Today we’d like to introduce you to Channa Izzo.
Channa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I have always been fascinated with the human form. At 7 years old, I started gymnastics. That was my first exposure to what my body was capable of. I continued gymnastics through high school and I also started playing lacrosse in my later high school years. As I applied to colleges, I contemplated physical therapy as a major but I chose graphic design as I was hesitant about the number of years I would need to be in school to pursue a P. T. career. I continued to stay active in college playing lacrosse at UMass Dartmouth. While in design school I was exposed to life drawing which gave me an even deeper understanding of the human body.
I graduated in 1999 and after college continued to play club lacrosse and religiously worked out in local fitness facilities. I took every type of class offered and decided to teach. I was certified in a yoga, tai chi, pilates combo course. While teaching that class I was certified in Personal Training. At the time I was working a full-time job as a User Experience Designer at IBM but I was still very passionate about being engaged in the fitness industry. It was around this time that another Personal Trainer asked me why I would want to personal train when I have such a good job at IBM. Being young and naive I took that comment to heart and put my passion aside to focus on my full-time “money making” gig.
I was married to my wonderful husband, Adam, in 2007 and had our son, Dexter, in 2009. I had continued to frequent the gym and after Dexter was born started running as it was free and available 24/7. The price and time availability was best for us at this stage in our lives. Shortly after, my two-pack a day smoker husband decided he should start running too, you know, for the sake of being around for our family. Being a natural athlete, of course, he was immediately better at running than I was and I decided I should find a new activity. That is when I was introduced to CrossFit.
I woke one morning so sore that I could hardly get out of bed and Adam said to me, “it can’t be that hard.” Well, just a few months later I participated in my very first CrossFit Open. My husband came down and watched a few workouts and decided he would try it out. I repeatedly, reminded him that CrossFit was my “thing” and if it came down to who was going to watch Dexter and who would go to the gym, I would get to go… It hasn’t EXACTLY gone according to plan. A couple of years later we both took the CrossFit Level 1 Trainer course and became CrossFit coaches. As the years passed, Adam poured his soul into CrossFit and has managed to land himself in 3rd Place in the 35-39 age division and is headed to the 2018 Reebok CrossFit Games. He did this all the while running his construction company, Izzo Construction.
I continued to participate in CrossFit physically but also wanted to explore human movement in more depth. I took the CrossFit Movement and Mobility course. That course made me realize that I was still really interested and I wanted to learn more. Next, I enrolled in and completed the Function Movement Systems course. With this knowledge, I felt that I could really start to help people. I will never forget crying joyful tears on my way home from that course thinking, I can make a difference in people’s lives. Twelve20 Wellness, LLC was born. I reached out to local police stations to see if they would be interested in taking part in movement assessments to help identify movement restrictions and offer corrective movements to help resolve those restrictions. I was offered an opportunity to speak at roll call and a number of officers contacted me to participate in the assessments. To be able to help those who put their lives on the line for ours every day was humbling. I am so grateful for that opportunity.
In 2016 I got a fairly severe respiratory infection. The doctors put me on two cycles of prednisone to clear it up. Little did I know that all pain would be masked by this medication. I competed in the 2016 CrossFit Open and pushed my body to its limit. During this time my father’s health had taken a turn for the worse.
In 2004 he had gone into the hospital for back surgery, his heart rate dropped so low they decided to stop the surgery and put in a temporary pacemaker to ensure he made it through the surgery. That was a Friday. Because they don’t do surgeries over the weekend, they put bandages over the open wound. That following Monday, the put in the pacemaker, completed his back surgery and we thought he was on his road to recovery. Little did we know he had contracted MRSA, we believe over the weekend while his wound remained open. It was 11 months of rehab, hospital, rehab, hospital. An absolute nightmare. When he finally made it home, his kidneys were damaged from the numerous cycles of antibiotics and other medications and he had kidney disease. He decided he would NEVER go back into another hospital. My father leveraged alternative medicine/techniques and lived with End Stage kidney disease for 5 years without any Eastern medicine intervention. In Jan of 2016, he did visit his primary care physician and they ended up giving him little time to live.
So back to my 2016 year, after the Opens I had an MRI, it was identified that had a number of herniated discs in my neck. One that was 70% compressing my spinal cord. I needed to have surgery almost immediately. The day I got the call from surgeon to tell me I needed to have surgery as soon as possible was the same day they transported my father from his home to a hospice as he was in his final days. He passed the next day. I was quickly lined up for surgery and the surgeon was going to be using state of the art hardware. Just days before the surgery I got the devastating call that the insurance company would not approve the hardware and I needed to have a fusion. I was going to lose mobility, the thing I had been so passionate about learning and sharing. Well, I decided to use the heartache and pain after my surgery to fuel my next steps. I continued to educate myself so that I could help others avoid the situation I had landed in.
I buried myself in books, took the CrossFit Anatomy course and then found The BioMechanics Method. This method provided me with the tools to identify structural malalignments in my clients and provide movement pattern exercises to help correct them. I had one teen client who had a forward center of gravity and kyphosis of his thoracic spine (rounding of the upper back). Though surprising, this is something our kids will be plagued with if we don’t start teaching them proper posture and getting them out of chairs. Sitting is the worst thing for our bodies but we are forced from 1st grade on to sit in a chair for 6-8 hours a day. Unfortunately, one hour of daily exercise will not resolve this but there are things that we can do throughout the day to help minimize these types of issues. We are taught how to read, write and calculate numbers. Physical education does help but there is not enough focus on our bodies. There is a major deficiency in our education. For the most part, children and adults do not learn about proper nutrition, posture, movement, sleep, etc… I believe this lack of knowledge is resulting in disease and deteriorating the human race. I want to be part of something that helps turn this around. I do my best to educate those that come to me for help.
In 2016, a woman was introduced to me. Her story is the kind of impact I want to make on as many lives as I can. When she walked through the door of my home gym she was nervous and in denial. She thought she ate well. She thought she was active. She could barely make it up a flight of stairs without being winded. She was eating less than 1500 calories a day. She was physically and mentally unhealthy. Her fear of the CrossFit stigma had her in disbelief. She told me she would never go to a gym with other people. She loved hiking with her husband but she was terrified of jumping because she had no trust in her own body. The thought of the fear brought her to tears there with me in the garage. I thought to myself, this is her body, how could she not trust it? I kept her training at her pace. She told me one of her goals was to be able to hike without fear. We got to it. I set up a mini obstacle course consisting of plates and my son’s gymnastic mat. She and my son hopped from object to object and she says “there began my letting go of this mental fear of jumping and trusting myself”.
Fast forward two years, she messaged me the other day to tell me “I had the most fun I have had in a long time just being active and playful. My body can move and climb and jump! More importantly, I feel free, free on the inside, free from the debilitating fear and lack of confidence that I knew for far too long…What I have learned in the gym literally translates into daily living. It’s not about what I ate last night or getting on the scale. It’s about feeling good on the inside. When you push yourself physically and override what your mind is telling you, you gain a tremendous feeling of wellbeing.”
Last year she moved to NH and joined a CrossFit box near her. The woman who said she didn’t feel comfortable going to a gym with others is now supporting newcomers at her local CrossFit box. I feel privileged that she trusted in me and proud of her for reclaiming control of her life.
In the meantime, I have had to have two more levels of my cervical spine replaced, this time with prosthetic discs that allow almost complete range of motion. I am grateful that when I am fully healed I will be able to continue to work with clients, workout and live a healthy lifestyle.
I don’t regret any decisions I have made or feel poorly about any of the experiences I have been through. Each of them has been a necessary stepping stone in my journey. My plan is to continue to grow, learn and educate as many people as I can on their journeys to becoming a better version of themselves.
Has it been a smooth road?
See story but bulleted here:
2016 – Father passed away
2016 – Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) – issues with insurance co
2018 – Cervical Artificial Disc Replacement
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Twelve 20 Wellness – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Twelve20 Wellness offers personal training and physical structural assessments. I offer one on one training sessions and I identify malalignments and movement restrictions, then offer corrective movements (self-myofacial release, stretching and strengthening techniques) to help resolve identified concerns.
I would say I am most proud of my clients, their dedication to resolving their issues, the passion they share with me to become a better version of themselves.
I think that the passion I have for helping others is what sets me apart. I am available nearly 24/7 to my clients. I honestly care about them and want to see them succeed. I never want anyone to go through the challenges I have faced from a physical perspective. If there is something I can do to help I will or I will help them find someone who can help.
Contact Info:
- Website: twelve20wellness.com
- Phone: 781-727-8731
- Email: twelve20wellness@gmail.com
- Instagram: twelve20wellness
- Facebook: @twelve20wellness
Image Credit:
My photo includes My Tribe, the group of individuals who have supported me on this journey.
From left to right: Adam Izzo (husband), Dan Murray, Rachael Murray, Channa Izzo (me), Kerry Sumner, Janine Medeiros, Aaron Sumner and Chris Medeiros.
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