Syretta Wright, the first female trainer at CONBODY, a prison-style, bodyweight gym, is no stranger to beating the odds. 

At the age of 13, Wright ran away from her home in Virginia, where she met a pimp on the bus to New York City who put her out on the streets. By the age of 17, she was sentenced to 22 years to life for a robbery gone wrong, and in prison, discovered fitness, which ultimately saved her life.

While incarcerated, she admits “I didn’t start to workout with the intention of being fit. 13 years into my sentence, I started to reflect on how my actions affected others and turned to hitting the gym. That’s how I got into fitness. It just changed my life.” Thinking back on her transformation she says, "I was born in Virginia but I was raised in prison."

Image: courtesy of Conbody.

Post-release, she was introduced to Coss Marte, another former inmate and owner of CONBODY, a game-changing fitness studio proudly hiring formerly incarcerated individuals. In a recent appearance on The Ellen Show, Marte explains that he founded the gym with a mission to de-stigmatize the formerly incarcerated community, especially Black and brown returning citizens, to ease their integration back into society, and change the systemic inequity of the criminal justice system. 

After being hired as CONBODY’s first female trainer, Wright felt immediately at home. As a NASM certified personal trainer who certificates in corrective exercise and nutrition, she seeks make maximum impact with her clients. “The Conbody community is about acceptance" she says. "You don’t have to play pretend. You come in with whatever your goals are. I love what fitness has done for me. I love what it has done for others and to help them achieve that...it’s amazing.”