By partnering up with an Equinox Coach, a yoga instructor with an injury history finds unprecedented strength.
Forged at Equinox is a series highlighting an Equinox member’s foray into a new workout regimen, with help from an expert coach. The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
A confident cold email changed everything for Jennifer Freel.
The 53-year-old yoga instructor joined Equinox Encino this spring, set on gaining strength and improving functional fitness — without aggravating previous back injuries or impeding her recovery from recent hand surgeries. When she saw Coach Syndee Luxenberg working at the Club, she knew she was the trainer for her. Jennifer sent her a message.
“I didn't know her, but I said, ‘I need to get in there with you,’” Jennifer recalls. “She's a woman that's older than me, so she's kind of been through all the same stuff, and I needed somebody like that, that understood my body to some extent.”
In the short period they’ve been training together, Jennifer has seen noticeable improvements in her strength. She’s achieved her initial goal of deadlifting her senior dog’s weight (65 pounds) so that she could lift her into bed. She recently carried a 50-inch television and put her father’s mattress into her SUV without needing any assistance. “I'm not working out because I want to go to the gym and be cool and look good in clothes. I work out so I can do this stuff,” she says. “I'm almost 54, and I wouldn't have been able to do that stuff without a lot of difficulty six months ago.”
Jennifer notes her Equinox fitness journey has coincided with some personal challenges (plus the resulting stress and lack of sleep), and yet, she rarely skips a session with Syndee. These moments in the Club aren’t just self-care — they’re an investment in her current health and her longevity. “This is my priority now, and I wish I had made it more of a priority when I was younger,” Jennifer says.
That’s a realization Syndee hopes all of her clients come to have. “I'm at the point where I say to my clients, even [some] older than Jennifer, ‘What do you spend your money on that's more important than your health and your well-being? A dinner? A Gucci bag? What is so much more important than how you're going to feel every day?’” she says.
Here, Jennifer and Syndee expand on the value of having a Coach, their relationship, and the philosophy behind their training program.
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Jennifer, what initially drew you to Syndee as a Coach?
Jennifer: “I wanted to work with Syndee because she's like me, a woman over 40. She understands where our bodies are physically and how coming back from injury might look different for someone my age than it is for a 25- or 35-year-old. That was really important to me, because I was coming back from hand surgery and I'd injured my back, so I wanted to have somebody that was mindful.
“But also, I didn't want that to define my [experience]. I didn't want to be in recovery mode. I wanted to still be in ‘build muscle’ mode and have a trainer that can work around those things. I didn't want to avoid, you know, working on my biceps when my hand hurts — there are ways to work with things. I needed that direction so that I could get myself back to shape. When I say ‘shape,’ I'm not talking about what it looks like on the outside. I'm talking about the shape of my body on the inside — how I feel and being strong and being able to do all of those things that I expect my body to do safely. That was my priority.”
Syndee: “I'm still always a little bit surprised [when people seek me out]. In our journey as women aging, what we want to do, what we think we can do, and what we're really able to do, I think, are sometimes not on the same alignment. As I've gotten older and hopefully remain strong, [I hope] I can get my clients to see that they can be strong — and stronger than maybe they even thought they could be — and move well.”
How did you feel when you first began working together?
Jennifer: “To me, the gym is scary without a coach. I want somebody to tell me what to do and to make me, you know, feel comfortable in the space. And that's what Syndee does. She made me realize how with consistency, without even what I felt like was really challenging work, you can make great progress. It's just consistency and repetition and also being mindful of any injuries.”
How did you approach training with Jennifer’s injury history?
Syndee: “First and foremost, I am not a physical therapist, so I don't go in with that approach at all. If they need it, they do it. There is a lot of overlap of what PT does and our exercises that we do just naturally. But with almost every movement pattern, there's a progression and there's a regression. My approach is: Let's make sure your form is really good. Your progress may be a little bit slower, but it's going to be safer. So we take the time — step back a little bit, regress the movement pattern, make sure your form is really good — then we can go exponentially farther in getting stronger.
“I have learned, and I am still constantly learning, ways to pivot. There's always another potential way to do the same movement pattern by regressing or picking a different movement pattern that she can do safely and not hurt her hand. There are a million things to do.”
Jennifer: “Going into it, I didn't realize that that was Syndee’s method, but I learned to appreciate it. I [initially] thought, ‘I'm just going to buy this little package of sessions, and then I'll know what to do.’ But it’s such an ongoing process of learning form and then, what else can you do with that? Like, we've gone from different pieces of equipment with some of the same fundamentals, and that's kept it interesting, too.”
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Syndee, how would you describe your relationships with members?
Syndee: “Whether you work with me one day a week, two days, three days, whatever that looks like, I don't go into it like you're a short timer. It’s just like, you're my client. We're going to work and we're going to build a relationship. And I think what's made me successful here [at Equinox] and have longevity here is my relationships with my clients.
“For most of my clients, it is the personal time that I really enjoy…I look forward to not only being able to assist them with their movements and feeling good, but also having that connection.”
What has surprised you most about this journey?
Jennifer: “I'm surprised at what I can do — what [Syndee] inspires me to do every time I'm there. I never thought I'd be deadlifting on a regular basis; that was always something I was super scared of not doing right. That kind of stuff, I was always avoiding because I was so scared about hurting myself. Even in group classes, like group fitness classes, I hear her in the back of my mind, ‘Press through your heels,’ you know, ‘do these things.’ But before that, I was afraid to take a lot of the group fitness classes because you're not getting that one-on-one [time].
“I'm always learning that I can do a lot more than I think I can — a lot more than I give myself credit for.”
Photos by Wrenne Evans.