NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In a city overflowing with boutique workouts, wellness trends, and fitness professionals, Abby Moskal stands out not because she does more, but because she goes deeper.
Moskal, a Nashville native, licensed clinical social worker, and coach with BODYROK Nashville, has built a career at the intersection of physical movement and mental health. Her approach has earned her repeated recognition as one of Middle Tennessee’s leading health and fitness ambassadors. This years marks her third year in a row being named Nashville Fit Magazine’s Best Fitness and Health Ambassador, a title that reflects not just how she trains bodies, but how she helps people heal.
However, her journey started in New York where fitness became more than just a fun hobby.
Moskal has been teaching fitness since 2013, but her resume reaches far beyond the front of the room. It all started in New York where she spent eleven years living the Big Apple life and dabbling into health and wellness.
“I’ve worked for so many different brands, so many different companies, and basically in every capacity,” Moskal said. “I’ve taught, I’ve done marketing, I’ve run studios, I’ve worked desk.”
Over time, her role evolved.
“Then maybe like seven or eight years ago, I transitioned more into the teacher trainer side of things,” Moskal said. From small boutique studios to large corporate gyms, Moskal has helped people get moving.
But it wasn’t just professional growth that shaped her next move, it was what she was witnessing in her clients.
Abby worked for Pure Barre early in her teaching career, beginning in her late teens when she first entered fitness instruction as a part-time job. She later transitioned into larger roles like studio management, corporate teacher training, and eventually into mental health and her current leadership at BODYROK Nashville.
Abby Moskal’s path into social work didn’t begin in a classroom or a clinical setting, it began on the fitness floor.
While her early career revolved around teaching, training, and studio leadership, Moskal says the shift toward mental health began quietly, and personally. During her eleven years in New York, Moskal decided to pursue a career also in social work.
It wasn’t until she began working closely with clients navigating trauma that the connection between movement and mental health became impossible to ignore.
“I’ve been in therapy myself my whole life,” she said.
Understanding the power behind social work, she knew she could offer much more and create lasting results for her clients.
“I went through this six-month period where I was working in a lot of private training, coincidentally with a bunch of moms all at once, and coincidentally with a lot of moms who were going through some degree of trauma.”
Those experiences were heavy incuding stillbirths, miscarriages and even fetility issues as a whole.
“They would come to me after these traumas, whether it was to try to get back in shape, repair their pelvic floor, or just to try to take care of themselves under the worst possible circumstances,” she added.
What stood out to Moskal wasn’t just the physical work, it was what happened after.
“There was just this moment of working with someone’s body and then sitting with them after and talking,” she said. “I started to look forward to the conversations just as much as I looked forward to the training.”
That realization changed everything.
“I’d always had in the back of my head, like, ‘That would be great to be a therapist,’” Moskal said. “But I was like, ‘I’m already doing this fitness thing, I can’t go back to grad school.’”
However, she knew that the human body is much more connected physically and emotionally together than apart and wanted to bridge the gap between the two.
“That was kind of what sealed the deal for me,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh wait! There’s actually this intersection that’s being totally unattended to.’”
Moskal went on to pursue her Master’s in Social Work in New York, eventually becoming a licensed social worker.
When she moved back home to Nashville, the timing created space for something new.
“I kind of had this opportunity where I could have a little bit of my pick of where I wanted to land from a fitness perspective,” Moskal said. “And then I had this new opportunity to establish myself as a mental health professional.”
Rather than choosing one path over the other, Moskal knew she wanted to merge them.
That bridge took shape while she worked simultaneously as Director of Fitness at BODYROK Nashville and as a therapist in a group setting.
In May 2025, that work evolved into something entirely her own.
“I finished all of my clinical social work hours, took my boards, got independently licensed, and opened up my own private practice,” she said.
Today, Work in Progress Wellness offers therapy and fitness training under one roof.
That bridge became central to her work, first while teaching at BODYROK Nashville, and simultaneously working in a group practice as a therapist.
Today, her practice reflects the full scope of her journey.
“At this point, almost one-third of my caseload as a therapist are also my clients at BODYROK,” she said. “There’s this intersection between mental health and fitness that is just so underutilized.”
Moskal believes many people sense that connection, even if they can’t fully articulate it.
“A lot of people say, ‘Fitness is my therapy,’ but they don’t actually understand why they’re having that experience,” she said. “It’s from a very somatic-based, nervous system-based place.”
Her therapeutic practices ensure the body is releasing trauma, not just the mind, but also in the body. She uses EDMR, Somatic Therapy and other clinical practices that help clients who suffer traumas and CPTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
“My goal is to make mental healthcare feel as colorful, accessible, cool, trendy, and frankly, as going to a boutique fitness class.”
That philosophy now informs not only her private practice, but how she trains others. Under the guidance of Nashville BODYROK owner, Ashley Fleming, Moskal has been given a role that shapes other trainers to think the same way for their clients.
In a city saturated with boutique fitness studios, BODYROK Nashville has distinguished itself not just through its workout, but through the environment it creates inside the room.
“I have 55 teachers at BODYROK all trained by me,” she said. “They’re trained in actual therapeutic concepts, as well as kinetic and physiological things.”
The focus goes far beyond form.
“They know what’s happening with clients’ nervous systems,” Moskal said. “They’re taught to speak in a specific way that’s inclusive and kind.”
For Moskal, the success of her work, and the studios she helped lead, comes down to one core belief.
“We’re not just looking at the body,” she said. “We’re looking at the whole inside-out approach.”
And for her, there was never a question about choosing between fitness or mental health.
What stood out to Moskal about BODYROK wasn’t just the programming, but the philosophy behind how the brand has grown.
“It’s a franchise. It’s been around for forever,” she said. “It was started in California by two sisters who are still super, super actively involved in leading the charge.”
Moskal says BODYROK’s decision to grow slowly set it apart early on.
“They didn’t, in the first two years, open 300 studios,” she said. “They took it slow. They were really selective at the beginning about who they would let open up a franchise.”
That restraint, she believes, allowed the brand to protect its culture.
Alongside franschaise owner, Ashley Fleming, Moskal worked closely to ensure BODYROK Nashville was an inclusive environemnt that also gave a challenging workouts to anyone who came to a class.
“There’s so many good workouts in Nashville, you can throw a rock and hit a good one,” she said. “That wasn’t really the thing we were going for,” Moskal said.
Instead, she was looking for something deeper.
That alignment shows up most clearly in how BODYROK instructors are trained, especially when it comes to how they speak to clients.
“I’ve worked for other brands where I’ve literally been in teacher training and it’s been like, ‘Your goal is to be as hard as possible,’” Moskal said. “If you see them taking a modification, you call it out on the mic.”
That approach never resonated with her…and we can see why!
As a fitness intructor and therpist, Moskal knew that type of coaching would do more harm than good.
At BODYROK, the goal is different.
“Our goal is that someone walks out and says, ‘That was so hard, but they were so nice,’” she laughed.
It’s a sentence she says you rarely hear together.
Moskal believes the difference lies in understanding how people experience fitness on a nervous-system level.
“We’re very much like, ‘How do we provide the best possible product to a group of 16 people at once, but still try to make it feel as individual as possible?’” she said.
Those details matter, she says, even if clients can’t always articulate why.
“I know as a therapist, these types of classes affect people’s nervous systems,” Moskal said. “They’re the difference between someone walking out and not being able to articulate, ‘I love that and I can’t tell you why,’ or walking out and being like, ‘I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but that didn’t feel good.’”
Moskal says that reaction is the body communicating.
“That’s people’s nervous system talking,” she said.
Because of this, she ensures many BODYROK fitness instructors create a workout that challenges the body without compromising emotional safety.
For Moskal, that approach explains why BODYROK Nashville has resonated so deeply with clients.
“I think there’s a direct correlation on why our product in Nashville has been so successful,” she said.
BTW, they won Nashville Fit Magazine’s Best Pilates Studio in Nashville for the third year in a row.
Success, in this case, isn’t just about intensity or aesthetics.
“It’s about someone feeling comfortable and supported,” Moskal said. “While also getting their ass kicked.”
“I will not lie, I am a barre devotee, like, till I die. That’s my primary thing,” Moskal laughed.
Although she no longer moves the same way she did earlier in her career, her appreciation for barre has only deepened.
“I am not as active in it as I was for over a decade, but there’s a reason barre has been around as long as it has,” she said. “A lot of the things that we’re seeing pop up right now in the mat sculpt Pilates genre is actually really rooted in Lotte Berk (founder of modern-day barre),” she said.
Outside of structured workouts, her wellness routine is intentionally simple.
“Other than BODYROK, I’m mostly walking,” she said. “I think that’s one of the nicest things about being back home from New York, just being able to walk outside with our dog.”
Moskal is candid about not fitting the stereotypical image of a fitness professional. SAME GIRL!
“I am not the trainer that is in the gym every day filming all my workouts,” she said. “Sometimes I have weeks I really hit it and take class four times a week and go on three walks,” Abby said. “This week I’ve taken class once and that’s all it’s gonna be this week, and that’s OK.”
Her evolving relationship with movement is deeply tied to her work in mental health and she hopes others follow the same way of living.
“The more I learn about the intersection between mental health and fitness, I recognize, ‘Oh, when I’m feeling bad that I didn’t take class three times this week, it actually has less to do with that,’” she said. “And more about these internal core beliefs about myself that I learned very, very young.”
Those realizations, she says, have been healing.
“The more I’ve grown in my career, the more I’ve been able to soften my expectations toward myself,” she said. “I try to find the balance between moving because it feels good and not because it means something bad about me if I don’t.”
That distinction now guides her choices and ensures wellness isn’t about becoming someone else.
“You can always implement better strategies and better practices,” she said. “But you are not less than if you don’t.”
According to Moskal, she has several, limited spots open as a personal trainer and social worker. She says she would love to connect with anyone who is looking to take on physical coaching, emotional coaching or both.
If you are unable to see her on a one-on-one bases, find her at BODYROK Nashville and take on of her vibrant classes under the pink and blue lights.
Give her a follow on Instagram, as well as visit her website where you can learn more about all the ways Moskal is ready to serve you and your body.
Moskal is turning fitness and mental health into something vibrant, approachable, and, yes, even a little fun. In Nashville’s busy world, she’s proof that taking care of yourself can feel less like a chore and more like a lifestyle you actually want to live.
We can see why her and her team at BODYROK Nashville continue to receive the communities seal of approval.
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