Meet Sydney Ismir | Personal Trainer & Nutrition Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sydney Ismir and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sydney, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I have always had a passion for health and fitness since I was young, as I grew up playing competitive sports but it was not until I graduated college where I decided to choose health and fitness as a career path. To be honest, I was scared of turning my passion into my career because I did not want to get burnt out of something I loved so much.

I have worked out since I was in middle school, but my main form of working out was cardio. I would go for runs outside everyday or if I did make it to the gym, I would just run on the treadmill because I was scared of the weight room. Weights intimidated me for multiple reasons; I did not want to get “bulky”, it was full of mostly men, and I had no idea what the heck to do as far as exercises, sets and reps go — so I just avoided it.

I continued doing cardio throughout college as well and just was not happy with the results I was seeing even though I was running every single day, so I knew there was more to the puzzle than what I was doing. Once I graduated college, I decided to keep the learning going and study for the NASM personal training certification. My goal was never to turn it into a business, but more so just learn how to help myself!

During these courses, not only did I learn the importance of resistance training — I actually applied it to myself and finally started seeing the results I wanted to and gaining the confidence I needed in my body! This certification deepened my passion for health and fitness and made me want to help other women who struggle with the same thing I use to struggle with — so I decided to launch Tomboy Fitness in February of 2023!

The name means a lot to me as I have been called a Tomboy my entire life and always thought it was a bad thing because I should not be strong, muscular or athletic–but now I absolutely embrace it and encourage all women to do the same!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I have had quite the career path, but I truly believe it has led me to where I am today. I bartended throughout college while I was getting my degree in Fashion Merchandising at Colorado State University. My senior year, I decided to take a job with Freebird stores where I started out as a sales associate and quickly worked my way to assistant manager. I did this for a year and although an amazing company and great people, I realized it was not for me.

My next career move was to get an internship as I needed one to graduate, so I was applying to a ton of different fields and landed one with a Fortune 500 company. I was a Standard Operating Procedure Intern for a food supply company where I worked in a cubicle from 9-5. Again, great company and great people but realized sitting all day at a computer was not for me!

During my last couple months of school, I was applying for jobs to have something lined up for when I graduated and got a job with CorePower Yoga as a customer experience specialist. I was excited to have a job in the fitness industry, as this is what I knew a lot about! While I was working for CorePower Yoga, I was also studying to get my personal training certification. Once I passed the exam, I got a job at OrangeTheory Fitness as a coach, while also still working at CorePower Yoga.

I was working over 40 hours a week between these two jobs and could barely make ends meet, so I then had the idea to start doing personal training — after a lot of conversations and thoughts, I put in my two weeks with CorePower Yoga and launched Tomboy Fitness.

While still coaching at OrangeTheory, I started getting personal training clients and quickly found that is where my passion was — 1:1 and small group coaching! I then left OrangeTheory and started doing personal training full time!

During all these career shifts and job changes, I would always get upset and down on myself because I was never fully satisfied with my job or where I wanted to be career-wise, until I finally launched my own business, but I don’t think I would be where I am today if it were not for all those different jobs — so now I can look back and appreciate the journey I went on to get me where I am today!

In a world full of social media, I think it is easy to look at someone else’s life or career and be like “I wish that is where I was at right now”, but you need to realize they were once in your shoes — so enjoy the journey and keep working hard toward your goals and passions!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Whenever I have friends or family come to town, my immediate thought is “Let’s go to the Mountains” because it is my favorite place to be, but before we head up to the mountains there are a few spots in Denver to hit.

We’d grab some pizza at Cart Driver in RiNo and maybe some oysters too. If we wanted a beer after, we’d then head over to some local breweries in RiNo or Recess Beer Garden in LoHi.

As we head up to the mountains, there are several spots to hit over the next few days. Knocking out a 14er would definitely be on the list in the summer. Taking friends to St. Mary’s Glacier is always fun, because it is stunning but not a long or strenuous hike.

Heading to Buena Vista and over Cottonwood Pass to Taylor Park Reservoir to go camping and riding the side-by-side. This is by far one of the prettiest places I have ever camped.

I also love Grand Lake as you get the smaller mountain town feel there. I would take friends to SageBrush for a great burger!

Steamboat is also a place we spend time at in the winter to go snowmobiling on Rabbit Ears or snowboarding at the Resort and we always have to grab a beer at the local Irish Pub “O’Neils”.

So basically if friends come, we wouldn’t spend much time in the city…more so, being outside in the mountains! That’s what Colorado is all about.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would love to give a shoutout to my dad, Troy Ismir — who is also in the health and fitness space and has his own business! He is the one who encouraged me to just start and is always there to answer my questions and support me in any way he can.

My business would also not be possible without my partner Tyler, who literally built me a studio space to train clients in and has supported me from day 1!

Website: https://www.tomboyfitness.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tomboyfitness_/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneyismir/