Power and perseverance: Three Asian Americans who made fitness their mission

By Nina Huang
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Andrea U-Shi Chang, owner and lead instructor at Kettlebility in Seattle, discovered kettlebells in 2005.

Chang grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her family owned a Chinese restaurant. Despite her father being Chinese and her mother being white, Chang’s mother was the amazing chef that ran the restaurant.

She grew up playing sports and was even an elite soccer player that walked onto the University of New Mexico team when she was in high school. She ended up graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin and also played soccer there. After that, she moved to Seattle.

She later established herself as a successful real estate professional and did that for about 25 years. After being married to her then-husband for many years, they had their first kid when she was 36.

When he was about 2 years old, Chang woke up one morning and wondered what happened to her because she was waking up feeling aches and pains after gaining weight from her pregnancy. She had gained 50-60 pounds and had weighed about 200 pounds. She had always been big-boned, but she wasn’t feeling good. Though she was still physically active, playing competitive tennis, and going to the gym, things weren’t physically coming together for her.

A friend who worked for the fire department suggested she start thinking more about her diet and told her to read the book, “Power to the People!” by Pavel Tsatsouline. Tsatsouline is known for starting the Western movement in kettlebells and the founder of the educational system called StrongFirst. StrongFirst is a certification that teaches enthusiasts and coaches to get certified to teach others how to use kettlebell safely.

The book got her onto the road of fitness.

Chang learned to get strong, move better, and use the kettlebell as a tool.

It’s a full-body movement that gets your brain and body working together—helping you get stronger, stay safe with good posture, and figure out how to move well with different kinds of weight.

“The goal is to empower people to do more. It’s about helping people be the best they can be in their bodies; giving them support, education, skills, and fine coaching to meet people where they’re at to help them be better. That’s what I’m passionate about. We masquerade as a kettlebell gym, but we’re about helping people move better, feel better, look better naked, and have fun doing it,” she said.

“Anybody can do it. Kettlebell is amazing and everybody should do it,” she said.

She picked up the kettlebell fast.

“It made me feel like I felt when I played soccer. This is amazing and I was just bitten by the bug. It was so compelling and it was helping me change my mentality and physicality,” she said.

Chang lost 50 pounds in just six months. It was a gift to herself and she signed up for the kettlebell certification.

At the time, she attended a Russian kettlebell challenge that was a three-day onslaught. It was a really challenging event and dominated by men, but there was a woman instructor there as well.

Chang said the kettlebell community was supportive and everyone had the same goal to teach people how to move better, be stronger, and how to use the kettlebell system that Tsatsouline started.

“It absolutely changed my life,” she said.

After she got certified, she came home to Seattle and hit the ground running. She started off by taking on personal training sessions, and then in 2009, she opened the first kettlebell gym in Seattle in the Roosevelt neighborhood.

Chang said that the precise training modality gets people’s brains working better with their bodies, which enables people to make changes in their daily life outside of Kettlebility.

Chang said that if kettlebell instruction is done correctly, it can help people move better, lose weight, or gain weight.

“It’s quick and efficient and you don’t have to spend hours at the gym,” she said.

Now at 59 years old, Chang is a Master SFG Instructor (the only one in Washington state), a Certified Kettlebell-Functional Movement Specialist, Ground Force Method Global Instructor, Training for Warriors certified, and a Z-Health Certified Movement Coach.

A Master is considered the most senior level of StrongFirst instructor certifications and they run an instructor certification in which students are broken up into teams of up to 16.

To be StrongFirst certified, one must also pass a skills and strength test, and it’s not the typical personal trainer certification, Chang explained.

Kettlebility sees people from all walks of life and various ages and ability levels.

“We get to leave life crap outside the door, come in, have a laugh, learn how to pick up heavy stuff, and in the process, you’re stronger, more durable, and more resilient,” Chang said.

She said that she feels lucky to have been given the trust and ability to have been seen as a good instructor, and that she’s trusted to teach the StrongFirst system to other people.

“It’s really such an honor, you get to make real changes. We keep them safe and get them stronger,” she said.

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Lizelle Hufana grew up in the martial arts world because her parents owned Bellevue Martial Arts Academy. Physical sport and fitness was already in her blood.

Reflecting on her childhood and seeing her parents own their business, she saw the passion and sacrifices, which transferred to her. She grew up doing martial arts, playing sports in high school, and generally being athletic. She knew she was passionate about movement, fitness, and health. When she discovered Pure Barre, she saw that as an avenue to live through that passion.

Hufana was introduced to Pure Barre 13 years ago. Pure Barre is a full-body workout through the mind and body. It’s a musically-driven group class that focuses on low impact and small movements that strengthen and tone your entire body in 50 minutes or less, she said.

“I had a very secure stable desk job but always felt the need to seek out a career change that would challenge me. I couldn’t pinpoint at the time where and what I needed in life until the opportunity to become a Pure Barre franchise came along. Now I’m in my eighth year of ownership for the Redmond studio,” she said.

“Over the last 13 years, she’s seen the Pure Barre technique grow and without fail, the full body movement just continued to deliver results,” she said.

Hufana keeps physically, mentally, and emotionally on point by taking a minimum of three classes a week.

“That tends to be the sweet spot for me. The other thing I love about it is the mental focus and energy you pour into it, to be present in class, can be the most challenging part. We tend to always have distractions that deter us from coming into class. But by giving one hour of the day, as soon as you get there, the team takes care of the rest, to help you be present,” she said.

Hufana’s focus is to cultivate a safe third space that anyone who chooses to walk through their doors can feel comfortable being a beginner again. She said that it can be an uncomfortable feeling to be brand new to something. She added that she spreads the same culture and values into the community to ensure psychological safety when she’s hiring for new team members.

Her proudest achievement was also her toughest one—navigating the craziness of the pandemic. The studio and being a franchisee forced her to focus on the positivity and create an avenue for people to move, which was her priority.

Coming from a Filipino traditional background, pride of ownership is held on a pedestal.

“I’m super proud of where I come from—proud of my family’s accomplishments and how much we care for others. It’s very much a lead by example thing that I grew up and saw every day. It’s a culture where I learned to give back and these characteristics feel very innate. It’s very much who I am and that’s really how I try to lead with my team and business,” she said.

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When David Leong was 8 years old, he used to chat with his grandmother about how he would use chopsticks to eat dinner at home, and use a fork to eat his American lunch at school.

Leong is a third-generation Chinese American that was brought up in a strict, traditional Chinese family with Western education.

“I understood early in life that the route I wanted to take in life growing up as a Chinese boy in America is to get the best of the East and the best of the West together,” he said.

Growing up, Leong was a sports enthusiast. He played a little bit of everything: basketball, tennis, football, soccer, and baseball. He eventually was introduced by his uncle, Grandmaster John Leong, to Chinese Kung Fu when he was 6. That’s when he started his initial training.

John started the first organized Kung Fu school in the Pacific Northwest in 1962.

“I really give my uncle a lot of credit for helping establish my interest and desire in pursuing a Kung Fu journey in life, which I’m still on. As I got older, I realized this journey never ends, it’ll go until the day I’m not there because there’s so much to learn in between the layers,” David said.

“Kung Fu has permeated my life in every way, world travels, film, entertainment, business, local and world experiences,” he said.

There’s always one connection that he resorts to—his disciplined Kung Fu training. Kung Fu always gave him the confidence to interact in different scenarios in business and social settings.

Even though he is at the sifu (master) level and has been doing Kung Fu for over 50 years, he still considers himself a student forever.

For example, he still practices some of the early techniques he learned when he was 6 years old. Though some things may have changed a bit, the techniques in terms of strength, power generation, and application are still the same.

Leong opened his first Kung Fu school in Belltown in 2004. It was a place of safety and meditation, but it’s uniquely traditional yet modern.

He said it runs like an old traditional Kung Fu school keeping traditions and legacies, but at the same time, he’s incorporated modern aspects of the Western society into his school. He has transformed his schooling from a three-hour training session to one hour.

Leong added that he’s finally found a good formula now that’s fun and also very effective for both kids and adults.

He opened Northwest Kung Fu and Fitness in the Chinatown-International District in 2018.

Before David’s father passed, he gave him his blessing and told him that he needed to open up a school in Chinatown-International District. Having always adhered to and respected filial piety, David knew he had to do what his father said.

“I don’t do this for business or to make money. I do it for payback to see them develop into strong warriors. For boys, I tell them to learn to be a gentleman and a scholar, but be a fighting warrior when you need to be. For girls, I tell them to be a lady and a scholar, but be a warrior princess when you need to be,” he said.

David said a lot of families visit the school on Saturdays to see the action. He encourages parents to talk to other parents and that’s his approach to show them the culture of East meeting West.

“Everything I’ve done is somehow related to my conversation with my grandma about Eastern and Western cultures,” he said.

His martial arts training—foundation of hard work, resilience, sacrifice, discipline, pain, and more helped him overcome race obstacles and other challenges he’s had to face.

His Kung Fu training and meditation has helped him navigate his different roles as a caretaker, actor, instructor, and businessman.

David looks back at his career and doesn’t consider himself super successful, but he’s proud of the fact he was a pioneer in different fields—being the first to introduce poke to the Seattle region in 1984 and winning the International Models & Talent Association’s annual competition in 1994 when Asians weren’t in the forefront of the entertainment business. He’s opened 12 businesses in his career—SpiceUp Szechuan Cuisine in Belltown is his current one.

He recalled walking into a computer class during his first year at the University of Washington smelling like fish because he had just finished helping chop fish for his parents’ seafood distribution company.

The students had just received their first quiz and after five minutes, David got up and told his teacher that he wasn’t going to complete the quiz because he wasn’t interested in the topic. The teacher told him that computers are the future and that he should be interested because it’s going to be successful. David thought to himself and said, “I’m going to rely on these hands to find success,” left that class, and never looked back.

David never made it to Hollywood as an actor, but he spent some time in Asia in the entertainment industry. Filial piety and family respect always took precedent when it came to making decisions. He had to care for his mother and grandmother at various points of his life.

“It’s been a very educational life. Learning martial arts from my uncle is the discipline that’s carried me through as I look forward to the next phase of my life,” he said.

Nina can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.