nutritious fuel, and then a delicious horizontal session on my couch.
Before she stepped into fitness professionally, Natalia Perez-Segnini lived a few very different professional lives—in journalism and sales, amid “a season of unhealthy lifestyle choices,” as she tells SELF. For someone growing up playing sports, movement had simply been a form of “competitive play,” but it soon became more: “As I reshaped my life, my career shifted with me and things sort of clicked into place.” She became a certified personal trainer and registered yoga instructor, with a deep interest in helping folks find an “in” into fitness that works for them. “You don’t have to be as bendy as the most ‘perfect’ yoga instructor you know to practice yoga, to lift weights, to be a fitness and movement enthusiast,” she says. “It’s not about how you look in your body, but how you feel in your body.” It’s all also about taking chances: In particular, she considers seeing the tug-of-war play out in a client’s eyes when they realize they can be scared to try something—and then still give it a shot—as one of her favorite moments as a coach. “So much breeds from that idea implanting itself in the mind: ‘I still can try,’” she says. “Despite the circumstances, previous experience, or desired outcome, not being afraid to try is the skeleton key to growth.”
