CLEVELAND — Starting a new workout routine can sometimes be overwhelming.
These feelings can also be amplified for those who’ve undergone major, life-changing surgeries.
Bell Ursa understands these feelings all too well, as she used to have a rocky relationship with fitness.
“Everyone has their own kind of wellness journey that they are on,” Ursa said. “As a trans woman, mine took me in a unique direction I think.”
Ursa began her transition in 2013.
“I had my gender affirmation surgery and a new wave of just like really intense wellness journey started,” she said. “That was around 2017 or 2018.”
While she wanted to spend more time working out in a gym, she didn’t always feel comfortable there.
She tried different gyms and different personal trainers, but none seemed to match her fitness goals.
“There were things he was having me attempt that I couldn’t do just because of my surgery limitations,” she said. “There were a lot of times I was just like ‘no,’ but I didn’t feel safe or comfortable telling them why. It would come with a whole backstory, an explanation and I would have to be extremely vulnerable and at the end of the day I didn’t know his opinions, his thoughts, his feelings about people like me, how was he going to react, was he going to out me, was he going to be violent?”
That’s when she got the idea to start her own LGBTQ+-focused gym.
Ursa opened Amplio Fitness with the hopes of offering a safe workout environment for others in her community.
“I wanted people like me, and others who just had that same fear, anxiety and just barrier towards their wellness to come and find support resources and guidance,” she said. “I think what is the best part of my job is being able to engage with folks from the queer community and really provide them a space where they can come as they are, and feel completely affirmed and safe as they ask questions.”
She is able to use her own experiences to help her clients navigate their fitness journeys.
“For example, for someone like me, who wants to be pretty feminine, I still like lifting weights, I still like doing those things,” she said. “It’s like how can we kind of unpack those connections and understand that exercise has no gender.”
You can find Amplio Fitness on social media or you can go to their website.
