Meet Personal Trainer Kaci Shephard

I’ve been interested in the body and how it works for as long as I can remember! I’ve always enjoyed working out and felt like it’s been a crucial part of mental health and wellness. I started with a degree as a physical therapist assistant, focusing on repairing and rebuilding bodies. I began to gravitate towards learning more about sport and hobby based advanced work with people. I got my 1st certification as a personal trainer from the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, TX, two years after I began working as a therapist. I enjoyed the process of transitioning people from physical therapy patients to advanced work and full body work and wholeness then preventative and functional training. i continued to advance my knowledge into fitness training and received certifications to teach group fitness and most recently renewed my personal training certification through NASM.

My favorite areas to focus on now are functional training, full body and mind wellness listening to the body and honoring what it needs with each day, balance and core training especially with the aging clients as its so imperative to maintaining independence and an active lifestyle, and just the right amount of strength and cardio training.

NASM certification, Barre3 Instructor Certification, PTA license.

My training philosophy with clients is strong bodies and strong minds. Our bodies are the foundation of what we do all day long, they need to be strong, balanced, flexible, and feel good! I like to tailor plans with each client based on what their goals are and by assessing them to see what areas of deficits they have. Then help design a fun and efficient program to meet those goals and continue to improve over all wellness and function. I like to help people develop a mind-full and awareness of what their body needs each day and to honor that and feel proud of that instead of maybe forcing unnecessary things or causing injury.

I have worked with a large diversity of clients over the years and learned so much from them and how to help them. I connect best with beginners and seniors. I have such passion and connection with those just starting out on a wellness journey and the senior population as well. I think there is so much reward in this area and so much wisdom to be offered from them that I really enjoy.

I like to make each session a little different, ever changing, and fun for the clients. I get bored very easily and need to constantly be creative in my personal workouts so I like to do this with clients as well. I think it helps them stay motivated and looking forward to what new or different things each session has to challenge them and help them grow.

My personal favorite workout are classes I teach in body sculpting and circuit training. I like to teach a fast pace, full body workout that checks all the boxes off in 45-60 minuets. I love combining strength, balance, core, cardio, ROM, mindfulness with great music for a great low-impact functional workout.

Ive had several years of basic foundational training and learning how the body works and moves with some phenomenal Physical Therapist and athletic trainers. I have been taught proper from and modifications for all levels of clientele. Ive also learned so much from clients over the years about what works and doesn’t work for them and that each body is different and to listen to the bodies signs and signals to make the proper adaptations for each person.

I like to start each session checking in with the client to see how they are, any changes, challenges, progressions and assessing the mental and physical tone of the day. From assessment, there is a quick warm up, then constantly flowing through the strength, balance, core, and agility activities, ending with good stretch and ROM when the muscles are warm and fatigued from workout and finding the mental reset and wellness to end feeling stronger and better and more energized.

I love continuing education and taking classes and learning as much as possible about overall fitness and wellness. I like to try new classes and training to learn new and diverse trainings and ideas to add to the basic fundamentals. Required continuing education for my PTA license goes hand in hand with the personal training as well especially in specializing areas of interest.

I was born an encourager and giver,. It’s very rewarding to me to go help a client or teach a fitness class and see a difference Ive made in someone’s life for the day. It can be anything from just a positive comment, to seeing them achieve a strength, cardio, or balance goal, or just to hear how they are more functional or independent in an area of their life.

My advice to someone new to fitness is that it’s a journey. Stay with it, listen to your body and honor it, and know each day something is better than nothing! Have grace with yourself and take time each day for yourself, even if it’s not a full workout or even a workout. At least take some time to focus on some deep breathing and re-setting of your mind, so that you can rest and reset and come back stronger the next time.