Paris Wright, NASM-Certified Trainer
How It Started
I knew I wanted to work in fitness early. While everyone else was trying to get through PE, I was the one reading about how muscles actually work.
So I studied Sports Medicine — anatomy, biomechanics, recovery, how the body moves and what happens to it under load — and then got certified through NASM.
Barbells and Bows came out of the thing I kept running into: women who were serious about getting strong, with nowhere sensible to start.
How I Coach
I write the program, coach you through it, and change it week to week against what you actually logged.
Here’s what that looks like in practice.
🎀 Form first
I’ll fix it while you’re lifting, not after. Nothing gets heavy until the movement feels right.
🎀 No comment on your body
No weigh-ins, no before photos, no measuring. The hour goes on teaching you to lift. No judgment, and no pressure to be anywhere other than where you are.
🎀 Weekly check-ins
Your program lives in the Trainerize app. I read what you logged and the clips you send me, every week.
🎀 An honest answer
If a written program would serve you better than paying me, I’ll say so at the end of your first session.
🎀 A plan that changes
Sets, reps and weight move against your logged numbers, not against a template.
I’m the founder and head coach of Barbells and Bows. I coach women one to one at 5 Star Fitness in Scottsdale, and online from anywhere else.
I teach the lift itself before any weight goes on the bar. Most of a first month is four movement patterns: squat, hinge, push and pull.
The name isn’t decoration. I got tired of being told I had to pick between being the woman who lifts and the woman who cares how she looks, and I never saw why it had to be one or the other.
Who I Work With
Most of my clients arrive in one of these situations:
🎀 Never lifted before, and not sure where to start
🎀 Coming back after time away from the gym
🎀 Training regularly, but the numbers have stopped moving
🎀 Coming in with an old injury you’ve already had looked at
🎀 Tired of running a program that was never written for them
If you’re not sure which one you are, that’s what a first session is for.
In Scottsdale it’s free.
In-Person Training at 5 Star Fitness
I coach my in-person clients at 5 Star Fitness, 2012 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85257. Every session is written for you and coached one to one — just meet me at the front desk and I’ll get you signed in.
Credentials & Education
🎀 NASM Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT)
The certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine. It covers what I am qualified to do: read how you move, write you a program, coach the lifts, and add weight as you get stronger without the form falling apart. What it does not cover is diagnosis or rehab. I am not a doctor, physical therapist or dietitian, and if something hurts in a way that is not ordinary soreness, I work around it and send you to someone who is.
🎀 Associate’s Degree in Sports Medicine
Two years of anatomy, kinesiology and biomechanics before the certification. It is why I can tell you why a lift is going wrong, and not just that it is.
🎀 What I Get Asked For Most
Fixing form. Glutes and lower body. Somebody’s first session with a barbell. Getting back in after a year or three away. And programming for a woman who has lifted for years and stopped moving.
🎀 Q&A
Q: What inspired you to become a personal trainer?
A: I was the person hovering by the machines because I did not want to walk over to the squat rack and get it wrong in front of anybody. What changed that was not motivation, it was being shown how to do the lifts. Once I could do them properly, the gym stopped being a place I had to talk myself into. That is the part I wanted to hand to other women.
Q: What’s your coaching style like?
A: Structured, and direct. I will tell you what I think, including when I think you do not need me. I would rather you trusted my answer than bought another month of coaching.
Q: What certifications do you have?
A: I am NASM Certified (National Academy of Sports Medicine), one of the top accredited training programs in the country. I also hold an Associate’s Degree in Sports Medicine, which gives me deeper knowledge of biomechanics, injury prevention, and how the body moves.
Q: What type of clients do you specialize in?
A: Beginners, and women coming back after time away. That is most of my list. I also take experienced lifters whose numbers have stopped moving and who want the programming fixed.
Q: What makes Barbells and Bows different from other programs?
A: You get a program written for you, and someone watching you perform it. I change it every week against what you logged. That is the difference between coaching and a PDF.
Q: What’s your philosophy when it comes to fitness?
A: That being strong should make the rest of your life easier, not harder. Better energy, fewer aches, more confidence walking into a room. How you look follows from that. It is not the thing I am aiming at.
Q: What can clients expect when working with you?
A: An hour that is actually coached, and an honest read on where you are. I hold you to a standard because that is what produces anything.
Q: Do you eat the way you talk about eating?
A: Mostly, yes. I cook at home nearly every day, and I do not keep seed oils in my kitchen. Butter, olive oil, avocado oil, that is what I use. It is a preference, and one I have stuck to for a long time.
I am not strict about it outside my own house, though. I go out. I get takeout on a Friday. One basket of wings has never undone anybody’s week, and a plan that only works when you never eat anything you like is not a plan. It is a countdown to quitting.
What I care about is that you are eating enough, that most of what you eat is real food, and that you do not treat one meal as a verdict on yourself. I am a trainer, not a dietitian, so that is as far as I will go. Anything more detailed than that belongs with someone qualified to write it.