The journey of a wellness athlete who trusted the process and earned success on her own terms From competitive hockey goalie to championship-winning wellness athlete and coach, Jess Wedler’s fitness journey has been shaped by discipline, perseverance, and an unwavering commitment to growth. Over the years, she has transformed her approach to training, nutrition, and recovery while navigating personal challenges that tested her resilience both inside and outside the gym. In this interview,
Jess shares the experiences that shaped her mindset, the lessons she’s learned through bodybuilding, and the advice she offers to women looking to build strength and confidence through fitness.
What first sparked your interest in fitness and bodybuilding, and what did your very first workout or training phase look like compared to your routine today?
Growing up, I was always active and played competitive hockey as a goalie for many years. The sport taught me discipline, structure, and the drive to constantly improve. When I stopped playing at 18, I lost that sense of purpose and fell into unhealthy habits, including partying, poor nutrition, and weight gain. My brother encouraged me to start going to the gym, which helped me rediscover the routine and goal-oriented lifestyle I thrived on. My early training was very similar to my hockey conditioning,
focusing on endurance and high-intensity workouts. As I became more involved in the fitness industry and learned about bodybuilding, my goals shifted toward building muscle and improving my physique. To support those goals, I transitioned to strength, resistance, and hypertrophy training and made significant changes to my mindset, nutrition, and lifestyle. Today, my training is much more structured and focused on muscle development, recovery, and long-term progress rather than athletic conditioning alone.
What has been the most difficult obstacle you’ve overcome in your fitness journey, whether it was mental, physical, nutritional, or related to balancing life with training?
The biggest obstacle in my fitness journey was learning to give myself grace when my parents faced serious health challenges. In 2021, only a week after one of my bodybuilding competitions, my dad survived a severe car accident that resulted in the loss of both legs below the knee, while my mom was in and out of the hospital and long-term care due to her own health issues. During that time, my focus shifted from fitness goals to supporting my family.
I continued prioritizing my nutrition and training when I could, as I was post- competition and understood the importance of properly reversing after a show. The experience taught me the importance of adapting, focusing on what matters most, and giving yourself grace when life demands it.
How has your training style and split evolved over the years? Are you more into powerbuilding, classic bodybuilding, or a specific style now, and what changes made the biggest difference in your physique?
My training style has evolved over the years based on the division I was competing in. I’ve competed in both Women’s Figure, which emphasizes upper-body development, and Women’s Wellness, which places a greater focus on lower-body size and shape. As my knowledge and experience have grown, one of the biggest changes has been understanding that recovery is just as important as training itself and avoiding the trap of overtraining.
Today, my focus is on returning to the stage in the Women’s Wellness category. My current split includes two to three lower-body days each week focused on building my glutes and legs, along with one lighter upper-body day to maintain my back and shoulders. The biggest difference in my physique has come from training with more purpose, prioritizing recovery, and tailoring my programming to the specific demands of my division.
As an athlete for Rebel Fit Nutrition, what’s one key nutritional strategy or mindset shift that helped you build and maintain your impressive physique?
As a Rebel Fit Nutrition athlete, I’ve been fortunate to work with a highly reputable company that genuinely cares about its athletes and supports them in any way it can, whether through quality supplements, sponsorship, or helping make contest prep more manageable. The biggest nutritional mindset shift for me was learning the importance of proper macronutrient intake and keeping my nutrition simple and consistent.
Sticking to foods that digest well and support recovery allows me to better control variables and ensure I’m properly fueled for performance. Combined with supplements like protein, creatine, and EAAs, this approach has played a major role in building and maintaining my physique.
How do you balance your intense training schedule with everyday life, and what advice would you give to someone struggling to stay consistent?
Balancing intense training with everyday life comes down to making your goals a priority and treating them as non-negotiable. Consistency and discipline are far more important than motivation because motivation isn’t always there. What has helped me most is creating routines around training, nutrition, recovery, and meal prep while setting boundaries that support my goals. My advice to anyone struggling with consistency is to focus on making goal-oriented decisions and embrace delayed gratification, being willing to sacrifice short-term rewards in pursuit of a much bigger long-term goal.
What’s one moment or achievement in your fitness journey that you’re most proud of, and why?
One of the achievements I’m most proud of was winning Overall Wellness at the Northern Classic. I primarily coached myself through the entire process, handling my own training, nutrition, and contest prep while applying everything I had learned over the years. It challenged me to step back and assess myself objectively, like I would an athlete, and make the adjustments needed to bring my best package to the stage. Beyond my own success, becoming a coach has been incredibly rewarding.
Helping athletes transform physically and mentally, and seeing them achieve first-place and overall titles of their own, has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my fitness journey.
For women who want to start lifting and building muscle, what’s the best piece of advice you wish you had known when you first began?
The best piece of advice I wish I had known when I first started is to hire a knowledgeable coach. A good coach can save you months, if not years, of trial and error by providing the right training, nutrition, and recovery protocols from the start. They can help you build a routine that fits your lifestyle, keep you accountable, and make adjustments as your goals evolve. I would also tell women not to be afraid of lifting weights. Building muscle takes time, consistency, and patience, but the confidence and strength you gain along the way are worth it. Looking back, I know I would have reached my goals much faster if I had invested in a coach earlier and trusted the process instead of trying to figure everything out on my own.
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Photographer: Jamie Watling Photography: www.jamiewatlingphotography.com
