Alyssah Hall
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Jamaican-born, Florida-raised fitness trainer and nutrition and wellness coach Roxan Tucker has been living in California for nine years now. Formerly a physical therapist assistant, Tucker obtained her LLC and started her fitness training under ROXYB FIT in 2019, with the mission to help women enhance their mind and body confidence.
Tucker offers in person training services to women in Chino Hills, Corona, Riverside, Chino and Eastvale. She also offers wellness coaching via her online app Boddied by ROXYB.
“I grew up really shy and having self-esteem issues. My biggest driving force is helping women feel strong and confident,” Tucker said.
Tucker and her husband moved to the IE in December 2017, with their two children and four-month-old baby for her husband’s job. With her husband at work, daughters in school, and no nearby family or friends to help her out with the newborn, Tucker became a stay-at-home mom for two years. During this time, she experienced postpartum depression and needed an outlet to help her through it. So, she began her fitness journey.
“Postpartum plays such a mental role with your body change. Your body feels different. Your bones feel different. Especially a lot of first time moms are not used to seeing themselves after,” Tucker stated.
“Your schedule changes. If you are a super independent person, now you have someone that’s dependent on you, so that messes with your mood,” Tucker continued.
When Tucker was cleared to work out again after giving birth, she began to notice that her stomach wasn’t going down. Because of her physical therapy background, she knew how to test herself for diastasis recti, which is a separation of the muscles along the midline of the abdomen that can affect women after pregnancy. Tucker discovered that she had diastasis recti and that her ab was separated at the furthest that it could be.
While dozens of studies have been conducted regarding the prevalence of diastasis recti, many have limitations due to the sample size, however, an analysis of several studies noted that the condition occurs in both pregnant and postpartum women, “with a prevalence rate of 70% in the final trimester of pregnancy, 60% at six weeks after delivery, and 30% at 12 months.
“I remember being so sad and depressed. That was one of the things that’s kind of forced my postpartum. Also, just knowing that I was working so hard and my stomach just was not changing was very, very frustrating. I’d lost all the weight. I was doing so much. I was so disciplined. I was so motivated, and that just really killed my spirit,” Tucker said.
Tucker said that diastasis recti can correct itself, but not always, and that in some cases it can get so wide that it causes a woman’s stomach to protrude or look like a“pooch.” Tucker shared that a lot of women don’t know about diastasis recti and that doctors don’t tend to educate women on it, so it’s something she is passionate about educating women about.
“[Women with diastasis recti] can work out, do abs, all they want to, and they’ll feel so defeated because they don’t understand why their stomach isn’t going down, not knowing that they have to heal that part of them first; train differently, eat differently, posture changes, all the things that they have no idea about,” Tucker stated.
As a stay-at-home mom Tucker began to transform her body through her workouts and found community by joining Facebook mom groups that she would meet up with. Eventually, she started inviting the other moms to workout with her and also shared some of her workouts on Instagram.
Tucker’s former physical therapy associate from Florida sent her a message complimenting her on her workouts, and suggested she become a trainer. Tucker never considered being a trainer, but one day, she decided to research fitness trainers and decided to get certified. Her expertise in physical therapy played a role in her confidence as she entered the fitness field. She began to train people in her garage. For Tucker, the community aspect of fitness makes the journey more fun, inspiring and motivating.
“I started off not really sure what I was doing, and it started off as a hobby…but then the more I saw that I was helping people feel confident and feel strong and feel good, the more it got me excited,” Tucker said.
Longevity is another motivational factor for Tucker. As a physical therapist assistant, she worked with a lot of older adult patients who had knee issues, back issues and other ailments as a result of not properly caring for their bodies. Tucker shared that although she wants her clients to look good, it’s not just about the “aesthetics” of fitness. She wants them to feel good on the inside as well. Her main focuses in her training are longevity, mobility, strength and for her clients to live long, healthy and fulfilled lives.
Tucker’s coaching can be somewhat therapeutic for clients as she also dives deep into wellness using a holistic approach. She needs to understand her clients’ relationship with food, their sleep pattern, and their stress levels, so she can create a well suited plan for them.
“I’m honestly so proud of myself because I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot for someone who jumped into such a saturated market, and I feel like I’ve done a lot, and I can be proud. It could be over today, and I could be proud,” Tucker said.
This article is part of the 2025 Black Voice News Series, Good Black Jobs: Advancing Meaningful Work and Wealth in the Inland Empire. This reporting initiative is funded through a grant provided by Thrive Inland SoCal Catalyst Fund in partnership with the Inland Empire Community Foundation.