She Couldn't Last 15 Minutes in Zumba. Now She's 50 Episodes Deep, and Giving Back

When Ashley Grant walked into her first Zumba class in August 2023, she made it exactly 15 minutes before she had to leave. She was too winded to continue. She couldn’t do a jumping jack. She couldn’t hold a plank. She was lifting 5-pound dumbbells and calling them her “big weights.”

Today, she’s 500-plus group fitness classes in, 26 pounds lighter, and regularly lifting 15 and 20-pound dumbbells. And she has documented every step of that journey, recorded mostly from the front seat of her car, on the way to and from the gym, on her fitness podcast, More Movement Please.

This month, the show hit 50 episodes.

“I never planned to start a fitness podcast,” said Grant, a Richmond-based content creator, ghostwriter, and blogger who also hosts The Bloggy Friends Show.

“Then, when I got serious about fitness I thought, I’ve got to document this. If I can do this and share my journey with others, maybe someone else will believe they can too.”

The timing of the episode 50 milestone carries extra weight. Episodes 48, 49, and 50 were recorded as part of Podcasthon, now in its fourth global edition. It’s an initiative where thousands of podcasters worldwide dedicate an entire week of episodes to raising awareness for a charity of their choice.

Grant chose to spotlight the Humane Society Animal League for Life of Madison County, Kentucky, and the way it was chosen is a story in itself. When Grant asked her community to nominate worthy organizations, one of the first voices to speak up was her own fitness instructor, Rhonda Goode, the woman Grant credits with changing her life.

“Rhonda has been teaching fitness classes for 14 years,” said Grant. “She’s the reason I love walking into the gym instead of running away from it. When her nomination came up in the random number generator, I took that as a sign from the universe.”

The three Podcasthon episodes feature Goode in an extended, candid interview series covering 14 years of teaching, what she sees in a room full of students in the first 60 seconds, and what she would say right now to the person sitting at the crossroads of change who hasn’t made the move yet. It is, by Grant’s own description, some of the most honest and compelling content she has ever put out.

More Movement Please releases mostly short-form episodes of 5–10 minutes, designed to be consumed exactly when Ashley records them: in the car, in motion, in the middle of real life. The show is equal parts accountability, education, and inspiration, and is aimed at anyone who has ever talked themselves out of a workout.

Grant’s own story has become the spine of the show. A former dancer whose passion for movement was interrupted by a car accident in her youth, she found her way back to fitness through Zumba at the Telford YMCA in Richmond, and hasn’t looked back. In the first 100 days of her serious commitment, she completed 200 fitness classes. She turned 41 during that stretch and celebrated with five classes that day alone.

“I want people to hear my story and realize that if I can do it, they can do it,” said Grant. “I couldn’t make it through 15 minutes of Zumba. Now I take up to 12 classes a week or more. This wasn’t about doing a fitness challenge; it was about changing my lifestyle. And, it’s forever changed my life.”

All three Podcasthon episodes of More Movement Please are available now, along with a direct link to donate to the Humane Society Animal League for Life of Madison County in the show notes.

More Movement Please is hosted on RSS.com where Ashley is a social media content strategist, and is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and other platforms. More information about the show and Ashley Grant can be found at famousashleygrant.com/fitness.