Fay­ola K J Fras­er

Tri­cia Thomp­son’s jour­ney has tak­en many un­ex­pect­ed turns, and she has carved out a niche in a part of the fit­ness world that few peo­ple fo­cus on or rep­re­sent. When Thomp­son set out for Flori­da In­ter­na­tion­al Uni­ver­si­ty (FIU) in Mi­a­mi many years ago, she imag­ined a fu­ture in law. But mid­way through her stud­ies, she dis­cov­ered mar­ket­ing—a field that played to her love of writ­ing and cre­ativ­i­ty. Af­ter com­plet­ing her de­gree in Busi­ness Ad­min­is­tra­tion with a fo­cus on Mar­ket­ing, she re­turned to Trinidad and con­fi­dent­ly stepped in­to the cor­po­rate world as an ex­port man­ag­er in the mar­ket­ing in­dus­try, where she thrived for sev­en years.

Al­though she made great strides in the cor­po­rate world, Thomp­son still sought deep­er ful­fil­ment, and life soon steered her in a new di­rec­tion. Af­ter mar­ry­ing and mov­ing back to Mi­a­mi, she main­tained her con­sis­tent gym rou­tine—a prac­tice she had al­ways loved—while wait­ing for au­tho­ri­sa­tion to work.

Dur­ing that time, she de­cid­ed to pur­sue a grad­u­ate de­gree that aligned with her pas­sion for fit­ness. “The num­bers-heavy busi­ness stud­ies didn’t ap­peal to me,” she re­calls, but Bar­ry Uni­ver­si­ty’s Move­ment Sci­ence pro­gramme did. What be­gan as cu­rios­i­ty evolved in­to a mas­ter’s de­gree—and with it, a brand-new ca­reer path.

Her first ex­pe­ri­ences in car­diac re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion, how­ev­er, were less than in­spir­ing. She soon piv­ot­ed to move­ment sci­ence, which proved a bet­ter fit for her in­ter­ests and en­er­gy.

When Thomp­son re­turned home, she “trad­ed in her cor­po­rate heels for sneak­ers”, teach­ing ex­er­cise class­es at her four favourite out­door “of­fices”—the Sa­van­nah, Chan­cel­lor Hill, Holo­lo, and the Sta­di­um. It was dur­ing this pe­ri­od that she met her men­tor, or­thopaedic sur­geon Dr David To­by, who en­cour­aged her to think be­yond gen­er­al fit­ness. Through his guid­ance, she iden­ti­fied an un­der­served pop­u­la­tion: old­er adults nav­i­gat­ing or­thopaedic is­sues, surgery re­cov­ery, and func­tion­al de­cline.

In­stead of younger clients chas­ing quick weight loss or Car­ni­val-ready bod­ies, Thomp­son found her pur­pose in help­ing clients over 50 re­dis­cov­er in­de­pen­dence, mo­bil­i­ty, and con­fi­dence. Draw­ing on her mar­ket­ing back­ground, she re­brand­ed her­self and, in 2013, opened her own busi­ness—One80 Fit­ness Stu­dio in Wood­brook.

The de­ci­sion was deeply per­son­al: the stu­dio sits where her grand­par­ents once lived, a space im­bued with fam­i­ly lega­cy. Her first clients were pri­mar­i­ly obese or over­weight, so she de­signed the gym with em­pa­thy—re­cum­bent bikes, mod­i­fied equip­ment, and an at­mos­phere free of in­tim­i­da­tion. This ap­proach tran­si­tioned nat­u­ral­ly when she be­gan fo­cus­ing on old­er clients, mak­ing the space es­pe­cial­ly wel­com­ing to peo­ple of­ten alien­at­ed by tra­di­tion­al gyms.Her niche quick­ly be­came clear. “No­body was pay­ing at­ten­tion to the 50-plus de­mo­graph­ic,” Thomp­son ex­plains. “I of­fer main­ly re­sis­tance train­ing, which is a phase many old­er peo­ple think they have by­passed.” Word spread fast. Doc­tors be­gan re­fer­ring pa­tients prepar­ing for or re­cov­er­ing from hip and knee re­place­ments, man­ag­ing sci­at­i­ca, or deal­ing with bal­ance and strength is­sues. Women en­ter­ing menopause and old­er men work­ing on pelvic floor health al­so sought her out. Over time, neu­rol­o­gists, gen­er­al prac­ti­tion­ers, and spe­cial­ists be­gan col­lab­o­rat­ing with her, con­fi­dent she would con­tin­ue the care they had be­gun. To­day, her clients range from their 50s to their 90s—all on per­son­al jour­neys cen­tred around build­ing mus­cle, main­tain­ing func­tion­al­i­ty, and pre­serv­ing in­de­pen­dence.

For Thomp­son, fit­ness is as much about psy­chol­o­gy as it is about phys­i­ol­o­gy. She learns every client’s his­to­ry “down to a T”, craft­ing per­son­alised pro­grammes that strength­en both body and mind­set. “I tell them it’ll be hard un­til it no longer is,” she says, de­scrib­ing the ful­fil­ment she feels when clients can get up from low seat­ing un­aid­ed or move with re­newed con­fi­dence. Over the years, her stu­dio has evolved in­to more than a gym—it’s a com­mu­ni­ty pow­ered by laugh­ter, en­cour­age­ment, and ac­count­abil­i­ty.

Clients’ tes­ti­mo­ni­als speak vol­umes about her im­pact. A 70-year-old be­gin­ner, in­ac­tive for two decades, de­scribed walk­ing in­to One80 Fit­ness “ter­ri­fied but de­ter­mined”. Three weeks lat­er, she was ex­er­cis­ing three times a week, down six pounds, and feel­ing “more alive than in years”. An­oth­er client, Joanne, 58, shared, “I feel stronger and phys­i­cal­ly much bet­ter af­ter each work­out. Tri­cia is easy to get along with, en­cour­ag­ing, and makes the work­out seem eas­i­er.” At 66, Ar­lene C cred­its the stu­dio for her re­newed steadi­ness and joy. “Every ses­sion re­minds me that at my age I can still be stronger, stead­ier, and more flex­i­ble.”

For Lin­da, 69, and David, 74, the ex­pe­ri­ence has been one of ca­ma­raderie and vi­tal­i­ty. “We’ve been train­ing with Tri­cia (sep­a­rate­ly) for more than three years, and we both al­ways en­joy the work­outs and ca­ma­raderie. She keeps us young!” An­oth­er client re­called ini­tial trep­i­da­tion about join­ing a gym: “When I first at­tend­ed, I was ner­vous and didn’t know what to ex­pect. But Tri­cia made me feel com­fort­able and al­lowed me to train at my own pace. I re­al­ly ap­pre­ci­at­ed her ap­proach.”

These tes­ti­mo­ni­als re­flect not on­ly phys­i­cal progress but the trust, care, and emo­tion­al bonds Thomp­son has built with her clients—bonds that make her, as she says, “an adopt­ed daugh­ter” to many.

The work, though re­ward­ing, is not with­out heart­break. Thomp­son has faced the sor­row of los­ing clients in their lat­er years, even as she cel­e­brates their vic­to­ries. Yet she views her role as a bless­ing—help­ing peo­ple re­main strong, in­de­pen­dent, and vi­brant for as long as pos­si­ble. Be­yond fit­ness ses­sions, she’s now plan­ning so­cial gath­er­ings for her clients to dress up, dance, and re­dis­cov­er joy. “I tell them to stop think­ing they are old tanties,” she laughs, as she pre­pares for an up­com­ing lime on the Av­enue where her clients can dance the night away.

To­day, Tri­cia Thomp­son is more than a fit­ness coach. She is a move­ment spe­cial­ist, a men­tor, and a mo­ti­va­tor—a vi­tal bridge be­tween med­i­cine and well­ness. Her sto­ry is one of rein­ven­tion, re­silience, and re­defin­ing what it means to age with grace and strength.

For her clients, it isn’t just a stu­dio; it’s a com­mu­ni­ty where lim­i­ta­tions are chal­lenged, in­de­pen­dence is pre­served, and laugh­ter and com­pan­ion­ship make the hard work worth­while.

Thomp­son can be reached at one80fitt@gmail.com or on In­sta­gram at @tri­cia.thomp­son.one80fs.