I used to take a dance class in a studio with a sign that exhorted, “Dance like nobody’s watching.” It’s hardly a philosophy suited to the social media age, when your attempts to master choreography are likely to end up posted on an instructor’s Facebook or Insta.
But not all fitness leaders are simply trying to maximize fame and exposure. I recently took classes with two instructors whose workouts create community in ways both local and global.
I’d been wanting to reconnect with Rachel McDonald because her Zoom exercise classes helped me maintain a fitness routine during COVID lockdown. These days, McDonald has pivoted, focusing on personal training, primarily with “nearly and newly retired” women, although her clients range in age from forties to eighties. In 2022, she also obtained her Cancer Exercise Specialist certification in order to support clients during and after treatment. McDonald, who for years led teams in the Barbara Ireland Breast Cancer Walk, was inspired to work with cancer patients by her close encounters with the disease. A good friend’s mother, who was like a second mom to McDonald, died of breast cancer, and McDonald notes that among her closest friends, two have had breast cancer and two are high-risk.