Meet Aly Krueger

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aly Krueger a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Aly, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I’d say I developed my resilience from previous DV relationships, having to start my personal training business over a few times and dropping out of college.
I’ve struggled for the majority of my life of being serial monogamist and to break the cycle of entering abusive relationships. While one or two didn’t seem to steer me away, each one did teach me a lesson. I still Loved even after each partner did me wrong. Still trusted and committed. Present time I have broken the cycle and the partner I have now is absolutely wonderful but I’m still learning to UNLEARN all the unhealthy, toxic behaviors and habits I picked Up from others. But to still stand back up after the depression and hurt and be able to love again is resilient.
Next, I’ve had to restart my personal training many times when switching gyms and locations. It was always so so frustrating and discouraging! But each time go easier and I felt more confident each time because, well, I knew How to do it efficiently. But that also takes a great toll on one’s life financially and mentally. It hurts your spirit. But I still Found a way to grow my business and make it work even during the hardships of economy and self doubt. That’s resilient to me.
Finally, dropping out of college after 3 years. I tried my best! I feel that really hurt my self esteem and pride. It took me a long time to get past it. I’ve held many jobs that pipelined me into opening my own business and I do Have to remind myself that’s pretty awesome! There’s this stigma that those without a college degree cannot be successful and I dont Believe that. I think it’s all what you do with what’s accessible at hand to further yourself in life. And that’s resilient.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m a personal trainer certified through NASM, about 9 years now. I started At 24hr fitness for a short time then became an independent contractor. During Covid I hosted zoom workouts and went to clients’ homes to train them and that was always fun with their family around and pets. I love doing a rebrand 1-2x a year. It’s easily the funnest part when I open Canva and start playing with different formats, colors, photos, wording! I always Ask my close friends for some peer review and also what they think at a glance.
I specialize in basic strength training, prioritizing workout programs that are efficient long term for clients with some nutritional guidance. I do in person at a couple gyms in different cities and online coaching as well. I have a lot of fun training my clients and the reason why I’ve stuck with this profession for so long is when I see my clients happy about their progress or anything, it makes me happy. I am fulfilled simply completing a session with a client. It has always been a constant thing in my life to coach/be an athlete. I have Been in sports since about 6 years and till I left college. I even had clients be so inspired they become coaches themselves and that makes me so proud.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I’d say three qualities that have been crucial to my journey are: self discipline, aggressive patience and integrity.
You need to focus on you and what it will take to make it work. Whether it’s your business or fitness journey (hehe) while balancing your interpersonal life as well. Burn out is VERY REAL and will catch up to you.
Also realizing you will not be praised or cheered for every milestone in life and that’s okay! It’s also okay to cry and feel somber. Nothing is linear about progress. Another thing is having a tight, close support system is crucial. Sometimes having one or two people to cheer you on is better than the masses or no one at all.
My dad always told me to keep pushing forward no matter what, always have a plan. And that’s always been in my head for any situation. You have to do the work everyday while you’re waiting for the results or milestones to happen. You have to do things without expecting recognition, there is winning in silence. And at the end of the day, if you did ONE productive thing, that’s a win too.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

I’m recovering from an acl/MCL surgery. It happened June 10 this year and it’s been interesting. It’s not my first surgery of this kind but as an adult with a business and being in the fitness industry it felt like a huge draw back.
I have an on going diagnosis with severe depression and having to take time away from working, the gym, regular life impacted me greatly in a not so great way haha.
My parents and my partner were most supportive in this time and still are, I couldn’t help shake the feeling of “not feeling good enough” for my clients or even for anything. And that took months for me to overcome. I started Documenting and filming my recovery process. In hopes for drawing in more clients and inspiring others. I’ve been in physical therapy couple times a week since then, still am. Every week is a hardship with myself; battling the difficulty of getting out of bed, working, working out, to eat, make appointments, to answer phone calls. It just all seemed really hard. But over time, as my knee started to get better and I started getting an outreach from a lot of distant friends, family, strangers on the internet of cheering on my recovery process It did make me feel better. For some reason that particular thing was something I couldnt Just pat myself on the back and say “you’re doing great” and feel better about. It was the first time I finally Asked those close to me to help me. I still Battle depression daily, but the knee recovery is priority to fix sooner than later so I can do more with life!

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