This Mom Runs a Boot Camp for Women

As a personal trainer, Erika Billingslea has spent many hours working with women one-on-one since she founded her own fitness business in 2006.

Since the birth of her daughter, Eva, who is now 16 months old, she has also been running Toned Bodies Boot Camp.

"I wanted to be an attentive mommy and still do what I love to do," she said. 

Billingslea holds a Maternity Fitness Instructor certification through Motherwell and a Certified Personal Trainer certification through the National Exercise and Sports Trainers Association. The boot camps are exclusively geared towards women and consist of four weeks of indoor and outdoor fitness training, nutritional counseling and motivational training.  

Boot camps can accommodate about sixteen women at a time and focus on many aspects of fitness, including core conditioning, resistance training, functional training, cardio intervals, obstacle courses, aerobics, and flexibility training.

Billingslea makes each class different by incorporating a variety of exercises, and likes to include games in her workouts. She favors leading the class in movements that are natural to the body without using heavy equipment.

"We use dumbbells, but not heavy dumbbells," she said. She also likes using stability balls, resistance bands, medicine balls, and bosu balls.

Billingslea didn’t always know that she would be a fitness instructor. After earning a degree in business management from the University of Phoenix she was working as a legal secretary when she met Lisa Ziegel, a personal trainer in Pasadena.

"She completely transformed my life. She made exercise fun. I couldn’t wait to see her every week," said Billingslea. 

Before long, she began to consider pursuing a career in fitness. Her husband, attorney John Billingslea, was very supportive of her decision, she said.

"I thought, 'I’d love to do what Lisa does,'" she said. "I knew I wanted to work with women. I love fitness and health and I like to empower women to know you can look fabulous at any age and any size."

She began to work even more closely with Ziegel in order to obtain her goal of becoming a personal trainer. 

"She mentored me through the whole process. She was just great," Billingslea said. "I wanted to be a teacher when I was growing up and I guess in some ways I am."

In addition to staying fit, she said that as the mother of a toddler, she also likes being able to educate other mothers on the importance of making time to take care of themselves.

"I now understand how hard it is," she said.

Billingslea also said that one of her new favorite places in Monrovia is , where she enjoys taking her daughter to fitness classes.

"It’s so fun," she said. "And I admit, it’s also a good way for them to burn off energy!"

Billingslea said one of the most rewarding things about her job is being able to make a difference in people’s lives. Toned Bodies works with Beyond Shelter.org to adopt a family every Christmas, and women in the boot camp and other community members contribute to fulfilling the family’s holiday wish list. Anyone interested in helping their adopted family this Christmas can also contact her, she said.  

Billingslea derives great satisfaction from hearing about others’ successes. She especially loves listening to the many stories women share with her about how they are changing their lives through fitness. 

"Watching their faces light up when they hit their goals is just amazing," she said. "When they tell me these things, that’s the definition of what I love to do. I was born to do this!"