NASHVILLE, Tenn. The refusal to be chained to a desk job is one of the many ways many are allowing fitness to be a career option, and Kelsee Ennis is definitely one of these people doing just that in Middle Tennessee.
Ennis speaks about her journey with the kind of clarity, humility, and purpose that makes you understand why her clients trust her not just with their fitness, but with their whole selves. Her story begins in Bloomington, Indiana, a mention she states proudly after that big College Football Playoff win against Ohio State.
“I’m a Hoosier,”she says with a smile.
Her roots, her athletic background, and her faith are woven together, shaping the mission she brings to Nashville’s fitness community. But her story is far from simple. It spans college basketball, sports nutrition, the pressures of the fitness industry, burnout, and ultimately a calling bigger than herself.
Ennis grew up immersed in athletics. She later played Division II college basketball at McKendree University in Illinois, where she studied exercise science. After graduation, she completed a sports nutrition internship at UCLA, working primarily with the women’s teams.
After her years as a competitive athlete came to an end, she faced an identity crisis once she stepped off the court.
“All I did was play sports,” Ennis said. “When college basketball ended and when I was thinking about a career, I didn’t even know who I was because I put all my identity into, ‘I’m a basketball player.’”
She speaks openly about the “lull” that hits many athletes when their careers end.
“I’ve always been told, ‘Go to the weight room’, show up for practice, go to class’, and now you’re just kind of thrown into the real world,” she added.
That disorientation would ultimately plant the seed for one of the most meaningful projects in Kelsee’s life.
One of the most impactful parts of Kelsee’s life today is the organization she and her sister, Whitney created.
Beyond the Sport, was made for female athletes who are navigating confidence, identity, mental health, and the pressures of competitive athletics, once they step out of the spotlight.
One of its fundamental missions is to remind young girls “Your identity is not your sport, your identity is in Christ.”
The program hosts weekend retreats for girls from eighth grade through college. These weekend retreats are a time designed for depth, honesty, and healing.
And the stories Ennis and her sister have heard, have come with a deeper meaning of who they are serving.
“It gets pretty deep… eating disorders, suicide thoughts or attempts,” Ennis shared.
These moments have become constant reminders towards their mission that they are continuing to grow each day.
“It’s just cool to see even girls transform in literally less than 48 hours,” she adds,
Kelsee believes the need for this program is urgent, especially in today’s culture.
“Growing up, bullying wasn’t a big thing, or I never experienced it to the level that these girls do.”
Social media, she says, has magnified comparison and isolation and Beyond the Sport is here to ensure girls find their confidence offline first.
Seeing a group come together and be so close is a really cool and special thing, but very vulnerability and intimate time is what it’s all about,” Ennis adds.
Kelsee arrived in Nashville in 2018.
She took an administrative role at Orangetheory Fitness. It was adjacent to the field she loved, but not quite what she wanted.
It became clear quickly that desk work wasn’t for her.
“I knew I could be doing more rather than sitting behind a desk and making cold calls,” she adds.
Still, something within the studio walls lit a fire in her:
“Seeing the smile on member’s faces definitely pushed me into the role of I want to do this and how can I do it,” she shared. She wanted to bring those kinds of smiles, only this time, one-on-one as a full time personal trainer.
Then… the world shut down.
Kelsee picked up babysitting jobs and eventually began training clients in small group and studio settings. But the deeper she stepped into fitness, the more she began neglecting herself.
She describes a schedule that eventually broke her down.
“I would have maybe three hours in between a break and I’m like, do I eat? Do I sleep or do I work out? And I’m just so exhausted… I didn’t want to work out.” Hearing a personal trainer having a lack of interest in working out is a huge red flag that something was wrong.
That’s when her faith began to pull her back to center.
Through the ups and downs of finding the right studio space for her, she felt led to trust that God would ultimately provide.
Ennis’s approach to fitness was never meant to be aesthetic or built on numbers It is purposeful, intentional and spiritual.
“Your body is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit,” Ennis shared.
In describing her relationship with wellness, she explained how scripture reshaped her perspective. “That just really hit me because I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, my body is where Christ lives. I want to be the healthiest version I can be because it’s basically a worship back to Him,'” She said proudly and affirmed. “How you treat your body is worship alone.”
She cites Romans 12:1 as the scripture that reframed everything:
“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship.”
She applies this mindset in her coaching, helping clients shift from shame or pressure into gratitude. “It makes working out become easier. Not because you have to, but because you get to,” Ennis added.
Because she leads with faith, her personal training approach is based off of mentorship and community. She is open about the struggles she’s endured, the exhaustion she overcame, and the faith that led her through both.
It’s the mindset that changed her life, and now changes the lives of her clients.
In a world where fitness often gets reduced to numbers, pounds lost, calories burned, inches measured and more, she is part of a new wave of trainers rewriting the narrative.
The first thing you notice when she talks about fitness is that she never starts with the physical. Instead, she begins with the mind, what clients are carrying, what they’re healing from, and what they believe about themselves. She knows that a workout can only do so much if someone is silently struggling under mental weight. All she asks is that you take the first step.
“This is an investment in yourself,” she said.
Ennis has seen how clients push through exhaustion, numb their stress with overtraining, or chase perfection because they feel less-than outside the gym. She’s also seen what happens when people slow down, breathe, and let fitness become a form of self-respect instead of self-punishment.
“I’m not here to change people,” she says. “I’m here to support them. To walk with them. To help them see what they’re capable of.”
If you are ready to feel the transformation, throughout your entire body, visit her Instagram and DM her!
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