The Magical Advice We Got From A Real Fitness Witch

Ammo O'Day describes herself as an esoteric life coach, trainer, and, most importantly, fitness witch. Yes, fitness witch.

It started when O'Day went from working at Enchantments, NYC's renowned occult shop, to working as a trainer at an Equinox gym — which, despite its nature-based name, has nothing to do with the spiritual realm. Each job felt fulfilling, but only to a certain extent. At Enchantments, O'Day felt disconnected from her body. "I felt like the clientele there were so much in a spiritual headspace all the time that they were neglecting their physical bodies," she said.

Meanwhile, she found the people at Equinox to be much too grounded in the material world: "One more squat is not going to fix the problem. There was a root emotional problem that they were trying to put a Band-Aid on with money."

So, O'Day quit the gym and sought self-employment. She decided her ideal job would allow her to offer spiritual advice while helping people improve their physical well-being. "Witchcraft and being healthy never went hand in hand. I felt like those things needed to come together," she says. That's when the title "fitness witch" came to her.

Today, O'Day has built a business around one-on-one consultations with clients. She begins with a tarot card reading in order to assess each client's emotional and spiritual state. Then, she follows up with a Reiki or energy-work session, which tells her what she needs to know about a client's physical energy.

[Ed note: Reiki is a type of energy healing in which practitioners lay their hands on someone in order to encourage the transfer of "good" energy. The science behind it is hazy, to say the least, and any success stories are anecdotal at best.]

Once O'Day is familiar with a client, she works with them as needed, meeting with them once a week, once a month, or "once and I never see them again," she says. She'll then assign "a combination of physical fitness and energy work;" depending on a client's needs, she'll recommend different medicinal herbs, encourage journaling, or make therapeutic candles for them to light.

Whether you're looking for emotional clarity or renewed energy, O'Day says the work she does with clients takes a lot of self-awareness and consistency. Your mind and body are probably trying to tell you the same thing, she explains, so you need to always be listening. Sure, there's no hard science to back up O'Day's methods, but we say it seems like a pretty fun idea to get in touch with your spiritual side while working on your fitness. (Two ravens, one stone.)

Curious how to get started? Click through for some very down-to-earth advice from O'Day, a truly otherworldly trainer.