Beth Parlin, a Hamline student-athlete who graduated alongside the class of 2020 this past May, is now working as a personal trainer which directly correlates to her major of exercise science. 

Parlin has known that exercise science was something that she wanted to pursue since she was a sophomore in high school. “I was inspired by my own female strength and conditioning coach and wanted to be able to inspire athletes just like she did for me because a great coach can make so much difference in an athlete’s development,” said Parlin.

Parlin was a hurdler for Hamline’s track and field where she prepared for life after school in ways she couldn’t have thought of. “Track and all of the coaches taught me how to communicate really well. For example, when I had a conflict with practice or meeting times with track, as soon as I knew of the conflict, I notified my coaches and we found a solution right away,” said Parlin. 

She now sees this in her current job with clients and coworkers struggling to communicate during hectic times. Since graduating from Hamline, Parlin has been busy working as a personal trainer at LA Fitness, a Performance Coach at a private gym called N1 Motion and also part-time at Bloomington Kennedy High School where she is a strength and conditioning coach for the female athletes and teams. 

“Another thing that Hamline athletics prepared me for is knowing time management. Since all of us athletes had to manage practices, classes, weights, jobs, homework and social life, I was very equipped when it came to managing my different coaching jobs as well as being able to have time to myself and also get my own workouts in throughout the week,” Parlin said.

What does a typical day look like for Parlin?  She starts out coaching early morning group classes at the private gym, or some days she has morning clients for personal training until about noon. Around this time is when she gets her personal lift and workout in, and then mid-afternoon she goes to coach at Bloomington Kennedy. However, some days she isn’t at Kennedy on those days that she coaches afternoon classes at N1. Parlin’s days alternate between the two gyms. Some evenings she will do more personal training for people who are busy during the day.

“Personal training is a very flexible job which I really like because it allows me to set my personal training schedule around my other coaching jobs that stay on a set schedule. I always hated the thought of a 9-5 desk job because I can’t stand sitting around and having a real set schedule of when I need to be at work, so I really enjoy being able to have a really flexible job” Parlin said.

COVID-19 affects everything these days and Beth’s job is no different. “Things have changed in the field of strength and conditioning because things are not as hands-on as they used to be,” said Parlin. “What is tough is doing partner drills since you can’t be as close to each other as you need, or as you would like to be, as well as the fact that you really have to plan out if you have enough equipment for each workout since we can’t share anything anymore.” Things have changed drastically for Parlin other than the minor things that weren’t discussed pre-pandemic.