Stronger Together: Kaia Gerber and Kirsty Godso are Twin Flames

ALESSANDRA CODINHA How did you two first get—and start moving—together?

KIRSTY GODSO Kaia and I first met in a Pilates class in 2021. One day she was like, ‘Oh, I’d love to train with you.’ We started working out together five times a week, and the rest is history.

ALESSANDRA What do you appreciate the most about each other since you’ve been working together?

KAIA GERBER Oh my God, yeah. Start with the light one.

KIRSTY I think our humor, and our loyalty. We have such a fun time in the gym. Sometimes it’s really difficult being a personal trainer. You are tired, and you are giving away your passion all the time, and working out last or not working out at all. And what I love about Kaia is it never feels like that with her. It feels so reciprocal all the time. She’s such an amazing friend to me. You are my fiercest cheerleader. And I feel like I am yours. Whenever people see us working out together, they’re like, you guys are always laughing, you’re always having a good time. Even if it’s on a day where maybe one of us doesn’t feel that way, we feel better when we walk away from that session.

KAIA There are so many aspects of my life whereI have to show up as a certain person, or a certain idea of a person. And I feel like with KG, I can show up exactly how I am that day. She knows everything about me, and I love not having to explain anything to her. We really stand up for each other and encourage each other to stand up for ourselves. I just find so much strength in her. She's the closest girlfriend I have.

KIRSTY My God, I'm gonna cry. We're getting married.

KAIA I know, these are the vows.

ALESSANDRA What was your fitness background when you started working together?

KAIA l honestly never considered myself to be athletic, and got told in P.E. that I was the least athletic person they had, ever. And when people used to tell me that working out was actually for your mental health, I was like, that's not true. That's crazy. Now I'm one of those people who is like, you know what would really help your mental health?

Being strong is so much about the way that you feel rather than the way that you look.

ALESSANDRA Those are the benefits of this holistic movement-type fitness program, right? Because it's physical. It's mental, and it gives you that emotional feedback, too.

KAIA Yeah, absolutely. Some days that's the only hour of my day where I'm doing something for myself. It's also sometimes the only hour of the day where you're not on your phone. It forces you to really be present and in touch with yourself.

KIRSTY I feel like I’m overwhelmed as a person, and I’m not in the public eye. So I can’t imagine how overwhelming that is if you don’t have a practice to anchor you and help you recalibrate.

KAIA It’s why I love movement so much and what KG and I do together, because your body does not lie to you. It’s so easy to go through life and kind of cast our feelings aside and focus on work or focus on things that feel like they matter, but they don’t. Your body literally does not lie to you. So if you are doing something that is active and really taking that moment to connect with your body, it’s such a smart indication of where we’re at mentally and physically. You can’t fake it. You have to practice patience and acceptance with yourself as well. I really like that. It forces this really honest connection with yourself.

ALESSANDRA Tell me about a training session. What’s the vibe? 

KIRSTY Well. It always starts with caffeine and enthusiasm. We take care of the body with activation, foam rolling. And then she’ll go through a really impressive cardio warm up that’s not for the lighthearted. We do it all. We do strength. We do Pilates based stuff. We do running, we do high intensity, we do conditioning, we stretch. Recovery is much better when you have a well rounded training plan. But I think the most important thing is our training sessions are so focused because Kaia is so diligent. I only have to tell her something once and then that’s it, she knows it. So we can get through so much work because she’s so present in that hour. That allows us to absolutely maximize that time, and get the most out of whatever she needs in the session.

KAIA What I’ve noticed with the work that I’ve been doing with KG is that it applies to so many different parts of my life. I see the benefits across so many different areas.

KIRSTY It’s funny. I think mentally, too, we’re wired the same way. We have the same drive. We are both bad about boundaries and different things.

KAIA We both give too much. But I also think I was, you know, from a very young age in an industry that is very look oriented. And so working with KG has helped change my relationship to physical activity and strength. You might have a specific way you thought that you would want to look, but it’s not the way that you feel the best. Sometimes we set these standards on ourselves that are not actually healthy.

KIRSTY When we first met, one of the first things you said to me was I want to feel strong. And I thought it was really cool, because I think you were 20 at the time. Not many 20-year-olds would. People are like, oh, I want to look like this.

KAIA I spent so many years thinking I want to look like this, that by the time we met, I was ready to just feel good. Like, I think I would like to feel now. [laughs] I’d like to feel healthy.

KIRSTY That’s the thing, too, with fitness in general. You hear people talk about it all the time, how do you want to look? I always ask people, how do you feel today? Because if you tell me how you feel, that’s a better barometer. I always tell people, yo, you can have the best body of your life. But if you never see it that way and you don’t feel connected with yourself, it doesn’t matter, it’s for nothing.

KAIA You won’t even be able to appreciate it.

KIRSTY And I think what’s fun, too, is when you train someone is making it personal. Okay, what are your goals? What is your current structure? Are you getting ready for a role? Do you have a show coming up? Do you have this? Do you have this? We can factor in all those things. And then she’s also just like, ‘I want to run a six minute mile.’ I’m like great, okay cool. We’re going to slot that in on this day.

KAIA We’ll set random goals that are just personal.

KIRSTY Just for fun goals. It’s shocking to me that someone told you you’re not athletic because you’re so coordinated. So I’m like, who is this evil person? Like, you can’t say stuff like this to a child.

KAIA But that’s the thing is, the things that your teachers say to you when you’re little —

KIRSTY You believe it.

KAIA You remember it. And it’s a story you tell yourself for the rest of your life. That’s why I love KG, she’s so proud of me.

KIRSTY She’s like, I’m a terrible runner. I’m like, no, babe, I hate to break it to you...

KAIA I would get a doctor’s note to get out of running the mile. And now KG’s like, we’re getting on the treadmill. And I’m so excited.

KIRSTY She’s like: Here we go!

KAIA But you have to be around someone who’s encouraging and lifts you up. I want positive reinforcement, I want encouragement. And that wasn’t always given to me. So I think like having that, like I just want to make her proud.

KIRSTY I’m so proud.

ALESSANDRA What have you learned about yourself through coaching, or being coached?

KIRSTY It’s important on the days that you don’t care about yourself that someone else can care for you and remind you why you’re there. Working out can be a very personal pursuit, and sometimes it can be a little bit lonely. So having a coach is just this accountability metric. It feels like you’re doing it with someone. That makes it feel a lot more doable. And there’s something really self-fulfilling about making people feel better about themselves. Like that’s a win for both of us.

ALESSANDRA Any fitness myths you want to dispel?

KAIA Being a young woman, there’s so much noise about how you’re supposed to look. So I loved that KG asked me, how do you want to feel? Especially on the days where I’m like, I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to go to the gym. I don’t want to do it. Afterwards you feel so good because you’re like, I can do hard things! 

KIRSTY I really want people to see that Kaia is such a positive role model, because I don’t think they understand her mental relationship with fitness and how healthy it is. It’s not the use and abuse thing we see a lot. It’s really just about being like, hey, you should want to take care of your body and take care of your mind through making good and healthy decisions.

KAIA My mom started [working out] at a pretty young age too. And she never let that go. Even with having children and everything. It’s been such a constant in her life and it still is. And that always really inspired me. So once I formed that relationship with fitness myself, I was like, oh yeah, you marry it. You don’t just date it. 

KIRSTY Because once you know how you feel it’s hard to go back. Even when sometimes we’re like, oh, I should go out to this thing, it’d be fun. But I really just want to get up and feel good in the morning and go to the gym.

KAIA People might think we’re boring, but actually, if you see us in the gym, we’re not boring! We’re very exciting! 

KIRSTY We are having a blast.

Words and images from the Nike Women Zine, Volume 1.