Personal trainer Sherry Smith sits on a mat while a client uses a heavy rope to pull her across the gym floor.
That may be one of the few times you catch Smith sitting for any length of time.
“Sitting still was something I never did,” said Smith, 38, who operates The Third Rock Adventures Inc. “We never had a TV when I was growing up. And when I had a TV, I’d rather be outside. I’d rather be outside catching salamanders or biking or skateboarding or something.”
Smith devotes her business to keeping others fit and healthy.
Health and fitness helped Smith get through a childhood of moving from town to town. It also helped her get through some challenging and traumatic times.
A native of Eugene, Ore., Smith said her family “moved constantly” when she was growing up.
The longest time I lived anywhere before coming to Oklahoma was in Arkansas for a full two years,” she said. “We lived in Pro, Oregon, 15 miles northwest of Eugene, for about a year and a half. Actually, the one place we went back to was Pro, Oregon. We had an aunt and uncle who lived there on a huge amount of property, and we could roam free out there. That was the place we would always call home.”
She said her family moved to Henryetta when she was 16 or 17.
“It’s been over 21 years now,” she said. “This is where I have the most connections.”
Meet Sherry Marie Smith
AGE: 38.
HOMETOWN: Muskogee.
CAREER: Owner of The Third Rock Adventure Inc.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in human health and performance, minor in business from Northeastern State University, 2011.
FAMILY: Husband, Michael Smith; son, Christopher Hiebert.
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: Christian.
HOBBIES: “Physical activities — hiking, kayaking, rock climbing, camping.”
Physical activity
leads to career
There’s no question where Sherry Smith got her zest for physical activity.
“We were a fit family,” she said. “Hiking was a huge part of my family. Dad was the most involved dad that I knew. I never knew a dad who was as involved with his kids as he was. We were always doing something.”
Her early commitment got another boost when she came home from school one day in the third grade.
“I came home, my mom was working out to a tape, it was from a Navy exercise book and I asked if I could do exercises with her, and I loved it.”
She said she soon started having “fantasies” about teaching exercise.
“I would get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and watch the sun rise. I’d hide at the end of the couch and wait for my dad to go to work,” she said. “Then I would turn on the TV and watch the muscular guy with the long, blond ponytail do exercise classes on a beach somewhere. Then, I’d go to bed.”
Smith easily found ways to combine this love of exercise with her love of the outdoors.
“When we lived in Pro or Eugene or anywhere near the area, we’d climb Spencer’s Butte. That’s a very well-known landmark in Eugene, a very iconic place for Eugene,” she said. “Every year, they’d have a race from Skinner Butte to Spencer’s Butte. Spencer’s was the taller one, and we would hike there. When we lived elsewhere in Oregon we’d go to Three Sisters’ Mountain or Three Finger Jack. In Colorado, we’d go to Pike’s Peak. When we lived in Denver, we would walk through downtown. We lived just a few blocks from Mile High Stadium. It’s all hilly through there and we’d just go walking downtown at night after dinner.”
Fitness is a gift
of freedom
Smith almost lost that love of fitness through what she said was a “traumatic event.”
“I had always been extremely fit. I had the metabolism of a hummingbird,” she said. “I always felt you can eat what you want as long as it was healthy.”
After the event, which she did not wish to describe, Smith went through post-traumatic stress disorder.
“For the first two years, I had gained 15 pounds. After a while, my body started shutting down,” she said. She stopped exercising.
One February, another event compounded the trauma. From late February to the end of March, she had gained 30 pounds. The road to recovery started that June.
“My husband was driving to church, and I was in the passenger seat, singing hymns out of the song book,” she said. “I opened up the book to a song I had never heard sung before that went ‘Get out of the boat and start walking on the water.’ When I read that sentence, all in that moment, I realized how much God had done for me the last four years, how much he had proven to me he was going to protect me.”
Smith started exercising again, running laps and lifting heavier weights. She said she also realized her metabolism had slowed, making it harder for her to lose weight.
“I was learning how to lose weight with a whole different body,” she said. “People blame people who are heavy set, but they don’t take into consideration what they (the heavy set people) went through.”
She said the events gave her an insight.
“It made me want to give other people fitness as the key to open the prison door,” she said.
Smith said the experiences helped her realize “fitness is freedom.”
“That is a gift I want to give everyone,” she said.
Certification includes
nutrition and fitness
Smith now seeks to help people become Biggest Losers.
Yes, the same type of “losers” who shed the pounds on the NBC reality show, “The Biggest Loser.” She said she received trainer certification through the Biggest Loser program about a month ago.
Smith said the “Biggest Loser” focuses on people who are morbidly obese and must lose a large amount of weight.
“It mainly focuses on the fitness aspect of it, but it focuses on the nutrition aspect of it,” she said. “It was something I felt I was doing anyway. I trained a lot of clients who were morbidly obese, and I had a lot of success with it.”
She said she felt that if she went through steps to get certified, it could help her get the Biggest Loser label “that people would recognize.”
Smith said the program is “about supporting the person throughout the process.”
“It’s a really big decision to lose that much weight,” she said. “For a person to be that heavy, there’s a reason they gained that much weight.”
She underwent special training and testing to qualify to become a Biggest Loser trainer.
“And there is constant training to be certified,” she said.
Smith also seeks to help clients reach such fitness goals as zip-lining, running a 5K or a half marathon.
Q&A
HOW DID YOU BECOME AN OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE?
“This is where I built my life. This is where my connections are. It was a brave thing to do. All that makes Muskogee my home.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT MUSKOGEE?
“What Mark Wilkerson is doing with Parks and Recreation. It amazes me that what was a big open field is now Ruby (Robison) Park with bike lanes. It looks like it would be in the richer neighborhoods of Muskogee.
“They added bike lanes to Muskogee streets. I had tried for years to get bike lanes in Muskogee. Now, it has finally happened.”
WHAT WOULD MAKE MUSKOGEE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE?
“Even more bike lanes. I’d like people to be able to come and go places without having a gas-guzzling vehicle.”
WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING IN MUSKOGEE?
Owner of The Third Rock Adventure Inc.
WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?
“Hiking, spelunking. My family is the most important thing to me, my husband and son. I love to cook, too.”
WHAT OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE DO YOU ADMIRE?
“Definitely Brian Ousley. I have such a respect for him.”
WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE THING TO HAPPEN TO YOU IN MUSKOGEE?
“Getting my degree.”
HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP MUSKOGEE IN 30 WORDS OR LESS?
“Muskogee has so much untapped potential sitting right there waiting to happen. It has potential for greatness. If people step up, we can really make Muskogee great.”
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