‍

For Jody, fitness has always been about more than exercise. It’s about confidence, connection, independence and discovering what someone is capable of.

That perspective comes from more than a decade as a trainer. But it also comes from an even more personal place: raising her son, Vierre, who has autism.

Today, their worlds have come together at ZOOZ Fitness. Vierre is an athlete at ZOOZ, where he has been training since 2024, and Jody is now one of the coaches helping other athletes with disabilities discover their own strength. It’s a role she was drawn to in large part because of everything she has learned alongside her son.

Learning to Pivot

When Vierre was born, Jody had no reason to expect that his development would look different. But as a new mom, she paid close attention to developmental milestones. She noticed that some things—sitting independently, standing, taking steps, making eye contact and other everyday developmental markers—weren’t happening when she expected them to.

At around 18 months, she brought her concerns to Vierre’s pediatrician. An assessment showed that he was significantly behind expected developmental milestones. While he was still too young at the time for the formal diagnosis he would later receive, Jody began pursuing services rather than waiting.

Speech therapy came first. Other interventions followed. At age three, Vierre was officially diagnosed with autism. By four, Jody remembers him receiving hours of ABA therapy at home four days a week.

For a single mom without her own mother to turn to for support, it was a lot to carry.

“I think I might have cried for a couple of days,” she remembers. “And I was just like, okay. All right, what’s next?”

That question—what’s next?—would become something of a philosophy for Jody. She learned to pivot, address what was in front of her and keep thinking ahead.

“Life is going to be different,” she remembers telling herself, “and you’re going to basically uncover what you need to uncover when you hit those crossroads.”

There were difficult moments, but Jody is clear about one thing: she wouldn’t change her son.

“He’s been part of why I keep going.”

Growing Up Around Fitness

Fitness was already part of Jody’s identity. Growing up, she practiced martial arts, played basketball, ran track and performed as a musician. Later, while working in a corporate environment, she found herself increasingly drawn to strength training and the fitness community.

Eventually, that interest became a profession.

Jody attended an intensive, classroom-based personal training program and began working professionally as a trainer around 2015. Her career would take her through HIIT, weight-loss coaching and functional training, giving her experience working with many different bodies and needs.

And through much of it, Vierre was right there, by her side.

“I didn’t have money for a sitter,” Jody recalls of some of those early years. “So I was like, all right, son, you’re out of school, so you’re coming with me.”

He accompanied her to parks, beaches, clients’ homes and gyms. There are years of photos and videos, Jody says, with Vierre somewhere in the background while his mom trained clients.

Exercise was familiar to him. Organized sports were more complicated.

Team environments weren’t always a natural fit for Vierre, who often preferred doing things independently and needed time to become comfortable with people and surroundings. As he grew older, Jody realized fitness needed to become something that belonged to him—not simply something he did alongside his mom.

That’s where ZOOZ began to make a difference.

Finding His Own Space at ZOOZ

Vierre started training at ZOOZ in 2024. Jody initially hoped the experience would give him more than a workout. She wanted him around peers and coaches, particularly other young men, and she wanted him to have opportunities to socialize in an environment where he could feel comfortable.

Progress didn't happen overnight.

Vierre needs time to observe people before opening up, Jody says. But gradually, she began noticing changes. He started joking with the coaches. He would shake someone’s hand, smile at another person or respond when someone spoke to him.

Those moments might seem small from the outside. To Jody, they are enormous.

“For me, that’s a win,” she says. 

She has watched his physical confidence grow, too.

There’s an important difference between exercising with Mom and training at a gym that feels like his own. These days, Jody can let Vierre walk into ZOOZ, complete his workout with another coach and come back out independently.

“He doesn't go to the gym with me,” she jokes. “He’s like, ‘No … Mom, we’ve been doing this for many years. I need different.’”

At ZOOZ, he gets different.

And when Jody happens to be there while he trains, she gets to experience something special: watching from a distance as someone else coaches her son.

Sometimes Vierre catches her eye across the gym. Jody gives him a thumbs-up.

“He knows … someone’s rooting for him.”

Realizing She Could Be of Service

After spending time at ZOOZ as Vierre’s mom, Jody started paying attention to the athletes coming through the doors.

Something clicked.

“I was like, you know, I actually could be of service to this population,” she says.

Jody had stepped away from working in gyms for several years, moving into the tech industry while continuing to train some private clients. If she was going to return to a gym full-time, she didn’t want it to simply be a repeat of what she had done before.

ZOOZ offered another possibility.

“I think because I have a calmness about me, I have high empathy about me, and I think, at the very least, I can make some of these athletes feel comfortable," she said.

Her experience as Vierre’s mom mattered. So did her experience as a trainer.

Earlier in her fitness career, Jody had worked with a client who had polio. She still remembers helping that client push, pull and hinge in ways they hadn't been doing before. It helped shape her belief that good coaching begins by looking at the individual in front of you and asking what is possible.

At ZOOZ, that philosophy found a home.

“I wanted to be of service to the community,” she says.

And there was an added bonus: Vierre would see his mom working in the same place where he was building his own independence.

He wasn’t immediately sold on the idea.

“At first, he was like, ‘Don’t work there,’” Jody laughs. He was worried Mom might get involved in his workouts.

Later, his opinion changed—especially when he wanted something outside of the family budget. 

His solution for his mom was simple: “You need to get more hours at ZOOZ.”

“I’m Not Alone”

Working at ZOOZ has changed something for Jody, too.

For years, she had navigated autism largely within the world of her own family: researching, arranging services, adapting routines and trying to anticipate what Vierre might need next.

Then she started coaching in a space filled with athletes and families who had their own versions of those experiences.

For the first several months, one thought kept occurring to her:

“I’m not alone.”

Being at ZOOZ has exposed Jody to a wider spectrum of autism and disability. It has also created opportunities for conversations with parents that extend far beyond workouts.

When she meets a new family, Jody often tells them that she has a son with autism. She wants them to understand that her connection to their experience isn't only professional.

“I want them to look at me as … an ally for a different reason,” she says. “I understand your struggle. I understand what you might be going through. I too go through this struggle.”

But Jody doesn’t want disability to become the only thing that defines the relationship between coach and athlete.

“How can two humans be in the same room, on the same page, having a good vibe, trying to impact each other in the best way possible?” she asks.

For Jody, that human connection is at the center of coaching.

The Community Beyond the Workout

One of Jody’s favorite ZOOZ memories didn't involve a workout at all.

After a cancellation one day, she found herself talking with Dana, the mother of Luca, another ZOOZ athlete. The two began swapping stories about their sons. When Jody mentioned that Vierre had autism, Dana wanted to meet him.

Jody warned her that Vierre can take time to warm up to new people. But when Dana introduced herself and told him how much she enjoyed his mom, Vierre shook her hand.

Jody was thrilled.

Later, Jody happened to tell Dana about a set of “conversation blocks” she had bought to encourage Vierre to talk more at home. The blocks turn conversation into a game, with prompts determined by rolling dice.

Dana decided to try them with her own son.

A few days later, she came back excited to tell Jody they had helped get Luca talking.

For Jody, the exchange captured something essential about the ZOOZ community. Parents and coaches aren't only sharing a physical space. They can share ideas, experiences and strategies they have discovered through their own families.

“I thought I was just sharing something that was off the cuff,” Jody says. Instead, it became meaningful to another family.

“That’s what I think another area of ZOOZ is all about, where you do have a community to share information and tips.”

Building Strength for Life

When Jody thinks about Vierre’s future, her hope isn't simply that he gets stronger or lifts heavier weights.

She wants movement and healthy choices to become his.

“I want him to just want that for himself as opposed to it being kind of like one thing on his schedule,” she says.

Maybe that will mean lifting weights. Maybe running. Vierre, now a teenager, has also begun expressing interest in boxing and martial arts—activities that weren't necessarily right for him when he was younger but that he is now choosing for himself.

That choice matters.

Jody wants him to develop the awareness and confidence to make decisions about movement, nutrition and health as independently as possible.

And she wants other families to know that those possibilities exist for their loved ones, too.

When Jody talks about ZOOZ with families she meets outside the gym, she describes it as an opportunity to try something different—to move, lift, socialize and experience fitness in a space built to adapt to individual needs.

For a mom who spent years asking herself what’s next?, there is something powerful about watching her son discover some of those answers for himself.

And now, as a coach, she gets to help other athletes do the same.

“Everything that I’m doing for my kid, it’s now being reciprocated with other families,” Jody says.

For Jody and Vierre, ZOOZ has become more than the place where one trains and the other coaches. It is a place where a mother can watch her son become stronger and more independent, where years of parenting experience can become a source of connection for another family, and where both of them have found room to grow.

As Jody puts it, the goal is ultimately simple: “Be strong, be healthy. Let’s socialize. Let’s try to have fun. Let’s get exposure to things that … he probably wouldn’t otherwise.”

And sometimes, from across the gym, all it takes is a thumbs-up from Mom to say: Keep going.

‍