The Alimond Show

Nikki LaRock of Elite Habits - From Group Fitness Enthusiast to Empowerment Coach: Redefining Fitness Norms, Inspiring Strength Training, and Turning Obstacles into Growth Opportunities

Alimond Studio

What if you could redefine your fitness journey and turn obstacles into opportunities for growth? Join us as we have an enlightening conversation with Nikki LaRock, the inspiring founder of Elite Habits. Starting her fitness adventure at 18, Nikki's commitment to group fitness transformed into a dynamic career, emphasizing behavior change and strength building over chasing numbers on a scale. Discover how Elite Habits challenges traditional fitness norms and offers personalized coaching to empower women aged 35 to 60, focusing on sustainable lifestyle changes through strength training and realistic nutrition strategies.

Nikki passionately discusses the importance of incorporating weight training into fitness routines, especially for women. Through our exploration, we dismantle common misconceptions about exercise and gender, highlighting the essential role of understanding one's body to achieve a truly healthy physique. Nikki draws insightful parallels between fitness goals and career ambitions, urging listeners to adopt an objective lens when pursuing their fitness aspirations. Her experiences with Les Mills illustrate how feedback and adaptation are crucial in both fitness and professional growth, ensuring progress is seen as a journey rather than a series of setbacks.

Through Nikki's insights, we navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship and the importance of perseverance. She shares her perspective on embracing challenges, inspired by the stoic wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, viewing obstacles as stepping stones to personal success. Her reflections offer valuable lessons for anyone looking to forge their path, whether in business, fitness, or personal growth. Tune in to gain a fresh perspective on transforming hurdles into opportunities and crafting a fulfilling life with purpose and resilience.

Speaker 1:

My name is Nikila Rock. I am the founder of Elite Habits. That's my business. We are a fitness and nutrition coaching business. We provide one-to-one coaching services as well as wellness challenges for businesses and corporate wellness education Wow.

Speaker 2:

That is incredible. I'd like to know how you got started in your industry. Were you always into like fitness and helping people out?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I've been in fitness for a cool 17 years now. Nice Started right when I was 18 years old, graduated high school, fell in love with group fitness, so I've been in this area my whole life. And there used to be a little tiny gym called Lady of America and it was an all-women's gym. It was tiny, it was just cardio equipment like no weights Cool.

Speaker 1:

Just cardio equipment, no weights, weights and a group exercise stage. And I grew up playing sports and I just didn't want to lose like the connection with like exercise and movement and things of that nature. So so, yeah, so my, my parents and like my aunt and uncle went in on like a gym membership for me so, you know, I could keep moving, and I fell in love with it immediately and immediately like started, how can I teach classes? How can I, you know, how can I, you know, be a part of this? So I did that and I wound up teaching classes at like community centers and everything from aqua aerobics to boot camps to you know whatever. And then I got certified to teach archery, so I taught archery. And I got certified to teach archery, so I taught archery.

Speaker 1:

I fell in love with boxing and mixed martial arts at one point and wound up being a UFC instructor. So over the years I just it was always a side hustle, just worked a full-time job but pursued those interests and kind of that love and just started racking up certifications and group exercise and personal training. And then nutrition followed and eventually, after doing the group exercise thing for a long time, I started to really fall in love with kind of like the science of it and the behavior change aspect of it and the ability to build a physique and build a body and build things that you want, rather than just, you know, losing the weight loss aspect of it. So, anyway, I eventually transitioned into the more one-to-one and the more kind of long-term behavior change aspect of it, and that's how I wound up here.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's incredible. It sounds like you've always been like just so active and you said that your parents signed you up for like a gym. Were they like fitness gurus?

Speaker 1:

No, they weren't actually. Yeah, no, not at all. I don't know that my mom's ever set foot in a gym, wow, except at your gym Right. Yeah, yeah, it's just. It just wasn't their thing. My dad played sports, but but it was something that I was interested in, okay.

Speaker 2:

Very nice. And now about the services that you provide. So it's one-on-one. Is it like cardio strength training, everything? Is it dieting nutrition? Talk to me a little bit more in depth about that.

Speaker 1:

Sure, so it's a little bit of everything, but there is a significant focus on strength training. Because, if we're being honest, and most of my clientele in a one-to-one sense is female, mostly between like my average client ranges between, I'd say, 35 and 60 is the average age of my female clients and us as women, for the most part, we don't have any problems with cardio. When we think we need to diet and we need to exercise, the first thing we do is think we're going to run on the treadmill or jump on the Peloton or it's the first thing that we do and that's great. All exercise is beneficial. But all exercise is not equal the same outcome and usually, when I hear the outcomes that my clients are looking for, what they're actually hinged on is strength training, and strength training is something that, especially females, we struggle with the concept of it. I do, yes, we struggle with the concept of it. Everyone's different, but a lot of fears and things that I hear are fears related to size, gaining size, fears related to looking a certain way, fears related to not knowing what they're doing or being intimidated to step into a gym, setting things of that nature. But there's all kinds of ways that we can kind of customize that.

Speaker 1:

So all of that to say is there's a huge, huge, huge focus on strength training because when we're talking about playing the long game as it relates to your health and fitness, the biggest predictor of longevity is muscle mass. Muscle mass literally makes any chronic disease more survivable. Mass literally makes any chronic disease more survivable. The stats on muscle mass are wild and there's no reason that we shouldn't all be doing it, no matter what age, no matter what capability. So there's a huge focus on that. And then there's also a big focus, obviously, on implementing nutrition strategies that make sense. I'm very realistic as it relates to nutrition coaching. I don't demonize foods or food groups. There's no can't haves. There's no can't dos.

Speaker 2:

I like that style.

Speaker 1:

Right, because that's not for most people. For most people that's not realistic. So I mentioned earlier that we're very rooted in behavior change, long-term behavior change. So that's the kind of way that we attack that. But yes, cardio, huge focus on strength training because who are we kidding? You don't really need my help to run on the treadmill, you don't need me to write you a program to run on the treadmill. So huge focus on the things that are progressive, that are compounding in nature. But that's kind of how the one-to-one service is.

Speaker 1:

And they're mostly virtual. Cool yeah, comfortable, home, you don't have to get up and dress. Yes, yes, they're mostly virtual. So I just find out what you have access to. You know if it's a home gym, if it's dumbbells and bands, if it's full gym access. What you have access to, kind of your familiarity, your starting level, what you're looking to achieve, and then we go from there and designing custom programming.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right about the muscle mass because, like it helps your posture, it helps you burn fat and stay lean. Yep. And then we just think like no, we got to run. And like sweat it all out in the water.

Speaker 1:

Right, right. So when we think about, when we think about metabolism, it's this very, very nuanced concept. For so many people it's just like, oh, my metabolism it's just not great, or my metabolism fell off a cliff when I turned 40. You know. But realistically, it's a very smart system, our metabolism, and it's a very adaptive system and it's meant to keep us alive, right, Alive and functioning, and all it is is energy management. So it's not this nuanced crazy thing that we have to be scared of. It's just the thing that manages our energy output, and most of our metabolism is due to something called our basal metabolic rate or our resting metabolic rate, and that's just what it takes to keep us alive. Yeah, the heart beating, you know, lungs inflating, that blood pumping, all that yeah exactly, and most of it goes to our brains.

Speaker 1:

Honestly, most of that goes to our brains and we tend to overestimate the importance of exercise, especially cardiovascular exercise, while it is very important for health. That direct like oh, I'm going to go run and that's going to be the thing that pushes me over the edge to this lean physique, and that's usually not the case. A little misconception there right?

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, okay, that's good to know. So I hope the listeners when they listen to this, they're like okay, I got to start like lifting a little bit of weights here and move on up to the next level. Yeah, muscle is a really metabolically active tissue, so it requires more energy to exist than fat mass. I wonder how that I guess like perception of exercise, like came to be with like for women, like no, that's only for men, or it's going to make you look super buff and like that's not ideal for a woman.

Speaker 2:

But it's like… you, it depends how much you do, but you still need to do it. And where we got stuck with this concept, where it's like you know only running and like Right.

Speaker 1:

Well, what I really like to do for for my clients and this is where it kind of relates to business as well, and this is something I do when I do corporate wellness talks or lunch and learns or things of that nature I like to relate physical changes and physique changes and things, to two things that we are very familiar with, to progressing through our careers, to progressing through our degrees, to advancing in these systems.

Speaker 1:

Because when it comes to call it getting a degree, all of us can be very, very objective. We understand the process, we can look at the degree, we can look at the boxes that we have to tick, we can look at the syllabus and we can say this makes sense. And then, if we get to a certain point in our degree program and we're thinking, hmm, this isn't really working for me anymore, then we're able to say, okay, we're going to now pursue this major, but we can still look at all that work we've done and not be like, oh, I lost all my progress. Oh, no, you became more well-rounded, you progressed in that direction and then you made changes as necessary. So when we kind of relate to it in this way and then we also think like, if I want an engineering degree. I can't take four years of nursing classes right.

Speaker 1:

So I try to tie those concepts into people's health and their wellness, because when it comes to our bodies and when it comes to how we think, we tend to be very emotion-driven, and that's a very human response, for sure, but really, really, it's run by all the same scientific rules as the universe is right.

Speaker 1:

So when we can come to it with a more objective lens and when we can think like, okay, not all actions equal the same outcomes, like all actions are all these actions towards wellness and things are beneficial. Like I said, all exercise is beneficial, it's all beneficial, it all makes you more well-rounded, more healthy. But if you're looking for a certain outcome, there are certain boxes, there is a syllabus, there are things that need to be checked to get to that outcome. And if you progress towards that outcome and then you realize that like maybe I'd be better served going in this direction, it wasn't all a big waste and we need to throw our hands up in the air and just fall off the program completely, we can make adjustments and to continue to move in that direction, and now you know what direction you need to go, as opposed to like.

Speaker 2:

I'm doing all of these but I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Right, exactly no-transcript necessity at the time. But so right before, right before COVID, as I kind of progressed through that group exercise era of mine, I had started teaching for a company called Les Mills. Okay, and Les Mills is an international fitness brand. I think I've heard of them. If you've ever worked out in like a Gold's or a One Life or kind of gyms of that nature, you might have seen a class like Body Pump or Body Combat.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Is there videos of that too?

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, they're a big on-demand service now because of COVID, but they used to be purely. They would create content, license that content and certify instructors and then license that content to gyms to be able to teach and host their content. Yeah, it's a great model, but I had started teaching with a company called Les Mills. I had previously been teaching for UFC. Then I had my babies and I needed yeah, I have two babies. Well, they're not babies now, they're older now.

Speaker 2:

Congratulations.

Speaker 1:

Thank you Thank you, yes, but I needed to teach in a gym environment that had childcare. Yeah, so I started looking for something that was close enough to kind of the UFC mixed martial arts and I found Les Mills Body Combat. Yeah, so I got certified to teach Les Mills Body Combat, loved it. Les Mills Body Combat, loved it. Got certified to teach Les Mills Body Pump, and then Les Mills Sprint, and went through all of the upskilling and all the things that Les Mills offered and was getting feedback from you know my call it mentors at the gym who were kind of helping me progress through this, and then my instructors within Les Mills basically saying like hey, you should consider, like continuing to progress through this, like this is a gift, this is something that we can nurture. Like this, you should consider like continuing to progress through this, like this is a gift, this is something that we can nurture. Like you're good at this, you should look to take the next steps. So Les Mills had something called a TAP team and that was the trainer assessor, presenter team for the United States. Oh, wow. And at the time I want to say there were like 20,000 Les Mills instructors in the US. Like there's a lot of them, a lot of gyms teach these programs and the TAP team in any given year would range between 150 to 200 of those people, and their goal was to again train other instructors to do what they do and upskill other instructors to assess incoming instructors and then to present on large stages.

Speaker 1:

So I started pursuing a role on the TAP team, which I did. I did the video audition and the in-person audition. You did all the things. I did all the things and I got a role on the TAP team in 2019. Okay, so I got a role on the TAP team as a presenter in 2019. And when you get a role on the TAP team, you are assigned a development coach. Okay, I was previously someone who was very, very, very afraid of taking on feedback. Just because I didn't, it felt like a personal attack.

Speaker 2:

I feel that sometimes I know that feeling.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes it felt like a personal attack to be told I didn't do something right after I had genuinely tried so hard and you studied, and to be flat out told like that's not it, like you missed the mark. It felt like a cut to not it, like you missed the mark it. It felt like a cut to the heart.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Yes, but um, part of the process to onboard onto the tap team, which is nearly a year long process, uh, was this development coach and you would film yourself teaching, presenting all of these things, and the development coach would go nearly minute by minute and I don't know if they still do it this way anymore. I know they've changed in some years, but he would go nearly minute by minute and been like at the 6 minute and 47 second mark. You had an opportunity to scale your voice and your facial expressions with the music to create a better experience for your people. At this point in the class you had an opportunity to, you know, demonstrate better technique when it comes to this movement pattern. Let's see you do this, this and this here and of course, they tell you, everything you do well too.

Speaker 1:

Of course, they shower you in praise as well. But yeah, a very pointed like here were the opportunities that you had to do better and you would submit multiple videos again and again and again and again of them giving you this feedback, and it absolutely cured me of whatever fear I had of having these discussions taking on feedback.

Speaker 1:

What feels like criticism maybe at the time, because it's a non-issue now, but yes, so I had a development coach that pushed me through that process. I actually had two development coaches and I can't say enough about them and how having access to them and being able to lean on them and learn from them and grow was helpful, in kind of pushing to where I am now. Once I got to the end of that process, I cleared it, I finished it. I was like I was one of the first in my class to complete this process. I was like I'm going to get it done, I'm going to do it. You know big goals, big dreams to do all this big stuff with this fitness company.

Speaker 1:

And then COVID hit. And COVID hit and Les Mills cut the US tap team by about 30% and I was sitting over there like last in, first out, I'm gone, like it's me, I'm going to, I'm gone. I didn't get cut on the first round. So I hung in there through about like six months of COVID and we're doing everything we can to engage on social media and we're doing everything we can to keep people involved and, you know, moving and the Les Mills mission at the time was for a fitter planet. So it's like, you know, we're all we're trying to get as many people involved as we can and do challenges and incentives and all of these things. And then a few more months down the line they did another round of cuts, oh my goodness, and I was in that round of cuts. So after a year of I spent five years upskilling to be able to audition for that team and then a year onboarding to that team and then I got cut, bloody COVID.

Speaker 1:

And then I got cut. Yeah, because my role was primarily in-person upskilling of other instructors and large events, yeah, so they didn't know what it was going to be, you know. So I got cut. But I learned all these great lessons and I had developed all this confidence. I developed all of these skills as it relates to upskilling and coaching other people. I developed all of these skills as it relates to upskilling and coaching other people. I had developed all these skills as it relates to seeing what's in front of me and adjusting to what's in front of me and reading the room and all of these things.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I just started kind of trying to figure out what was next. Like, do I want to go virtual? Do I not want to go virtual. What was next? Like, do I want to go virtual, do I not want to go virtual? And then kind of eventually came to the decision that like, yeah, like I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, start my own, start my own business, start my own thing. I actually had, I had been working with a partner and you know these are lessons learned. I had been working with a partner, someone that I had known for years, and we, we had built, you know, we're building something, um, more in the corporate space, okay, and then, uh, and then one day just poof, just disappeared with the, with the business, with the thing like just just gone Like so, um, you know, lessons learned, I think.

Speaker 1:

As people in business, we've all, part of life, trusted someone that we shouldn't have or, or you know, um, believed in a business relationship and and that was. You know, it wasn't what we believed it to be, and that's part of life and it's lessons learned and it's, you know, something that we understand better, moving forward Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So that happened and that was the necessity moment. That was like okay, that's gone, it's gone. Now I worked really hard on it but poof, it's gone. So what are you going to do? Yeah, so then I started Elite Habits with that week, the week that it disintegrated I was like okay, I'm glad you were still motivated Like F.

Speaker 2:

That yeah, I'm going to still.

Speaker 1:

At that point you don't have much of a choice right. Right, it's like, this is what I have to offer other people, so here we go.

Speaker 2:

Here we go again. Yeah, what kind of experience do you hope to give your clients when they come to you?

Speaker 1:

I hope for my clients to one be able to function beautifully and confidently without me, Like I hope that they are granted. I love working my long. I have clients that I've worked with for years and I love them and I hope to continue working with them. But I'm also confident that these clients that I've built this great relationship with, that I've worked with for years, I'm confident that if they had to do this on their own, they absolutely could and there wouldn't be any nuance or confusion or I don't know what to do, or like she didn't explain it or you know, I hope that my clients are empowered with education and with knowledge to manage these things on their own, because, honestly, this isn't something truly that I should have to explain.

Speaker 1:

It's sad that it's not something that we're taught. We're not taught how our bodies work. We're not taught the science of energy balance. We're not taught how the metabolism functions. Yeah, it's sad that we're not taught this, but I am grateful that I get to be the one to help people discover these things about themselves and discover how truly adaptive and smart and wonderful and powerful our bodies are, yeah, and how they will literally do anything you ask them to do. If you continue to ask them, you know, repeatedly and habitually, they will adapt.

Speaker 1:

So I hope that my clients walk away with a deep understanding of their bodies and their minds and how powerful they are, and that they are able to create systems to support their goals rather than just, you know, think and hope and wish that those systems can be customizable, that they don't have to be one size fits all. Like I tell people all the time that they are the rule, not the exception. But on the flip side of that coin, yes, you are the rule, you're not the exception, you're not the special cosmic outlier. You're ruled by the same rules that everybody else is. But, having said that, you can adapt your systems to support you, knowing that you're the rule right. There's freedom in knowing that you're the rule, so you can create systems and things that support what you know about yourself and what you know about your mind and what you know about your body. My clients understand systems. Having my clients understand habits, having my clients understand the compounding nature of this, the long play nature of this, is what I hope for everyone that I work with.

Speaker 2:

I love that that's so beautiful and I also appreciate and love that you're like I want to teach you skills that you can do without me. Most of the time it's like no, you need to need me all the time, and I like that you also share that knowledge with them so that they can go on in their lives too and do what's right and obviously stick with you like because, like, they probably love your personality and they're like a buddy to like work out with and keep them motivated, because sometimes you need that motivation.

Speaker 1:

It's great and there's also something to be said for just taking things off your plate, and that's one of the things that I talk with my clients about in creating systems Like, yes, they could do. Some of them are more than capable of. They've been doing this for a long time. They could write their own programs, they could, but they're busy professionals, they've got things going on, they've got kids. So there's something to be said for outsourcing your program writing to someone else who's a subject matter expert.

Speaker 2:

I love it. That's a great strategy. I love it. I'd like to ask is there anything that maybe I have not touched on, or that a key point that we're missing, that you want our listeners to know about you, your business, any insight as a business owner? You have the floor.

Speaker 1:

I have the floor as a business owner, I would say that for anyone starting out would say that for anyone starting out, I think it's important to know that none of us have it figured out, that we are all learning as we go, that all of the things that you know seem like maybe they come so natural, or that someone has it all locked in. It didn't come natural. It probably came with a lot of fight and tears and moments of like should I even continue to do this? Like, why did I do this in the first place? Am I even capable of this? Like who do? I think I am Like we all have those thoughts and no matter how far we get into our business journey, those thoughts continue to creep in and, depending on what's going on in life and what's going on, we're all human and our ability and capability to manage those thoughts it ebbs and it flows, but, just like our health and our wellness, our businesses, it's a long play and how successful we are, I believe, sits on a direct timeline with how much we can take and how much we can persevere and how long we can ride out the storm.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, there'll be great, clear, sunny moments in pursuit of what it is that you want. But there will be just as many storms that's right and just as many you know tears and question marks and things. And, yes, your capacity grows, yes, your abilities grow, but so do the challenges, yes. So for anyone starting out, I would say just hang in there. None of us know what we're doing. And I would say the exact same thing to anyone starting out on their wellness journey. For anyone starting out, it's taking steps in the right direction. It's reaching out for help when you need it, it's assessing and making small changes and not throwing out everything because something didn't go the way that you expected it to go.

Speaker 1:

Yep, and I would draw those same parallels across the board.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, no, absolutely. That's very wise of you to share, so thank you. I want to ask two more questions and I promise I'll be done.

Speaker 1:

Of course.

Speaker 2:

I want to ask where you see yourself in the next five years Like, do you plan maybe expanding outside of virtual, or you want to keep it virtual, or having your own space or gym, or maybe bringing on employees? Have you given that any thought? Maybe?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. So. I do not intend on having my own gym space. I do not see that in the cards for me. I actually do. I'm an investor in some brick and mortar businesses down in the Orlando area, but they're not Orlando area, but they're not gyms, but they are, they're, they're um, they're dance studios and um I they're wonderful, they're great businesses. But like I sit over here and watch those enrollments drop and rise and I watch, and and brick and mortar is a is a monster in and of itself.

Speaker 1:

So, so I would not, uh, see that in my future for my for my gym business and fitness coaching business. But I see, you know, these beautiful one-to-one relationships continuing to expand. But where I'm really excited to push into in the next five years plus is is working with businesses and companies to to one help the companies you know have the most happy, healthy, productive employees that they can, because that matters in the output of your employees, that matters in your relationships with your employees and the retention of your employees, but also just for those individuals to have control of their health and their wellness. And I'm already working with businesses. I'm doing a wellness challenge for an IT company called Basis Path here in January. Yes, so we're doing a wellness challenge for their employees and we're all really excited about it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I actually have a lunch and learn tomorrow for TransWestern their commercial real estate Look at you. Yeah, yeah, commercial real estate business. So so, yeah, so I work with companies now, but I would like to do more of that, and I could rattle on about the stats of the cost of lost productive time to companies based on wellness issues and the cost of healthcare and the cost of this, and it's it's.

Speaker 1:

it's an incomprehensible amount of money that companies lose just on the inability of people to be productive because of their stress levels and because of their health, issues that are mostly manageable due to with wellness interventions.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. And where can people reach out to you?

Speaker 1:

Like on your Instagram, on your website, absolutely so I have my website and it's formelitehabitscom, but also I'm obviously on Instagram. My first name, last name, nothing crazy Nikki LaRock, is my most active page. It's call it the founder page for the business. And then um, formerly habits is the Instagram handle for the business.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. All right, now my last question. I promise I like sorry, everybody. Um, do you have a quote or a saying that has inspired you or has been told to you that maybe has stuck with you, and would you mind sharing that with our listeners, just so we know, like, what drives you, what inspired you?

Speaker 1:

Oh man, I'm on the spot now.

Speaker 2:

Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 1:

Well, the first thing that comes to mind and I wouldn't say this is like my go-to quote or anything, but I actually just ordered this book and I'm going to butcher the quote, so please forgive me, but it was originally. I want to attribute it to Marcus Aurelius, who is a stoic, you know. It's essentially what stands in the way becomes the way, and ultimately, in the book I ordered, I think the book title encapsulated a little better, which is the Obstacle is the Way. So, basically, you think that because something impedes your progress or something is blocking you or something is stopping you from getting to what it is that you want, that that is the answer. But that is actually the way forward for you to step into the person that you need to be, for you to carry the weight that you need to carry as the person that you claim that you want to be. The obstacle is there to help you become that. So what stands in the way becomes the way, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yep, it's a strong one. Yeah Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing your wisdom, insights and some of the challenges that you've had. I I appreciate you getting into the nitty gr.