Page 30 - BusinessWest March 2, 2026

Britt McGrath says she wants to be the kind of positive fitness
example to people that she wishes she had growing up.
Staff Photo
“I was an athlete growing up; soccer was my baby. I ended
up playing lacrosse for a few years, but soccer was always at the
forefront.”
She picked up soccer at age 9 because a close friend was play-
ing, and she wound up competing in a municipal league in Belcher-
town, then Belchertown High School, and was scouted by colleges
— but a knee surgery early in her college career shut everything
30
MARCH 2, 2026
down. She did wind up coaching soccer at
the high school level, which she enjoyed.
“Playing sports always felt really at home
for me and made me feel connected to my
body — but then, also disconnected, because
I didn’t know how to feed it and how to take
care of it when I wasn’t being an athlete.”
Seeking to get back in touch with what
she enjoyed about movement, McGrath
started working as a spin instructor at Ener-
gia Fitness in Hadley, now known as 50/50
Fitness/Nutrition. Later, she became a high
school physical education teacher and a
personal trainer, before launching her own
business in 2020 that started with remote
classes and home visits, before she hung out
a shingle on Route 9 in October 2023.
“What I love is teaching folks, helping
people see that there’s always potential,
there’s always a possibility of finding a way
that feels good in your body rather than feel-
ing like you’re stuck. You should never feel
stuck,” she said. “There should always be
another option that someone can provide you
so you’re like, ‘wow, look how cool my body
is doing these things.’ That’s what I want to
teach people — I want people to experience how good it can feel to
be like, ‘my body is cool,’ rather than, ‘what’s wrong with me all the
time?’
“We don’t need that, especially with everything going on these
days,” she went on. “The last thing we need is feeling bad about
ourselves continuously. So fitness is an opportunity to be able to
connect with our bodies and with other like-minded folks and be
like, ‘yeah, let’s do this.’”
Having struggled with body image and eating disorders in her
past, McGrath is convinced that, had she encountered a role model
with a body-positive take on fitness, her experiences might have
“I want people to
experience how
good it can feel to
be like, ‘my body
is cool,’ rather
than, ‘what’s
wrong with me all
the time?’”
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