About Me
David Jaxon (They/Them)
I have over a decade of experience in the fitness industry through martial arts and very personal experience with mental and physical disabilities. For over a decade, teaching martial arts has been my pride, joy, and abiding passion. The joy I see when a student discovers a new understanding and relationship with a technique, or an epiphany of awareness of how their body works is one of the sustaining moments in my passion for teaching. I enjoy supporting others to feel more confident and empowered in their movements.
I bring this passion with me as I work to make general mobility and fitness (through self-facilitated/bodyweight training) accessible to all folx. When clients come into our shared space, I want them to know that I am there to learn as much from them as they are from me.
It is my intention to honor experiences that do not match my own and build safer spaces for an intersectionality-aware, decolonized approach to fitness.
My Intersections: white, genderfluid, queer, neurodivergent (AuDHD and anxiety), able-bodied
Deconstructing Fitness from within
Although fitness facilities have historically been inaccessible and or unsafe spaces for marginalized communities or fiscally disadvantaged folx, I’m encouraged and excited to be a part of collaborative efforts between practitioners in both the mental health and fitness fields. By combining supportive practices we are changing the landscape of fitness education and training. As such, I am actively and consciously creating an environment that can be welcoming for those who may have felt excluded, depersonalized, or othered in those spaces.
Part of this new practice is recognizing the ways that white supremacy has permeated wellness culture, societal expectations, and upheld thinness, ableism (physical, mental, and emotional), and white bodies as more valuable than the lived experiences of anyone who wasn’t privileged with those traits.
To deconstruct these systems of oppression is to connect with individuals on their terms, with the experiences of their bodies. I am grateful to the knowledge and labor that has been and continues to be led by BIPOC, Queer, Fat, and Disabled folx to build the frameworks and foundations of inclusivity and Fat-Positive practices.