Samantha Walker is a young fitness entrepreneur whose refreshing vision for functional fitness is creating accessibility for more people to have access to life-changing fitness.

In 2017, she was serving her Spring Break with Habitat for Humanity and pumping iron with her co-volunteers during their after hours. Little did she know, she was training with the director of the personal training staff and a few other trainers. She was asked to join the team and got her start personal training at the university's Student Recreation and Wellness Center. During this time, she learned more about how exercise is so much more than looking good, but also feeling good. She trained several clients but was also writing programs and giving advice to her friends and family. Despite her love for this, she felt like she could be doing more for her community, so shifted her focus to the discipline of social work and continued training as a hobby on the side.

It was in 2019 that she received her bachelors in social work with a minor in criminal justice from the University of Central Missouri. Through working the front desk at the Career Center, she was connected with an outstanding employment opportunity with a well-renowned engineering company doing human resources work. After years in the human resources field, Walker once again transitioned her career back to health and wellness with the gnawing desire to help others achieve their greatest health. Although her path took her the long route to coming back to personal training, Walker credits her experience in social work to creating the foundation of her coaching strategy: Empowerment.

She was introduced to the world of CrossFit in 2022 and fell in love with the foundations of functional movement and adaptability. Her dream job was presented to her by a non-profit called BlocLife which aims to provide access to fitness and community to people with disabilities. Whilst coaching for the adaptive fitness program, Walker realized a deficit in the CrossFit and fitness space as a whole for beginners. For someone who had never touched a barbell or been into a gym, the classes could be largely intimidating and overcomplicated. She sought out to change this.

Later in 2022, at the age of 24, Walker launched her own personal training business, Sami Leigh Fitness, with a focus on women who want to improve their lives through exercise and nutrition but need help getting started with an effective program. Her programming emphasizes self-love and using fitness as a means to build better habits and a better relationship to one's self. Through this, she hopes to simplify the basics of fitness and nutrition and eliminate the stigma that CrossFit is only for fire-breathers.

Coach Samantha is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Coach, ATA Certified Adaptive and Inclusive Trainer, and CrossFit Level 1 Trainer. She is a proudly sponsored Bodybuilding.com athlete. She embraces her unique coaching style with the aim to put the "fun" in "functional fitness."