The Rise. The Shine. Series Featuring Chrissy King

At Vuori, we aim to inspire others to be happy, healthy, and live extraordinary lives. From that came our tag line —The Rise The Shine. The rise represents the climb of the mountain, staying present in the face of challenges, and making the choice to keep going.The shine represents the feeling you get when you reach the summit, the feeling of being truly inspired. We are big fans of the human spirit and love witnessing others pursue their dreams, which is why we are excited to introduce The Rise The Shine series, where we tap into our community and share their stories. This month we are featuring writer, speaker, and strength coach, Chrissy King.

Social justice has always been at the core of the work I do. With degrees in Social Welfare and Justice and Sociology, I’ve always been passionate about understanding the importance of taking an intersectional approach to the work we do, regardless of the industry. After deciding to become a fitness professional and seeing how much the industry lacked a diverse, inclusive, and intersectional approach, I became passionate about applying a social justice lens to the wellness industry. When I think of the work I do within the wellness industry now, it’s the perfect merger of the things I’m most passionate about -- fitness and wellness and social justice.

And while I’m so grateful for the work I get to do now, it was a journey finding my way here, and the path was less than conventional.

For starters, I did not work out while growing up in elementary and middle school. I wasn't into sports or athletics at all. I enjoyed reading and writing and that type of stuff. Then, at the age of 16 or 17, I started yoyo dieting. And, honestly, it was just because I had gained some weight. My parents were going through a divorce, so it was a difficult period in my life. It didn't actually bother me until a boy in my class commented on how 'he could tell I'd been eating good.' My face burned with embarrassment in that moment. So I thought, 'oh my God, I need to do something about this.'

The only thing I knew to do was to go on the Atkins diet, because I had previously heard my mom's friend talking about it and how she'd lost a bunch of weight. So I drove to the bookstore and I got a book, started following it religiously, and did lose a lot of weight. Then everybody at school said 'oh my God, you look so great.' I received so much validation for the way I looked, and that started me down the path of yoyo dieting for the next decade of my life.

I did all these extreme diets and extreme cardio, but then I couldn't maintain it, gained the weight back, and just went through these cycles. What really changed for me is that, at one point, my younger sister decided to join the gym because she wanted to get in better shape. So I joined the gym with her, we both got trainers, and I remember I told my trainer that my goal was only one thing: I wanted to be skinny. And she said, okay, cool, let's go to the weight section. I was really resistant to it at first because in my mind I said, no, I don't want to have big, bulky muscles.

She was the first person that really taught me the value of strength training for physical change, but through that process, I realized that my body could do things I didn't think it could. It was really challenging at first, but eventually, I grew stronger and could do a lot of things I never thought I was capable of.

Through a series of events, I found myself training at a small strength and conditioning gym. For the first time in my life, I saw women powerlifting, a strength sport that consists of bench pressing, squatting, and deadlifting. I was intrigued, despite the fact that I had never even held a barbell in my hands. After a couple of months of casual observing, the owner encouraged me to try it for myself, and it was love at first lift.

Powerlifting was transformative for me both mentally and physically. I spent the majority of my twenties focused on shrinking — my body, my voice, and my life in general. I obsessed with my weight and truly believed that my happiness lay on the other side of fat loss. Powerlifting changed that. It allowed me to stop focusing all of my energy on what my body looked like and to start seeing all that it could do.

I finally grasped how strong and capable I was — I even competed in powerlifting competitions and would regularly deadlift over 400 pounds. It also helped me realize that my body is not an object for consumption. I am not an ornament or decoration for the world, and I don’t have to conform to cultural standards of beauty. I realized my life’s purpose wasn’t to be skinny — and I stopped obsessing over the scale — instead, I learned to love, appreciate, and accept my body in all of its iterations.