A New York-based Equinox member and her coach open up about the value of one-on-one coaching and the support they provide each other in and out of the Club.
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.
As a professional model, Nikita McElroy has little time to spend on her wellness routine. In early 2022, she joined Equinox Hudson Yards for the luxury fitness experience and unique amenities, notably the cold plunge, indoor, and outdoor pools the location has to offer. But Nikita knew she could be further maximizing her hours at the Club.
A few months into her membership, she decided to book her complimentary personal training session and was ultimately matched with Mike Owczarek, a COACH + at Equinox Hudson Yards. But their pairing wasn’t just luck of the draw. In fact, Mike jokes that Nikita scoped him out on the Club floor.
“I had a specific goal — I wanted to be long and lean,” she recalls. “...A lot of the trainers that I noticed were very muscular and bulky — they looked like they were going to tackle me on the field. But Mike was the only one that was long and lean. [I thought,] ‘I wonder what he does?’ when I saw him. I figured that if he was my trainer, ‘This is gonna be good.’ And it was good. It's still good.”
The duo has been working together ever since, save for a few months off while Mike recovered from a surgery. Each week, they’ll meet two to three times for sessions focused on building strength and, most recently, better preparing Nikita’s body for her newfound running hobby.
In this year and a half of training, Nikita says her sights have shifted from gaining muscle and losing weight to enhancing longevity. “Mike always talks about, ‘Do I see myself doing this 20 years from now? Ten years from now?’” she adds. “When you factor those conversations in, you're really just like, ‘Well, I really have to think everything through because it's not just for the now, but it’s for the long run.’”
Here, Nikita and Mike share more about their experience working together in one-on-one personal training sessions, how they’ve helped her improve her cycling performance, and the goals she hopes to accomplish moving forward.
Aside from achieving body composition goals, what were some areas of improvement you two initially decided to focus on?
Mike: “Her squat was one of the first things [I noticed]. When we did the FMS — the Functional Movement Screening — it was very noticeable right away how she bends over [wasn’t ideal]. I didn't know where it stemmed from at first, but then I learned of the car accident [involving] her knee. When I got to see her move, l could see how she kind of caters to her legs. So her squat was the first thing that I noticed that was off and that she could use work on.
“She always loved high-intensity, upbeat movement, but I could sense sometimes she didn't think she could do the amount of weight I thought she could have. I mean, I get it all the time, ‘I want to look long, slim, lean.’ I'm a firm believer in building muscle so in the long term, you can keep that long and lean look…Then there were little minor things, like her elbow is a little weird elbow and her left arm is a little bit weaker. But the main thing was squats and just really getting comfortable with heavier loads that over time, we keep building on that.”
Nikita: “Now I'm the one that says, ‘Heavier! Heavier.’ I need [my workout] to be hardcore, like I need to cry at the end of every session. If I don't feel that way, it’s not doing it….I was excited [to lift heavy]. I like the idea of being strong, and I want to be strong. And I get pissed off with a lot of men who are so loud and annoying at the gym with their heavy weights. And I wanted to be the female version, but less annoying. Like, ‘Yeah, I get it. It's heavy. But you don't need to let the entire Hudson Yards [Club] know.’ But I wasn't intimidated at all — I just really was excited for it. I like knowing that I could do it and see my body's full potential.”
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What progress have you seen since you began training together?
Nikita: “My legs are a lot stronger now. I also do road cycling, so you need a strong core and legs for that. A lot of people just think strong legs [are important] because you're pedaling and you're pushing up hills, but you also need a strong core and back for cycling. Because if you don't have a good upper-body form, it's not really going to be helpful for you. It's going to cause you injuries, and you're not going to be able to do long-distance riding. Our sessions have really helped me go uphill, especially on bridges, and [ride] longer distances between 50 and 70 miles. And then, eventually, we will do a century ride — [our sessions] will help me power through.”
What has been an unexpected perk of personal training?
Mike: “I will say Nikita is a cyclist at heart, and I think she might have forgotten when I first put her on a treadmill — or how it didn’t even go. She wouldn't take a step without holding onto the treadmill. There have now been, I think, two or three times [where I’ve] opened up a text, ‘Mike, I just ran two miles outdoors.’ That's huge. From a car accident, her knee is still giving her issues. But not being able to go on a treadmill without holding the handles to running two miles on your own is [a testament] to the strength training we do, but also her realizing it her [capabilities] and taking it on herself outside of the gym.”
Nikita: “The reason I hate treads is that I fell off a treadmill probably 10 or 12 years ago, and I've been traumatized from it. I will go on a treadmill, but I will only do incline walks...But when you tell me that I'm going to run, I'm just like, ‘One, I'm not a runner. Two, it's just not the vibe. I'll do everything else, but I won't run…You can't even pay me a million dollars to run.’
“But I don't know what got into my system. During the summertime, I got into running — I wanted to see if I could do it and started introducing some run circuits in our training. Then, I went to Canada and I ran for two miles outdoors for 22 minutes straight. And that was like, ‘Okay, I see it now. I still hate it…but I was glad to know that I got through a hurdle and that I could actually run — it's not impossible for me. Now I'm still doing it. I got excited and was thinking I want to run three times a week now or every time after a session, but I have to slow down too because of my knees and I don't want to get injured. And then I'm doing my first 10K in November in Arizona.”
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Mike, how would you describe your approach to coaching Nikita?
Mike: “There are some days where I can see something’s going on with Nikita. Her schedule is all over the place, and there's stuff going on where I can sometimes see that her head is elsewhere. Maybe she doesn't want to talk right now, or maybe she does…Sometimes I have to be like, ‘Hey, focus on this [workout].’ Or sometimes I let her go do her thing. Sometimes I don't feel that she's really in the headspace to do a run, and I'm not going to bother her with texting, ‘How's it going? Do you think you'll do this run this week?’ I let her take care of other stuff, whatever she's doing. We've been with each other for, like, a year and a half — she knows I'm here, and I know she's there. It’s really more so just being a partner.”
Nikita: “You're always checking, ‘How does this feel? Do you feel comfortable? Does it hurt anywhere?’ And as soon as I say something like, ‘It feels weird on my arm’ or ‘My knees are starting to get glitchy,’ he'll pause for a moment and then decide to change the workout to accommodate whatever I'm feeling. And then there are days where I'm just like, ‘No, no, I think I can manage.’ There's always that being thoughtful with the workout.”
“I think what people are missing is that level of accountability, having someone see your maximum potential and [spotting] things you might not notice yourself, like how my right side of my body is a lot stronger than the left. [Without Mike,] I would have not done anything to course correct. Or I may have never started running had I not ever started training with him.”
Tell us more about your relationship — in and out of the Club.
Mike: “What's been most special to me with Nikita is our conversations on the bench on the High Line and on the couch in Hudson Yards. The conversations outside of the floor — one, where I feel like I'm really helping, but two, where she's helping me. There are times where my day’s down and, ‘This isn't going right,’ and then I hear a story [from Nikita], or I see her pushing, or I see her improving her diet…Those things outside of the gym, that’s where I think a coach is so valuable too. There are so many life talks outside of [the Club] that helped me, and I also feel like I'm able to help [Nikita] and just build our relationship.”
Nikita: “It's like a holistic journey with Mike. Yes, we primarily focus on strength training, but we also have conversations about what we are doing every day for our mental health, like mindfulness moments in the morning before going to the gym or even before starting your day…Sometimes we don't see eye to eye on things, but we just let it be. We just let it ride out, and then we continue what we need to do. Sometimes when I really am not in a good mental space, I think about the positive stuff that Mike has talked about in the past or on that day…I think that's one of the positives from our partnership.”
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What’s next on the fitness bucket list for you?
Nikita: “I definitely want to do a century ride, which is 100 miles on the bike from Brooklyn to Montauk and then we ride a train home. I really want to be able to do that, and that requires a lot of training on the saddle and also at the gym. Outside running, I really just want to be super fit, super strong. I was telling Mike the other day that I had a casting, and during it, they asked how strong I was. I said, ‘Oh, I can deadlift 170 pounds.’ I don't know where the number came from, and so now I have to be able to do it. That is an actual goal I have in mind.”
Mike: “Right now, we usually do around 130, but we're doing eight to 10 reps. So I do think 100 percent Nikita can do 170 or 175 with a hex bar and probably a regular barbell too, but I don't know if the form will be best. We haven't done max efforts — I always kept Nikita at an 80 percent range of what she can do just because I don't think she needs to. And I think the risk-reward isn't there for her with what she's looking for as far as getting toned, being lean, being her most fit…We do go to failure a lot of times with reps, so I believe in that more for her. But she said it, so I think we'll explore it now.”
