Navigating At-Home Workouts with Fitness Enthusiast Jenyffer Zorilla

By Natalie Benoit

“For me, it started after a really bad breakup.” 

Fitness enthusiast and New York City actress Jennyffer Zorilla says her desire to live a healthier lifestyle all started when she dated a guy who would work out constantly. She picked up the passion during the relationship but eventually stuck with it for her own reasons even after the two broke up. Zorilla decided to continue her fitness journey and saw the new hobby as a distraction from the breakup and a way to enhance her appearance. 

“Then after that, it turned into a necessity for me. I needed to be at the gym and from there, it took years for me to make it a lifestyle,” she added. 

Zorilla joined me virtually on Instagram and Facebook for Find Your ID NYC’s PYNKTALKS series. We discussed fitness during the coronavirus pandemic, nutrition, some misconceptions, and towards the end, Zorilla even shared some insight on her experience as an actor in New York. The interview was the first Wednesday PYNKTALKS for the month of August and the first time a fitness enthusiast joined the agency’s virtual platform. 

On her Instagram page, @askjenfit, Zorilla has amassed over 3,000 followers. Not only does the health enthusiast post workouts and fitness tips, but she shares some of her beauty hacks in her Instagram highlights. During the interview, Zorilla explained how her Instagram account started as a way to document her progress and keep track of her workouts. Then she just started posting for fun.

“If you started your journey, it's really cool to just take pictures and videos of your workouts and your form, that way you can see the transition from where you started to where you're at now. That keeps you going.” 

When you scroll through Zorilla’s public page, you’ll notice how many of her posts focus on explaining and encouraging others to work out and embrace the gym. Zorilla recognizes how working out, especially around others in an unfamiliar place, can feel extremely intimidating. She herself felt discouraged from using the barbell at first. 

“When I started lifting like five, six, seven years ago, there weren't that many girls lifting back then, at least at my gym. I had to go with all these guys and I was so intimidated. Then I started looking at YouTube videos for the forms and checking out people on Instagram to see how they lift and it helped me. So I like to post things like that or if you want an easy workout at home.”

Now with COVID-19, a majority of fitness centers and gyms remain closed, meaning active gym users like Zorilla have had to adjust. She says feeling uncomfortable in this setting is really important because it pushes people out of their comfort zone, which has happened significantly because of the coronavirus. 

Prior to the pandemic, Zorilla frequented a commercial gym about four times a week. The location offered the fitness enthusiast somewhere to safely lift weights away from home. She always preferred working out at a gym, so when the social restrictions began, the transition to exercising at home was less than ideal. In fact, Zorilla began to feel bored with her workouts. 

“I gained weight. I gained 10 pounds, which is a lot because I'm a short person and I've never really gotten my weight up. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just for me it was like wow, it felt like my body wasn't moving enough because I wasn't leaving the house…That's when my husband and I decided to build our own home gym. And that changed everything for me. Now that we have weights, barbells, and stuff at home, I'm able to work out four to five days [a week].”

The New York resident then shared insight on how she and her husband gathered all of the equipment and materials they needed for their at-home gym. Zorilla and I had discussed how many gym equipment companies increased the prices for their products because of the rise in demand. Treadmills, weights and other workout devices are typically pricey to begin with, but many went out of stock or saw prices increase when the pandemic forced gyms and fitness centers to close.

“For like 10-15 pound dumbbells, it was like $200-$300, which was really expensive. So we actually went on Facebook market and found a company that was selling things…We were able to get good quality equipment at a reasonable price because the things on Amazon were all sold out or really, really expensive. For us, the most important thing was to get a barbell, some weight plates, and a squat rack. That's what we got at first.”

During the live interview, viewers submitted their questions to Zorilla on both Instagram and Facebook. One person asked how people can stay motivated to make working out a healthy habit. 

“There has to be some sort of discipline. It’s going to be there, but it's not going to last. You cannot rely only on motivation because what’s going to happen is that one day you wake up and you're not going to feel well or you'll feel lazy. This discipline kicks in and you're like, ‘no, I made a commitment, I have to do it and you make it a priority.’... It's all about discipline and making it a priority,” Zorilla responded. 

The PYNKTALKS guest also told viewers to start their own fitness journey by beginning with a few, easier workouts a week for an hour or so. Starting off with intense, laborious exercises that go for hours throughout the week is actually dangerous and can deter the person from continuously working out. Zorilla explains how beginners particularly, should look for sustainable exercises that won’t burn them out. She says working out is a lifestyle about balance and finding the right cycle of exercises that push your limit in a healthy way. Rest days are also vital for muscles to actually feel the effects of the workouts.

“There's something called progressive overload, meaning that you add weight to your workouts as you go, and that's going to help you get stronger. Right now I'm doing the 12-week program and what happened is that you go by blocks of four weeks within that program. I do the same workouts every week so that way, I can track how much I'm lifting…. I think having that structure and having that progressive overload in your workouts will definitely build muscle over time.” 

As the hour-long virtual interview continued, Zorilla and I bonded over our shared Dominican heritage and shifted the conversation toward nutrition and the misconceptions around eating healthy. Zorilla explained her thoughts on intermittent fasting, how supplements play a role in our diet, and the importance of protein consumption.

“They say eating some sort of protein or protein shake maybe an hour after a workout or within that first hour could get absorbed faster into your body, your muscles… I try to do it within the hour just because I get really hungry and it does give your body a source of protein faster within that first hour after your workout. Before workouts sometimes I eat, sometimes I don’t, it depends on how I feel. I don't think it has a crazy effect on your workout. I’ll have some carbs before my workouts if I'm feeling a little tired, but it's not like you have to have a massive meal before your workouts.”

Zorilla closed out the episode by speaking on her experience as an actress in New York and offered advice for other young actors navigating the theater and production scene. For the full, hour-long video interview with fitness enthusiast Jenyffer Zorilla, check out the FYID NYC Instagram and Facebook. 

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