Name: Jackie Brebeck
Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan and Wauwautosa, Wisconsin (yeah I am confusing)
Graduation Year: 2019
Dorm: Cavanaugh
Major: Accounting
Minor: International Development and Sustainability
Favorite Movie: Forrest Gump
Favorite ‘00s Jam: “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” – Soulja Boy
Favorite Disney Princess: Mulan
If you could only do one dance move the rest of your life, what would it be?
Twe….ist and shout!! ;D (definitely not twerking)
Zombies have invaded earth, who’d be on your fighting team?
Not Margaret, she would leave me to die like she did during the first fire alarm we experienced as freshmen roomies.
Room 152, Year 2
When did you turn into the exercise aficionado you are today?
In high school I was always in pretty good shape because of training for my sports, but the summer after junior year was when I really got into working out. I was in Korea volunteering for a month, and a friend of mine worked at a CrossFit gym there. I was really scared I was going to come back from Korea like a fat blob because I didn’t have access to training with a team like I would have in Taipei, so I started going five times a week, and I guess I got addicted! After that, I did a lot of research on how to exercise most efficiently to plan my own workouts, studied nutrition, methodology, and coaching to get my CrossFit certification, and am planning to get my Yoga and Personal Trainer certifications later this year :) I’ve also started getting into boxing and really want to learn Muay Thai/Jiujitsu. Honestly, I am just so easily amused and find everything too fun, that’s how this happened.
What is it like to teach at Rolfs?
At the start it was kind of scary because I’m the youngest trainer there, and I had never led group classes all by myself before, so I have to admit it was a bit nerve-wracking to begin with. But that quickly faded, and it is awesome I love it so much – getting pumped up to encourage my class pumps me up too; I always come back from work feeling happy. I also get to talk to a lot of different people in my classes, including grad students and faculty who are doing really cool research/work.
What do you do to plan out a class?
The first thing I do is pick all the songs. I listen to pump up songs while I’m doing homework the day before, and add the good ones to the week’s playlist, with chill ones at the end for stretching. One of my classes, Tabata, has a set format, so I just need to pick different exercises every week. I track all the workouts, to make sure I don’t repeat exercises too close to each other and vary the equipment to spice things up, and I pick an even spread of exercises to work the whole body. For my Total Body Conditioning class, I get to vary the structure a lot but it’s still a lot of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), so like pyramids, song challenges, minute-by-minute workouts, etc, with some yoga at the end. After I get through planning the workout, I just take a few minutes to figure out a dynamic warmup – aerobic dancing, kickboxing, etc.
What’s the hardest/best part of your job?
The hardest part of my job is hard to say…I like doing all of it but I guess it does take a lot of time. But it’s worth it. The best part of my job is that I get paid to cheer people on and work out, which are things I love to do anyways :D
What is the most important part of any workout?
Sweating! If you’re not sweating you’re not challenging yourself enough, you should always be pushing yourself to the best of your personal abilities.
What’s your favorite way to have a “cheat day”?
DONUTS.
Be like Jackie and hit the gym! HCND XOXO
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Images provided by author or Jackie Brebeck herself