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Jessi Kuhlman

Owner and Creator

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Hey everyone! I’m Jessi Kuhlman owner and creator of Jessi Kuhlman Fitness! I’m so happy you’re here. For as long as I can remember God has placed a fire in me for two things. One is to help people. I have always had a passion for reaching out to others whether friends, family or complete strangers. I just have always wanted to help people. The other is competition, I love competing and I’m very competitive in pretty much anything I do. 

I grew up in Severna Park, Maryland with three siblings and two awesome parents.  always felt like I was the middle child since I had an older brother and sister and then a younger sister as well. We all played a lot of sports and our parents kept us very active.

We lived by the water so one of the first things we learned to do was swim. We all had to participate in the swim team during summers but we also learned how to boogie board and water ski pretty much right away. We all got along really well because we weren't together much since we played so many sports. I honestly thought of my siblings as my best friends and to this day I still do. We are all very different but very alike in so many ways. I know I wouldn’t be anywhere without them today. 

My mom took me to learn how to skate and once I finished the lessons the coach said I could pick figure skating or ice hockey. JP, my brother, played ice hockey so obviously I wanted to be just like him. I was about 4 years old when I started playing. It was something I loved instantly. I liked playing a sport not many kids my age did, it was my own thing. I quickly decided I wanted to be like Julie, my older sister, and do gymnastics as well. So most of my childhood  was spent either in an ice rink or a chalky gym. My road was far from easy. Being a gymnast the expectation was you had to be small and look lean. Even though I was what most people would consider small I was big for a gymnast. I had muscles and was one of the strongest ones on the team. I always had to stay after to do extra stretching since that was a huge weakness. There was always something to work on and gymnastics taught me how to take on each challenge knowing it just meant I was better prepared for whatever came next. 

Pretty soon I realized I wanted to go division 1 in hockey. I had to quit gymnastics and focus on hockey full time. I started weight lifting and training when I was 12, every summer I skated with a boys program and built up for the season. I had to play for teams far away from 2-5 five hours at least. My road to college was not easy. Each team I loved folded and made me move youth teams 3 times to finally landing in Pittsburgh where I would be connected with a few college teams. I was denied by every D1 program until I committed to a D3 school when I later got an email from Merrimack needing a spot two months before my freshman year of college. I took a leap of faith and accepted their offer, it wasn't a full ride but it was something and more importantly it was my dream. I spent four years fighting for every second on that team and building up the program as we were pioneers my freshman year. My freshman year I lost a lot of confidence. Especially when my older sister came to watch me play and I never stepped on the ice. It broke me. I felt like I was a failure, like I was never good enough and wondered if I should even stay at school. My body image was terrible. I got very thick in the season from all the training and conditioning, as well as my coach saying I wasn't conditioned enough to play a full game. It all got in my head and I was spiraling downhill fast. I was homesick, I felt like I let my whole family down and then when I did get to come home all I did was train for the small window of time I did get. We had a conditioning test when we got back after Christmas so I never felt like I got time off when I was home.

 

The stress and anxiety constantly ate at me. I had severe stomach pain, terrible acne and overall was just depressed.  I felt alone because all my good friends were the all stars of the team. No one really understood how much pain I was going through. The following summer was spent figuring out what was wrong with my stomach and luckily we found out I had a few food intolerances. I slowly got rid of the toxic people in my life and put all the pressure and weight on myself. I trained so hard that whole summer to gain back confidence and figure out a good diet. I finally figured out my health and was able to put some weight back on. I had gained my confidence back only to play 5 shifts in my first game back then get scratched for 10 games in a row for no real reason given to me. I was ready to give up. I told God I couldn't do this anymore. It hurt and was too hard to do all by myself. Working so hard just to not be given a chance. Well, he answered. He said, “Jessi, this is a big moment to learn. It’s not about you. Look around at your teammates. Your moment will come. Be patient.” 

 

Flash forward to now I feel like I’m finally in “my moment.” I got my CrossFit Level 1 certification that summer following my sophomore year. I learned how to help people when I was down. I learned I needed to stop trying to be like anyone else and  just be me. Bring the light and energy everyday to my teammates and to my friends. I decided when I was a junior I would set my goal to train for the CrossFit Games once hockey ended. I finished school early graduating with my degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and Management, to then starting graduate school early and getting my masters in Management. I completed a fellowship about social media where I did research and learned so much in a full year's work. I am now chasing my goal of the CrossFit Games. My other goal has been to help people like me who feel they didn’t have help from anyone. Help them find themselves and understand they're good enough to work hard for themselves. CrossFit is where I found my strength and ability to love my body for what it can do, so now I am sharing my ways on how I overcame the adversity of failure, body image, comparison, and so much more. The journey isn’t over, it's just beginning and I couldn’t be happier to be launching my own businesses to help more people find themselves. 

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