Rebeca Olender's Passion for Fitness and Her Clients at Carpe Diem Fitness

Opening a business in the midst of a global pandemic may seem like an idea destined for failure.

For Rebeca Olender, opening her own gym in 2020 was something that she thought was crazy. It would require her to leave her job that she had for over a decade and take a leap into the unknown.

Despite all that, Carpe Diem Fitness opened its doors in November 2020 in Tuckahoe, and has been thriving ever since.

It’s a place where Olender can share her passion for fitness with her clients.

“It was probably one of the hardest decisions of my life, leaving a job that I loved for so long and then jumping in,” she said. “I felt like I was jumping off of a bridge.”

Located at the intersection of County Road 39 and Sebonac Road, Carpe Diem Fitness offers different group sessions and personal fitness training. Group session programs include conditioning training, strength training and yoga, among others.

Born in Maryland and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Olender was always interested in fitness. She said that growing up, she was always very active and described herself as “that kid that would be running around, falling on the ground, getting up and jumping over places that I probably shouldn’t be.” She swam, played soccer, did gymnastics and did anything to keep active.

After becoming a personal trainer in Brazil, she returned to the United States in 2005 for what was only supposed to be a six-month stay. But after she started working with Hamptons Gym Corp, she said that she realized that she didn’t want to return to Brazil “because I just kind of created a life here.”

Olender worked for Hamptons Gym Corp until 2020, when gyms shut down during the lockdown at the start of the pandemic. That created a lot of uncertainty for Olender, who recalled being very stressed during the spring months.

“I remember waking up the next day, knowing that we’re not going to be open for a while and being like ‘What do I do? This is all I know,’” she said. “My entire career and life has been about helping people’s lives.”

The idea to open a gym came from her husband, Anthony. She scoffed at the idea at first. But she soon came around to the idea.

“I was away from work, wanting to do what I still loved and I wanted to do it my way this time,” she said.

With her husband’s help, they put together a business plan and soon found an open space in Tuckahoe. The space was in bad shape, but Olender saw the vision of what it could become.

She spent the summer of 2020 painting the inside of her new space while also teaching fitness classes outside — which was allowed during the lockdown. That required her to get there at 4 a.m. in order to lead her 5 a.m. class, which led to a lot of long days for her that took its toll at times.

“I have no shame in saying that it was hard,” she said. “It was COVID. It was hot. I was trying to paint the gym, teach outside, then run back inside and continue painting.”

But what kept her going was her clients and their enthusiasm to be back in fitness classes. Even though the classes were outside, Olender said that “a lot of the clients were happy that they had someone to rely on, someone to coach them, someone to be there for them.”

The relationship between Olender and her clients is one that she said she values. To her, she views her clients as a family and does everything she can to provide a supportive place free of any judgment.

“You can never copy what a family brings,” she said. “Members come here for the environment. They know that they’re going to come in and they’re not going to be judged. It doesn’t matter if they’re having a bad day, they’re going to have a better day.”

To connect with her clients, she writes out motivational quotes on whiteboards that have their names on them and sets up everything they’ll need for the workout. She also has group chats with each of her classes to remind them of their workout and send messages of encouragement. All of this is done to bring her clients closer and provide motivation to make progress, which she said she loves to see.

“It gives me happiness and joy to see their progression,” she said. “There’s nothing better to see from where they were to where they are now.”

Though she puts in a lot of time and energy into her business and clients, Olender has still been able to achieve a healthy work-life balance. She schedules her day in that she teaches the gym’s early morning classes so that she can leave by 1 p.m. and work from home the rest of the day. She then uses the rest of her day to do paperwork and, most importantly, spend time with her daughter, Isabella.

Olender credits her family for being “a really good support system” and a source of motivation to her, as well as her passion for fitness and seeing her clients succeed that makes it worth more than the money she makes.

“I would work for free,” she said, “100 percent. The time that you put in compared to the money you make in the fitness world is never going to be a million dollars. But I love seeing [my clients] show up and get the results.”