Making Fitness Fun: An Interview with Emily Thorne, Founder of EMKFIT

In 2020, Emily Thorne started filming workout videos in her parents’ Ontario, Canada basement.

Four years later, her pandemic project is now a full-time business called EMKFIT, with over half a million YouTube subscribers, a Patreon community with thousands of paid subscribers, and  even branded apparel. She offers a mix of kickboxing, stretching, HIIT (high intensity interval training), LIIT (low intensity interval training), Pilates, and resistance training workouts, all with her brand of humor and spunk. 

With certifications as a personal trainer and a group fitness instructor, Thorne has led EMKFIT live classes in Houston, Texas (where she now lives) and London, England, spreading her message that exercise can be fun and you don’t have to perfect the moves to get a good workout. 

Thorne opens her workout videos with her signature greeting (“What’s up, you clowns?”) then encourages viewers to embrace imperfection with the mantra wrong and strong. Often, her dog Darcy wanders into the camera frame. Fans love Thorne’s quirky personality, her infectious playlists, and her honesty about her own health challenges. Even as her business has grown and the quality of her videos has improved, Thorne remains relatable and human, sharing tidbits from her travels and her life as a Canadian expat in Texas. 

We sat down with her to find out how she got into fitness, why she’s open about her mental health issues, and more. 

‍You've been open with your followers about your mental health journey. Would you tell us about that and the role exercise has played in helping you with your mental health? 

Mental health was the reason I started working out to begin with. At the beginning of university, just like every other person, I gained a little bit of weight. I was feeling really, really self-conscious. I was a dancer in high school, and I was used to dancing like 20-25 hours a week, so to all of a sudden go from that and then be so busy with school, my body wasn't ready for that. 

At the end of first year, my dorm room was broken into, and I was attacked. I was assaulted. So that kind of started all of my mental health issues. I was having panic attacks. I suffered from deep anxiety, a lot of depression and a little bit of PTSD. I was in pretty intense therapy for it, and my mom brought me to her gym to take a boxing class. There was something about regaining control over my own body that helped immensely. 

I realized how important it was for me to have physical activity in my life. I had no idea what I was doing. I had never used a gym before. I would go and just go on the elliptical for like 45 minutes, and I would just look around at all the machines, like I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to do this. But there was something about getting up and moving my body that was insanely helpful, and I truly believe it is the reason why I'm as okay as I am today. 

My experience doesn't define who I am, but it is, unfortunately, what started all of my mental health issues. I still have anxiety, I still have depression, but matter how low I get, by getting up and moving my body, it brings me back. 

I still have anxiety, I still have depression, but matter how low I get, by getting up and moving my body, it brings me back. 

‍You studied theater before getting into the fitness industry. What are some lessons from theater that you think are useful for people looking to get in shape?

You have to be very, very self motivated. No one is going to hand you an acting job, just like no one is going to hand you the body of your dreams. You have to get up and you have to work. 

The biggest thing that I always tell people that struggle with motivation is that you have to go back to your reason why. It’s the same thing with acting. Why do you want to be an actor? It's because this is probably what you love to do. It's your passion, so imagine taking that approach and applying it to fitness. 

I think that you're more likely to stick to a fitness journey if you think of it as something positive. There are so many more benefits to getting up and moving than besides looking good.

‍Tell us about your journey from filming workout videos in your parents' basement to creating a loyal community with in-person events and merch. What was the biggest surprise or obstacle along the way? 

There were many! I had no idea what I was doing. I kind of became a content creator without knowing how to be a content creator. I never looked at this industry as a business. You just think that people post pictures on Instagram and get paid. No, it’s a fully fledged business. And I had to really learn a lot of things that I had no experience in, like getting myself set up as an LLC, getting myself an accountant, learning how to be self employed. That was a whole journey for me. 

But I was actually pleasantly surprised and pretty proud of myself - how I was able to step into that role. You don't learn from your successes, you learn from your failures. When I'm able to overcome an obstacle, there’s no better feeling. 

You don't learn from your successes, you learn from your failures. When I'm able to overcome an obstacle, there’s no better feeling. 

‍What tips would you offer someone who wants to be more active? 

I would tell people to go back to your reason why. A lot of people fail in their fitness journey. I personally believe it’s because they're not going into it with the right mindset. They're probably going into it from a sense of, oh, maybe this personmade a comment about my body, or I didn’t like that picture. It's usually coming from a place of negativity that they feel bad about themselves and they want to change. 

What are some other reasons you want to work out? Is it because you want to get up and run around with your kids? Is it because you want to improve your heart health? Is it because you want to be more healthy? There could be a million different reasons. I think the most important one is because I want to love myself. I want to feel good about myself. If you can go into a workout and leave feeling good, there's no better transformation than that.

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