It Starts with the Internal Changes, The Physical Changes Are Just Perks

It will probably not be surprising when I say that physical activity is good for us. It keeps our hearts healthy. It keeps our brains healthy. It helps with depression and anxiety and low self esteem. It helps our bodies recover after injury and illness. It helps reduce stress levels.
It’s good, okay?

However, knowing that intellectually and understanding it corporeally are two different things. Yes, we know exercise and movement are good. But we can’t understand it until we make physical activity an unbreakable habit.

And who better to explain the almost unexplainable than Madeworthy’s own Jennifer Kieta? Jennifer has been a fitness instructor for nearly a decade, and she is opening her own studio with her husband Brian. Union will open in spring 2025 and will offer indoor cycling, personal training, nutritional coaching, and more. Jennifer not only knows about the power of physical activity, she understands it in her bones.

Jennifer and Brian
photo credit: Delaney Johnson

“I first started taking care of myself with exercise when I was going through a really bad breakup in college,” Jennifer said. “I had done a little bit of exercise like videotapes, Jane Fonda, you know, but that was really just checking a box to be like everybody else. I didn’t think, ‘I need to exercise because I’m stressed out and need to get the endorphins moving.'”

Motivated by the anger and the hurt of her breakup, Jennifer went for a run. “I probably ran for about 30 minutes at a VERY slow pace, but I remember coming home and thinking, ‘I will always want to do that.’ It was so transformative. When I was running, I was processing the breakup, and moving allowed me to release my emotions and sweat it out. It wasn’t about the fitness. I actually felt like a different person.”

After that initial run, Jennifer kept running. She also began experimenting with different exercise modalities, like weightlifting and CrossFit. There is something very empowering about lifting weights, especially for women, and Jennifer reveled in it. She continued running because the combination of moving and music was healing. That combination allowed her to let go of the worries of life and reconnect her body and her brain and her heart.

And then she discovered indoor cycling.

“I went into that first class not knowing what to expect,” Jennifer remembered. The lights were very low, and the music started up. The instructor spoke into us, not at us. He spoke about things we were struggling with: not being strong enough, not being like everyone else in the class, not being good enough. He used the buildup of a song to get even deeper into our feelings. It was a crazy, therapeutic moment, and I left that class knowing I was forever changed.”

That was 10 years ago. Since then, Jennifer has become a fitness instructor, helping hundreds feel how moving can transform their lives. (It’s a bit hyperbolic, I know, but it’s true.) Most of us live most of our lives in our heads. We’re bombarded by information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We live through our screens and have become disconnected from our bodies. But you can’t be on your phone when you’re exercising. Well, you can, but it’s not recommended for many reasons.

Jennifer said, “To have just 45 minutes to be away from your phone and to be present is essential. To be present in your body. To be present with how you’re breathing. To be present with how you’re struggling, and yet you’re still doing it. You’re still moving. That sense of accomplishment carries throughout the day. That’s powerful and healing.”

photo credit: Delaney Johnson

If anyone understands how moving is healing, it’s Jennifer. On December 8, 2017, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery less than a month later. She was lucky; the cancer was caught early, she didn’t have to have radiation or chemotherapy, and the surgeon was able to do the double mastectomy and place her implants in one surgery.

“I was able to have that one surgery because of good blood flow. I had good blood flow because I exercise so much,” Jennifer said. “If I didn’t have good blood flow, I would have had to have spacers for several months to get ready for the implants.”

Unfortunately, major surgery meant that Jennifer couldn’t move like she was used to for a long time.

“I’ll never forget that first walk after my surgery,” she grinned. “It was about a week post-op, and I just had to get outside. I just had to move a little bit. So my husband held my hand, and we walked in slow motion, I mean really slow motion, from one end of the cul de sac to the other. I was barely shuffling, but what it did for my psyche was incredible. Every day, I craved that short little shuffle.”

photo credit: Delaney Johnson

From that first shuffle, Jennifer didn’t stop moving. “About four weeks after the surgery, I was feeling really good, so I decided to take a spin class because I needed to move. I needed to be around people, and I needed to sweat. Of course, I posted about it, and my oncologist saw it. She called me and scolded me, but it helped me get back to myself.”

Having cancer and major surgery really brought home to Jennifer how much she had changed since that first run in college. “It really made me understand not only the physical changes but the emotional changes that I went through. I always tell people in my classes that it starts with internal change. It starts with acceptance of where you are. Then there is the drive to fight for something more for yourself, something better for yourself. The physical changes are just perks.”

She paused for a minute. “Exercise is like life insurance for me, especially after breast cancer. It prepared me for what was ahead. No one likes paying for a life insurance policy that they’re never going to see, but they do it for the ‘what ifs.’ Exercise for the ‘what ifs.’ It gives your body a chance to fight harder than it would otherwise.”