Dawn Sylvester has been my personal trainer for more than seven years. I can’t imagine what my body would look or feel like without her. Most people start out with a strong commitment to getting in shape, but lose the enthusiasm or momentum as time goes by. I can honestly say that because of Dawn, I have not lost that drive and I am stronger and have better health than ever. She advises me to eat protein to rebuild my muscles and always asks me if I ate some carbs before the workouts. She never preaches about calories like most people in her field. She says to eat often and eat for energy. It must work since I never pay attention to “diets” but I feel amazing with her philosophies. Her relentless pursuit of devotion to me both professionally and personally, keeps me coming back.

Dawn is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about the body. When she explains nutrition and how the body works in relation to strength training, it easy to understand. I trust her completely. I continue to train with Dawn because I am stronger, more empowered and have better annual check ups than at any other time in my life. At 57 years old, with 30 minute training sessions 3 times weekly, I am able to do more than most women my age. I do heavy landscaping, snow blow my own property (hand pull snow blower) and still have energy left over. I used to have back problems, but not any more! Dawn always says “keep your body moving.” My arms and legs look awesome and I get many compliments! Dawn is a phenomenal personal trainer. Her dedication to my health and fitness keeps me coming back.​

My body, mind and life transformed while training with Dawn at Michigan Kettlebells. With Dawn's encouragement and training I became more empowered, and stronger in all areas of my life. From the first day I was pushed to my limits and actually impressed myself. Dawn mentioned often to keep the protein up, the sugar down, and to “eat for what we would be doing next.” “Don’t eat starchy carbs unless you are going to burn them off”: she said. Didn’t know I would change my body that much, that fast. It is amazing how strong we can be if we allow ourselves to get control. I never knew how to do that on my own.

Knowing how to motivate her clients, Dawn is constantly helping them reach their physical and mental goals. Being a stick figure by starving yourself and just doing cardio is never a goal in Dawn's gym. “skinny isn’t healthy or strong” she says. “Lean and powerful is attractive!” “YOU GOT THIS!” She yells to us! She is training women to become better, stronger and more empowered than they ever thought possible.

Everyday, Dawn brings motivation and passion to her gym. She inspires clients to change their physique and their minds more than any diet, or weight loss plan on the market. I'll be forever grateful for Dawn's encouragement and training. I have lost weight, gotten SUPER strong, and she has taught me to be the badass woman I am.​

My first meeting with Dawn was definitely a learning experience. I guess I thought what most people think about the way to lose weight. I was under the impression that eating less, meant getting in shape. Since I had gained weight, I just kept on running and skipping real meals to try to lose the weight. I just "munched" on snacks and junk throughout the day and then would follow up with a big meal for dinner. I learned that building muscle burns more calories after I met with Dawn, I never really knew what that meant. I also understand that lacking calories would do the opposite, especially since I had started working out a lot but was getting tired and not putting on any muscle

I really wanted to lose the weight around my belly. I didn't’ realize that from only snacking all day, and getting most of my calories from cheese and a little protein, I wasn't giving my muscles the proper fuel to recover, let alone grow. After journaling my food for 10 days per her request, I realized my amount of protein and fiber were extremely low ; almost non-existent. I lived on unhealthy carbs, unhealthy fats, and a bit of protein. I work in a butcher shop and she said that since I had access to the best grass fed protein, that I should really get on board with her plan if I wanted to see results.I put her plan into action and started paying attention to eating more protein and adding in tons of veggies. I also started to eat more in the morning and before a workout, especially the right calories and the right kind of carbs (not crackers and junk). Now that I am following her regimen, plus eating carbs before and after my workouts I can't believe the difference!

I really wanted to lose the weight around my belly. I didn't’ realize that from only snacking all day, and getting most of my calories from cheese and a little protein, I wasn't giving my muscles the proper fuel to recover, let alone grow. After journaling my food for 10 days per her request, I realized my amount of protein and fiber were extremely low ; almost non-existent. I lived on unhealthy carbs, unhealthy fats, and a bit of protein. I work in a butcher shop and she said that since I had access to the best grass fed protein, that I should really get on board with her plan if I wanted to see results.I put her plan into action and started paying attention to eating more protein and adding in tons of veggies. I also started to eat more in the morning and before a workout, especially the right calories and the right kind of carbs (not crackers and junk). Now that I am following her regimen, plus eating carbs before and after my workouts I can't believe the difference!

My recovery time and body mass has changed. I have more energy, and I eat better meals, and am actually barely looking at snacking on junk. I now make sure I eat at least 25 grams of protein in each meal (which was actually higher than I would have thought) rather than forcing my system to store fat and eat away my muscles (that was an eye opener!) I’m looking forward to eating like this forever. It isn’t a diet, I really get it now. It’s what your body needs to lose the weight and keep it off.

Dawn’s influence in my life has felt nothing short of miraculous in many ways. I knew her for many years before taking her up on nutritional counseling and personal training. Sick of fighting the same battle with my weight, but even more with the negative self-talk, I went to Dawn’s all female bootcamp class and met with her to analyze my nutritional needs and current deficiencies.

When I showed up in class I could not do a squat properly, doing step ups without weights winded me, and when it came time for pull ups (with all the assist bands in place by the way) I could maybe get an inch of movement before just hanging there with my muscles clenched. But Dawn kept repeating something that has become a mantra in my head. No matter how few reps I could do or how winded I was Dawn said, “You can’t get weaker, you can only get stronger if you keep showing up.” Simple? Yes. Empowering? Hell yes. So I kept showing up and Dawn kept her eagle eyes on me, constantly encouraging me to push to each next level whether it was a heavier kettlebell, another attempt at the sled, or doing just one more rep than last week.​

I became stronger. My flexibility improved. I gained lean muscle. My clothes fit differently and I have more energy. All these things that I knew were supposed to happen when you get healthy but that I hadn’t really experienced before were happening! Soon I added personal training sessions and group training sessions that were like a mini bootcamps.

After three years of training with Dawn the woman who got winded doing simple step ups can now do tire jumps. I love pushing the sled and throwing sandbags. I’ve moved from the lightest kettlebell to serious reps on the 32 lb. and even the 44 lb. kettlebells. Best yet, I can bang out pull ups with one assist band. Lest I forget the other part of my work with Dawn, the nutritional counseling, let me tell you that I now know how to read a label, that I understand what it means to eat clean, whole foods and how much better my body responds to this food. It isn’t the processed crap that I was eating from the freezer section labeled low fat or reduced sugar… which really just means increased chemicals.

I’ve told you about the physical changes that have occurred during the time I’ve worked with Dawn, but just as important, maybe more so, is the mental mindset she helped me develop. I was a person scared to work out hard, fearful because of my inflexibility and my lack of balance, my weight, and things that past PE teachers and coaches had said. Dawn cut through all that. She genuinely cared about my progress from class to class, from exercise to exercise, to the number of reps I could do with proper form to the weight I was able to work with. She didn’t judge how out of shape I’d let myself become, but focused on my improvements and kept telling me I was ONLY getting better and fitter. In her eyes I could only get stronger, and lose the weight and it happened under her coaching. Most importantly, it happened in the right way, not through some fad or risky trend. Though I’ve moved out of state and can no longer train with her, she is the new voice in my head, sort of like a ripped angel on my shoulder telling me that the answer is yes, I can do this class, this exercise, this clean eating recipe and each right choice makes me stronger, leaner and overall healthier.