Lessons from Local Leaders:

Rugiatu Turay

Rugiatu Turay: Building Strength, Patience, and Clarity Through Movement—One Client at a Time

Rugiatu Turay: Building Strength, Patience, and Clarity Through Movement—One Client at a Time

Rugiatu Turay—Rugi to her clients—has always known that movement makes her feel good. She played sports growing up, stayed active, felt grounded when her body moved. But she never imagined taking that love of movement into the personal fitness industry.

Until curiosity took hold. How does the body actually move? What makes muscles work? Which muscles need to be targeted to achieve specific goals? The questions led to certification, then to deeper learning, then to founding Tusked Fit—a personal training business where form trumps weight every time, patience is non-negotiable, and clients ranging from women to men to seniors discover that fitness isn’t about quick fixes but lifestyle change.

“I’m not a quick fixer,” Rugi states clearly. “So I come with lots of patience and I tell my clients also bring lots of patience with you.”

As a professional bodybuilder herself—someone who describes the sport as “only for insane people” who are “looking for more”—Rugi brings discipline, strength, and an understanding that the little things don’t need to bother you anymore when you’ve trained your mind and body through intense challenge.

Her clients might say “I don’t like you, but I look forward to seeing you” because while fitness isn’t for everyone, Rugi is the person who gets them out of their own heads, helps them move better, and reminds them why showing up matters even on days when dragging themselves out of bed feels impossible.

This year, she’s aiming for her pro card. But whether she’s on stage or in the gym, the mission remains constant: serving people by helping them understand that movement isn’t optional—it’s what we’re meant to do.

From Sports to Science: The Curiosity That Changed Everything

Rugi’s athletic background gave her a foundation in movement, but it was about 10 years ago when specific curiosity sparked deeper learning.

“At some point I wanted to change my physique,” she explains. “We are lifting, but we don’t really know what we are doing. We’re lifting because we want to lift. It feels good and everything.”

But going deeper—understanding how muscles actually work, which muscles to target for specific growth, the mechanics behind effective movement—required intentional study of anatomy, movement patterns, and biomechanics.

That curiosity drove her to get certified and launched a continuous learning journey that continues today. “I’m still learning,” she acknowledges, even as she runs her own business and trains diverse clients with varied needs and backgrounds.

Movement as Medicine: Clarity, Mental Health, and Feeling Grounded

For Rugi, fitness isn’t just about physical results. It’s fundamentally about mental clarity and emotional grounding.

“It’s important. It gives me clarity. It makes me feel good, and it keeps me grounded,” she reflects.

Even on days when she doesn’t feel like working out—and those days exist for everyone—showing up makes the difference. “Once I go, I do feel like I’m glad, I’m happy that I went and moved my body like I’m supposed to.”

The mental health component is crucial. “Once I go and take care of me and come back out, I feel like it’s me again.”

That personal understanding of how movement affects the entire person—body, mind, emotions, sense of self—shapes how Rugi works with clients. She’s not just counting reps or tracking weight progression. She’s helping people reconnect with themselves, get out of their heads, and remember what feeling good actually feels like.

Form Over Weight: The Non-Negotiable Foundation

Ask Rugi about her training philosophy and one principle emerges immediately: “Form, I definitely won’t negotiate with form. Form over weight.”

It’s easy to grab heavy weights and push for impressive numbers. It’s harder to slow down, perfect the movement pattern, ensure proper mechanics, and build strength the right way from a solid foundation.

“We are not going to grab a 50 pounds ASAP because you have this body goal in mind,” Rugi states firmly. “Let’s not jump right into that heavy weight. Let’s get the form right and stick with the form. And as we go, we progress.”

Rome wasn’t built in a day—a saying Rugi immediately resonates with when it comes to fitness. Quick fixes don’t exist. Sustainable results require patience, persistence, and proper mechanics.

“Many people really just come to get that quick fix, but it’s not,” she emphasizes. “It’s a lifestyle. Lifestyle change. You have to want it bad enough.”

The Diverse Client Experience: Backgrounds, Challenges, and Growth

Rugi serves a beautifully diverse range of clients—women, men, seniors, people from different backgrounds with different goals and starting points.

“They all have backgrounds,” she notes. “Clients come to me with different backgrounds and I just like the challenge.”

Sometimes she wonders initially, “Can I really help you?” But then she digs deep, listens carefully to understand what’s really going on, and develops customized approaches.

“It’s just amazing to see down the road how they really change their movements or how they move and how they really think about fitness,” she reflects.

The transformation isn’t just physical—it’s mental, emotional, and philosophical. Clients begin to understand fitness differently, approach movement with new awareness, and integrate activity into their lives in sustainable ways.

Meeting people where they are is fundamental to Rugi approach. Assessment comes first—evaluating movement patterns, body mechanics, current capabilities. From there, she builds programs tailored to individual needs rather than imposing one-size-fits-all solutions.

“You meet them where they are and you watch them evolve and progress over time,” creating those full-circle moments that make the work meaningful.

A Special Passion: Working with Seniors

Among her diverse clientele, seniors hold a special place in Rugi heart. They’ve taught her profound lessons about strength, resilience, and the importance of staying active at every life stage.

“To be honest with you, the seniors just amaze me,” she shares. “Some of them would tell me strictly, ‘Hey, I do not want to use a walker.’ So they do want to get stronger and they want it.”

That determination—the persistent will to do things they haven’t been taught when they were younger, to achieve movements they weren’t able to do before—inspires Rugi deeply.

“It’s just amazing working with the seniors,” she reflects with evident admiration.

For seniors working with Rugi, she’s not just a trainer. She’s the person helping them maintain independence, avoid assistive devices, and prove that strength can be built at any age. She provides hope and optimism for the future while delivering practical results that improve daily life.

Everyday Wins: Getting Out of Your Own Head

Big transformations matter, but Rugi also loves the everyday wins—the moments when clients realize fitness is changing more than just their bodies.

“Just to get the clarity. Get people out of their own head. That’s a big thing,” she explains.

When clients tell her, “Rugi, since I’ve been working with you, I really do feel better. Just the waking up in the morning and dragging is just not the same anymore. I’m actually looking forward to seeing you, even though I don’t like you”—that feedback represents success.

“That makes me so happy,” Rugi says. “Because fitness is not for everyone. And that’s just something people don’t really want to do.”

Sometimes people just need someone to hold them accountable, to guide them, to show up consistently so they show up consistently. Rugi becomes that person—the one they don’t like in the moment but look forward to seeing because of how she makes them feel afterward.

Moving better, feeling stronger, doing more in daily life—these practical improvements accumulate into transformed quality of life.

Busting the “Bulky” Myth: Women and Weightlifting

One of the most persistent misconceptions Rugi encounters? Women afraid of looking “bulky” from lifting weights.

“What do you mean bulky?” she asks with a hint of exasperation. “That’s a misconception that people really have with weightlifting.”

The science is clear: weightlifting is good for you. It strengthens bones. The more you lift, the stronger your skeletal system becomes. And women are not going to look like men from lifting weights—the hormonal profiles are completely different.

“I’m the living proof here,” Rugi offers. “I’ve been lifting for how long and I can lift and I don’t think I look like a man.”

Absolutely not. Rugi embodies what dedicated strength training achieves for women: strength, confidence, functional fitness, and a physique that reflects hard work without compromising femininity.

Breaking down this myth opens doors for women who’ve avoided strength training due to unfounded fears. Rugi own example—and her clients’ results—provide living proof that lifting weights builds health, not bulk.

Discomfort vs. Pain: Teaching Body Awareness

One of Rugi key teaching points involves helping clients distinguish between productive discomfort and harmful pain.

“When you work out, there is a discomfort. It’s never really a comfortable space,” she explains. “Discomfort is okay.”

That zone slightly outside your comfort zone—where muscles burn, effort is required, challenge exists—is exactly where growth happens. “That’s where we’re trying to be. That is where we want to be.”

But pain is different. “Pain is uncomfortable. It’s a shooting pain that would make your body twitch or drop the weight,” Rugi clarifies. “You shouldn’t have that.”

When clients experience that level of pain, scaling back is necessary. “You know your body. If your body is really not feeling well, then we’ll scale it back. We are not doing that.”

This education around body awareness prevents injury while maximizing progress. Clients learn to push themselves appropriately without crossing the line into harmful territory.

Bodybuilding: Discipline, Strength, and Letting Go of Little Things

As a professional bodybuilder, Rugi operates at a level most people never experience. “Only insane people do that,” she jokes. “The people that are looking for more will do that.”

Describing how bodybuilding has shaped her proves difficult—”I can’t even explain it”—because it’s fundamentally about feeling, transformation that transcends words.

“I already built the discipline, right? But bodybuilding pushes you even more,” she reflects. “It made me stronger. It kept me grounded even more.”

Perhaps most significantly: “It gave me that strength that the little things won’t bother me anymore.”

That mental resilience—developed through the extreme discipline bodybuilding requires—translates into everyday life. When you’ve pushed your body and mind through competition preparation, daily stressors shrink in significance.

“I think that’s so important, especially just in today’s time, how busy everyone is,” Rugi notes. “Sometimes it’s okay to take a step back and not worry about the little things. Focus on your passions, the things that make you happy and make you feel good.”

For Rugi, that’s bodybuilding. And the discipline, strength, and perspective it provides enhance everything else—including how she trains others.

Looking Ahead: Growth, Service, and the Pro Card

Rugi’s goals for the next season are clear: grow the business, serve more clients, and continue spreading the message that movement matters.

“Continue talking about it is important to move,” she emphasizes. “Even if you don’t have a goal in mind, just move.”

On the personal front, she’s aiming to step on stage again and earn her pro card this year—a milestone that would mark the culmination of years of dedicated training and competition experience.

But whether she’s pursuing her own bodybuilding goals or coaching clients through their fitness journeys, the core mission remains constant: serving people by helping them understand movement, build strength, and reconnect with their bodies.

The Rugi Way: Patience, Progress, and Purpose

From athletic beginnings to deep curiosity about anatomy and mechanics, from personal transformation to professional bodybuilding, from certification to founding Tusked Fit—Rugi’s journey reflects someone who discovered purpose through movement and now dedicates herself to sharing that gift with others.

Her approach isn’t flashy or trend-focused. It’s grounded in fundamentals: form over weight, patience over quick fixes, progress over perfection, lifestyle change over temporary results.

She works with diverse clients—women, men, seniors, people from all backgrounds—meeting each person where they are and building customized programs that honor individual needs and goals.

She busts myths about women and weightlifting by embodying what dedicated strength training achieves. She teaches clients to distinguish productive discomfort from harmful pain. She gets people out of their own heads and helps them remember what feeling good actually feels like.

As a professional bodybuilder, she brings discipline forged through extreme challenge. As a trainer, she brings patience, knowledge, and genuine care for client success.

For anyone who’s been told fitness isn’t for them, who fears looking “bulky,” who thinks they’re too old or too anything to start strength training—Rugi represents proof that movement is medicine, strength is achievable at any age, and the right coach makes all the difference.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither are strong bodies or transformed lives. But with patience, persistence, proper form, and someone like Rugi guiding the journey, the destination is absolutely worth the work.

Reach Abby Sakariyah Below