Music, movement and Meeker

Twice a week, Tess Meeker pumps loud music into the loft speakers at the ARC and gets moving —she leads a high-fitness workout class, and she loves it.

“It’s something that I look forward to every week,” Meeker said.

While getting sweaty, she teaches and encourages those in her class through movement. Plus, she loves getting to know the people she coaches each week personally.

“I just love the relationships and the community that there is here and getting to make friends in and outside of class,” Meeker said.

Through upbeat music and movement, she leads her class every Tuesday and Wednesday in cardio and low-impact aerobic workouts. For Meeker, the focus of these high-fit classes is on being fun.

“It’s so much fun, and I get my dance fix,” Meeker said.

Before Meeker became a fitness instructor, she was a dancer and a cheerleader. Always looking to stay active, she says the decision to pick up high-fit came after she got home from serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

“I got back from my mission, and I needed to get back into fitness,” Meeker said. “I was in a running rut, and so I got back into high-fit, and I just fell in love with it.”

And by “getting back into it,” she means the exercises she used to do with her aunt when she was younger.

“My aunt was one of the first high-fit instructors, and so growing up, I went to all her classes,” Meeker said.

The memory of doing high-fit with her helped Meeker get back into movement and fitness. Now, she likes to share that with others because it helps her push her limits.

“I like pushing myself,” Meeker said. “I wanted to teach it because it’s hard.”

Meeker has a saying in life, something she calls “embracing the suck.”

“You’ve got to embrace the suck,” Meeker said. “That’s my favorite saying.”

While she believes it’s important for people to make moving their bodies a priority, the best part of being a fitness instructor comes down to building people up. Through her “embracing the suck” mentality, she hopes those who attend her class feel uplifted and energized by the end of her sessions.

“I just hope that they get a high out of it,” Meeker said. “What I love about high is that you just feel good about yourself. You release those endorphins and hormones.”

Even if it’s just for an hour twice a week, she hopes her class can get more out of the session than just those feel-good feelings.

“I just hope that they feel welcome and confident in themselves and that they did something hard and to know that they have somebody who cares for them if they need anything,” Meeker said.

Meeker’s friend and class attendee Bryn Riley-Jensen thinks Meeker does a great job at getting that message across.

“She’s really high energy and just silly and doesn’t take it too seriously,” Riley-Jensen said. “Everyone’s too focused on themselves to care about or judge other people.”

Maggie Batholomew, a regular of Meeker’s classes, agrees that Meeker curates an environment fitting for a class focused on uplifting.

“Everyone is super, super welcoming and just kind of excited to be there,” Bartholomew said. “High-fit is such high-energy.”

With finals approaching and the days getting shorter, Bartholomew thinks Meeker’s classes keep her sane while she’s tackling the bigger challenges.

“I’m super busy all the time, so just having two hours out of the week that I force myself not to think about school or work or anything — it’s so refreshing,” Bartholomew said.

But at the end of the day, and the end of every class, Meeker believes high-fit is about who you’re with, not just breaking a sweat.

“I do it for the people I love and my friends,” Meeker said. “There’s just love.”