Lea's story

Lea Goldsmith

Since her first appearance as a Figure Competitor at the Las Vegas Classic 2002, Lea was hooked on the excitement of competing and being on stage. As a child, Lea spent years on stage singing and dancing, but as she grew older, her attention turned towards gymnastics, cheerleading and the fitness world.

Born and raised in Cleveland, OH, Lea's life revolved around staying fit and healthy. At two days old, she was diagnosed with multiple congenital defects and had her first heart surgery at 3 months of age. Because of her diagnosis, it was imperative that Lea maintain a healthy lifestyle. At a very young age, she learned the importance of staying strong and eating healthy. Unfortunately her many surgeries, and her first open heart surgery at the age of 5 yrs. made it challenging to run, play and live the normal life of a child. But she persevered and made a vow to herself to make positive choices in her life that would help keep her healthy and maintain balance in all aspects of her life.

Lea began working out at the age of 15 and immediately became accustomed to the "gym" atmosphere. She thrived on the energy from the environment, the positive reinforcement from peers, and the shear adrenaline of the endorphins. More importantly, she saw the benefits from keeping her heart healthy and actually began reversing her heart defects by constantly conditioning the heart and keeping it healthy. Moving forward in life, Lea decided to make her passion her career. She obtained a degree in Exercise Physiology from Bowling Green State University and had a heavy focus on cardiac rehab. After working her way towards upper level management roles in the fitness industry, Lea shifted her focus to more of a "whole body health" approach, and pursued post-graduate studies in nutrition and wellness counseling. The combination of cardiovascular conditioning, strength training, flexibility, optimal nutrition and mental health are the pinnacle components of overall wellness, which sparked the creation of Lea's current facility, Maximize Fitness, Total Wellness.

Moving forward, Lea hopes to branch into a larger scale wellness center, and provide clinical care with a holistic approach. In the meantime, she will continue to work with local community partners to provide health and wellness education for North Ridgeville and beyond.