Local Folks: Britt Aubley

By Jennifer Jensen

San Marco trainer brings ‘sparkle’ to personal fitness

Sprint. Squat. Sparkle. These three words are somewhat of a mantra for fitness enthusiast and personal trainer Britt Aubley.

“Sometimes I run, sometimes I sprint, but I always sparkle,” Aubley said. “I have so much energy and leftover glitter, so I leave some sparkle all around.”

Aubley started her own personal training business, Britt Fitt, in San Marco, about nine months ago after gaining fitness and coaching experience at other gyms. Her tagline is “Spark Your Strength,” and she felt like it was a good combination of boot camp Britt and sparkle Britt.

“Jacksonville is full of so many people, and I’d like to stand out not only for my business, but also for my own personal self, and myself as an athlete,” Aubley said. “And I love the whole ‘spreading glitter’ thing.”

Her goal is to grow not only the physical strength of her clients, but also their mental and emotional strength as well.

“It takes confidence to be able to come in here, have someone tell you what to do and go through a program,” Aubley said. “For every client that comes in, they come in one person and come out a completely new and better version.”

Aubley’s fitness journey began when she started swimming at 12 years old. She joined the swim club at Bolles and got noticed, earning her a spot on Bolles’ high school team. She earned an athletic scholarship to swim at Florida Southern College, where she was an All-American athlete and earned a degree in exercise science.

After graduating in 2018, she moved to Portland, Oregon, to work as a physical therapy aide. She also helped with insurance and booking.

“I was the catch-all person,” she said. “I learned a lot.”

While there, she started working out at Orange Theory and loved it. When she moved back to Jacksonville a year later, she maintained that membership. She was at the gym so often, in fact – sometimes twice a day – that employees encouraged her to work there. She began as a sales associate and eventually became a coach. She fell in love with it and officially decided to make the switch from physical therapy to fitness.

Shortly after, Aubley was promoted and became the manager of three locations in Orlando.  

“It was a fun three years of Orange Theory, but I hit my ceiling,” she said. “I learned everything that I could learn there.”

She decided it was time to take on personal training on her own.

“I have this background knowledge of college swimming to exercise science to group fitness, to a little bit of F45,” Aubley said. “I had such a great background knowledge of fitness that I wanted to run people through my own program.”

Aubley began working as a fitness instructor at San Jose Country Club. This wasn’t her first time working there. In college, she was the kid’s swim coach. As a fitness instructor, she taught group classes and personal training.

“That just exploded, because I knew some of the families from before,” Aubley said. “And all my little kids were now big kids. It was just really easy for me to connect to all these people, because I already knew a baseline of them.”

But the country club started renovating its fitness center, and in the meantime, Aubley didn’t have a space for her classes. Rather than wait for the long renovation, she decided it was time to move on, launching Britt Fitt.

In addition to previous fitness clients from her country club stint, Aubley has attracted clients from her side gig at Row House.

“It’s a perfect symbiosis of lifting weights over here and do cardio over there,” she said.

When Aubley isn’t busy with her business, she enjoys running with the PRS Running Club and participating in races. The “love of her life,” her German shepherd Rex, helps her train and even joined her for several miles of the Donna Marathon in February.

“He’s 100 pounds of love,” she said.

Aubley has also continued to swim, currently with the Duval Ocean Swimmers. She is also signing up for a triathlon: Aubley started with the sprint triathlon last year and will do the Olympic this year.

“My goal is to do an Iron Man one day,” she said.

Aubley attributes a lot of her success and dedication to a good support system, including her brother Bruce, who works for Alter Ego Running.

“I want to make sure the Aubleys are well known for fitness,” she said.

Her parents, Lisa and Bruce, have always been there for her as well.

“My family is the backbone for me being able to do everything I do,” she said. “They’re hard workers so that their kids can do whatever they need to be successful and be happy and be healthy.”

With a strong family, friends and community support, Aubley hopes to open her own gym near the Riverwalk in the next few years. She’d also like to have access to an outdoor space and incorporate a recovery area with ice baths, foam rolling, compression sleeves, massage therapists and chiropractors.

“The goal is to have that all in one room, in house,” Aubley said, “so, it’s just one big cycle.”

Years from now, she’ll be the massage therapist aiding people after she’s trained her own coaches.

“Jacksonville is going to be such a flourishing city,” Aubley said. “I want to be a part of that growth of health.”