Jennifer West has an established international career as a fitness expert, personal trainer and athlete.
She is a seasoned bodybuilding competitor, winning national titles, and promotes a healthy and positive fitness and wellbeing lifestyle.
With years of training, experience and practical knowledge, she’s passionate about helping others fall in love with being active, fit and healthy, and her motivation and enthusiasm is showcased to her fanbase across her increasingly popular social channels.
She has been sponsored by major sports nutrition brands and you may have spotted her on ‘8 Out of 10 Cats’, BT Sport and the ITV2 series Survival of the Fittest.
Jenny also made her debut in 2019 on MTV’s The Challenge – War of the Worlds 2 – which is being shown in both the US and the UK primetime on MTV. Known for her competitive attitude and athletic focus, Jenny may be one of the biggest threats to emerge victorious on her first season.
Tell us a bit about yourself, background and your current role
I am first and foremost a Personal Trainer and have been doing this for 8 years now. In the last two years I have moved to TV and print media which has been just an amazing and crazy experience for me. Everything I do generally revolves around fitness and living an active healthy life in mind and body. I grew up in a big household and have 5 sisters and 1 brother! Life was always busy and chaotic but I loved it that way! I like my life having an element of chaos to it now and I’ve always got lots on. From PT and helping clients to travelling to different countries for filming life is busy but good.
Did you ever sit down and plan your career?
I never did that; I kind of just did what I enjoyed. I’ve never been in a job long that I didn’t enjoy. I ended up falling into what PT and TV work through my love for fitness!
Have you faced any challenges along the way?
For sure! Particularly financially because sometimes doing what you love doesn’t bring much financial reward. So at times it was certainly tough and I often had 2 or 3 jobs at a time so I could keep doing the stuff I loved. But it definitely paid off.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
I would say my biggest achievement has to be taking part in The Challenge on MTV and Survival of the fittest on ITV. Those are experiences you can never buy and they have both taught me so much about myself as well as being mad crazy times. I feel so grateful for them and will cherish them forever.
What one thing do you believe has been a major factor in you achieving success?
I would say my perseverance and not giving up. I really believe that every NO is a step closer to YES. Everything that you hate in your life will help to mold and build your character to who you will become. No matter how tough stuff was I would always believe that better was going to come because I would not stop pushing or working towards it. I always stay true to who I am too. Never try to be like anyone else. You’ll only be an imitation of the real thing. Be a first rate version of you.
How do you feel about mentoring? Have you ever mentored anyone or are you someone’s mentee?
I mentor someone yes! She started as my client and now is my friend too. I see a lot of myself in her and I always encourage to go after what she wants and to know that the whole world is at her feet! I also have a mentor myself and I really look up to him! He gives me guidance on where I am and where I am going and really makes me believe in myself. He used to PT me many years ago and we have stayed in touch and meet for coffee every now and then.
If you could change one thing to accelerate the pace of change for Gender Parity, what would it be?
Multiple minds and voices are stronger than one and I think in the work place there could be perhaps a group formed for females to regularly get together and discuss their experiences and ideas about improving gender parity in their workplace and beyond. Its important that managers and company executives are also on board too though I can appreciate this will sometimes be hard for some work environments but the pace won’t improve if nothing is done and momentum is so important!
If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self what would it be?
To know that the whole world is at your feet! You can do anything you want, explore everything that takes your interest and go after it wholeheartedly! Don’t put any limits on yourself and ask for help too! Put yourself out there!! Don’t wait for opportunities to present themselves chase after them.
What is your next challenge and what are you hoping to achieve in the future?
I’ve lots of little challenges I set myself from simple stuff like in the gym etc to projects like starting my own athleisure range. Some of them I can do next week but some are certainly long term projects. One thing is for certain with challenges, I am always looking for new ones, once I’ve accomplished one thing I am like ‘RIGHT, WHATS NEXT!”
