WS Chronicle

Having a place to work out where there is no judgment and you can be yourself is the ideal environment. That was part of the idea behind TransformHer Fitness Evolved (TFE), which is a new gym for just the ladies here in Winston-Salem.

Keya Ward is the owner/operator of TFE and she says her goal is to improve her clients’ mind, body and soul. TFE, located at 127 Fayette St., held their grand opening this past Sunday. Ward is also a certified personal trainer and nutritional coach.

“I only work with women and my whole goal is to transform women from the inside out,” said Ward. “I wanted this to be a transformative experience. A lot of times when you go to gym or you go to a personal trainer and it’s only transactional.

“What I do is transformational. I want to transform women with their mindset, their eating and their health. I want them to learn to appreciate their body no matter what size, no matter what age.”

Ward is an accountant by trade, but has had a passion for fitness for several years. She left an abusive relationship and even attempted suicide, but exercise got her through those tough times.

“Exercise became my outlet and I went hard with it and I fell in love with it,” Ward said about her love of exercise. “I was overweight, so I started working out and I started feeling good. Those endorphins that you get from working out, it’s what helped me through my process.”

Others began to notice Ward’s progress in her fitness journey and asked if they could work out with her, which she agreed to. Before long, Ward also began to eat healthier and individuals asked if she would assist them with that as well. That prompted Ward to obtain the licenses that would enable her to train others properly.

Before having her own space, Ward would work out with people in the park and then moved to renting space for her workout classes. She outgrew her former location that she was renting, which was one of the reasons she wanted her new place.

“At the end of 2020, I was like ‘I am going to get my own place,’” she stated. “I made a declaration and I have been buying equipment to where my husband told me not to buy any more to put in storage.

“To be honest with you, because my goal is to help women, it’s so much more than working out. I do charity drives to feed the homeless, we do stuff to empower women; I mean it’s just much outside of the exercise realm and I always try to give back.”

Ward shared a story of how someone took notice of what Ward was doing for women in the community and decided to sow a seed into her vision. That seed helped Ward secure her new building, which she is extremely thankful for.

Having a space solely for women was a big priority for Ward. She says women can be freer if they know there aren’t any men around and it helps build bonds between women.

“The reason that we do that is because it’s a safe place,” she said of why her gym is ladies only. “We let our hair down, we get to be free and we can be sexy. There are going to be classes where we are going to twerk, and you don’t have to worry about a man looking at you or anything. If you want to snatch your wig off, you can do all of that stuff. It is really a safe space for women to come.”

Ward says their program encompasses different aspects of exercise from weight training, cardio, calisthenics and more. They also offer nutritional coaching so they can teach the women the proper things to eat to keep the weight off. Ward wanted to emphasize that what they do at TFE is a group effort that consists of several women that make up the instructional team.

“It’s a little bit of everything, so our program is designed so that you are going to hit a little bit of everything throughout the week,” she said about the workouts.     

Ward says all of the women who are currently instructors started off working out with her. Ward says she noticed the talent inside of those women as they were working out and started “pulling them up.”

Leading up to the grand opening, Ward says she has barely slept due to the tight timeframe that she had to get the space ready for the opening. She is thankful to all of the individuals who assisted with getting the space ready in such a short time.

“We got it cleaned up, painted and everything in like three hours,” she said. “It was a whole crew and I could not have asked for anything beyond that. I was on the floor crying because I reached out for help and I never would have thought the response would have been like that. It has not been a part of this that I have done by myself.”

Ward would like to get to a point where she can focus on the gym full time and offer more classes to the women.

For more information, please visit www.transform-her.com, their Facebook page at Transformations Tribe, Ward’s Facebook page at Keya.Jammeh, or Ward’s Instagram page at keyaonthemove.