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Life & Work with LJuca Belsito of Maryland

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Today we’d like to introduce you to LJuca Belsito.

Hi LJuca, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am an RN, in NY 21 yrs. I have been involved a Strength Coach multitime World Champion Powerlifting, Masters Olympic Weightlifting. I was Active Duty with USPHS 22 yrs and reassigned to this area in 2004. I was training special olympic athletes in Powerlifting for Montgomery County from 2010- 2015. I ooened my gym space in 2015. We were contacted to help start an Adaptive Strength program by Walter Reed and started a program then going over 1 hr. A week. We started the PARA Powerlifting Sport for Warrior Games in 2018 in CO. We still run this program 2 x month 2 hr sessions and have coached hundreds of Returning Service Men and Women with injuries, severe PTSD, and other illnesses. We are a gym who also works wuth strugglung youth, older population and athletes who strive to compete.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Struggles have always being a one person show. Wanting to give more, help more people! Paying the bills can be difficult at times so we became a non profit in 2016, to try to apply for grants and donations so I can mentor more trainers, coaches and offer more services to our community, veterans, youth athletes and the LGBTQI community. We are a safe place, a community where we help people work through trauma, PTSD, Behavioral Healh Issues through strength training. Our biggest success is we have had NO Suicides!!!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an RN, (ret) CAPT, BC- Case Manager, Pt. Advocate. I hold multiple Certifications and have worked in ortho trauma, and have done prehab and post op rehab for patients and athletes. I am able to train any client to meet them where they are, helping people learn how to lift safely. I help families who need assistance needing help navigating health care system. Or with transitions of care. My lifting career began in 1980s before it was cool. But rose to a multitime World Champion in Powerlifting and Masters Ilympic Lifting. I continue to lift, I pay it forward in memory of my brother who passed in 2019. But helped me achieve levels I never thought possible.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
This is a journey. I love what I am doing. But it took 50 years to build a lifelong dream. I am not a media star, famous and certainly do my best to balance life, and supporting my clients. I know I am changing lives. Creating a legacy. As I always hoped I would. I know I am planting seeds in young minds to be as strong as they can be. To give 100% and to Never Say I Can’t. Words I have lives by.

Pricing:

  • Private sessions $40-$60 per hour
  • Consultation assessments $150.00
  • 24/7 access to gym. $150.00/month
  • $85.00 / Month members access with coach on site
  • Day fees $25.00, Venmo, Zelle, Cash. NO Credit Cards

Contact Info:

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Two smiling women, one in a red jacket and the other in a maroon shirt with medals, stand outdoors with arms around each other.

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Certificate with flags border, titled '2023 IWMA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS,' awarded to Ljuca Belsito from USA, with signatures and a logo.

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Workout area with a plyometric box, pull-up bars, and posters on the wall, including a 2020 CrossFit competition poster.

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