Sydney Werwinski Helps Seattle Find Its Inner Athlete
A Columbia City coach who started at a gym with her very first job now trains runners, teaches boxing and is building a program for young girls.
Seattle Fitness Magazine · 28 Oct 2026
- 5years training clients
- 35-40hours worked a week
A first job that stuck
Sydney Werwinski's first job ever was at a gym, and she has been part of that world ever since.
She says she fell in love with the community the gym created and with the feeling she got from both exercise and teaching others. For her 19th birthday she asked for her NASM certification, and she started training people that summer.
She is from Las Vegas, earned her degree at Boise State (go Broncos, she adds), and then moved to Seattle to work for Emerald City Athletics Columbia City. She has been training clients for 5 years, both with her own clients and through the gym, in person and online.
Meeting people where they are
Clients come to her because she meets them where they are and then shows them how far they can go.
Nothing limits you when you work with her, Sydney says, not age, not fitness experience, not schedule. She helps people see how badly they want something they never thought was possible.
Her specialties are sports performance and endurance running, but her favorite thing to teach is boxing. She started teaching classes in Boise and wanted to bring that same energy to Seattle. The feeling of strength, power and confidence is unmatched, she says, and giving that feeling to others is just as good.
The marathon seed
The client she is proudest of is one she took over from another trainer.
She told him she was running her second marathon, how it felt to train for a purpose, and that her coworkers were running it with her. Then she told him he should do it too. He said he had only just gotten into running and mentioned his age, and she told him an excuse will always be an easy out. He signed up, and she trained him all the way to race day.
He beat her in the marathon, she says, and afterward told her he never thought he would do anything like that in his entire life. Planting the seed that leads someone to something only 1% of people will ever do, in her words, gives her chills.
The part that humbles her
The hardest part of coaching, she says, is the goodbyes.
Sometimes it means she did her job so well that the client no longer needs a trainer. Sometimes a client has turned 92 and moved into long term care, or a spouse takes a job across the country, or a loss makes training unaffordable.
Whatever the reason, good or bad, she says that when you spend hours a week with someone for months or years, a goodbye is never easy.
Early alarms, open afternoons
A normal week starts with a 4:45am alarm and ends her workday by 3p. She usually works 35-40 hours a week, seeing clients and leading group sessions Monday-Friday. The open afternoons are for lifting, running, extra client sessions or, if she ever gets to it, rest.
She keeps weekends free of clients so Saturday can hold a long run. Sunday is her favorite day to rest, reset and plan the week ahead.
What comes next
She has just kickstarted a youth girls strength and conditioning program for the fall semester.
Her goal is to empower as many young girls as possible, teach them the benefits of exercise and build their confidence along the way. On the personal side, she completed a 5k, 8k, half marathon, full marathon, ultramarathon and a triathlon this year. Up next is the Ironman 70.3 in Texas, plus whatever races call her name along the way.
Sydney is NASM certified, holds a degree from Boise State and has coached for 5 years. This year she raced from a 5k all the way to an ultramarathon. She is taking new clients at Emerald City Athletics Columbia City.
