When Grace Bex faced a particularly challenging first pregnancy, she could hardly have imagined the transition and opportunities it would bring into her life. She gave birth 4 weeks early due to preeclampsia and began navigating the unknowns of postpartum recovery. That was in 2017. Now, she’s on the cusp of opening Fayetteville’s only exclusively female fitness facility.
Bex’s journey began when she started sharing her postpartum weight loss journey on social media. Though she had spent her childhood and college years involved in a variety of sports and power-lifting, her new daughter was changing her perspective. There was a new motivation behind her fitness.
“I wanted to take care of myself,” Bex explained, “for [my daughter].”
She began sharing the details of her postpartum workouts, meal plans, and progress. As followers, friends, and family connected with her story and saw that her choices were working, they began to reach out.
“Friends who were like, hey, can you write down what you're doing so I can do it? I was like, okay, yeah, but you know, I'm not certified.”
As time went on, friends and family encouraged her to pursue certification. Bex eventually became a Certified Personal Trainer through Auburn University’s American College of Sports Medicine. She said her business grew rapidly during the first year and a half. During that time she offered training in her “humble” home gym.
In 2019, Army life dictated changes, and Bex and her husband moved to Germany. Bex didn’t expect personal training would keep her busy during their time there, but spent several months advertising her services ahead of the move anyway. When she settled in Germany, she restarted in their 160-square-foot garage.
“I figured, okay, everybody's going to be paying for traveling and whatever, they're not going to want to pay for personal training,” Bex shared. “By the grace of God, I was wrong.”
Her first three months of offering training in Germany were fully booked.
During her time in Germany, Bex began hosting what has since become one of her most popular events, “Ladies Lift Night.” She describes the event as “a night full of empowerment and ladies getting together who potentially wouldn't cross paths otherwise.” The ladies she brings together hail from a variety of backgrounds such as Cross-Fit and Yoga; backgrounds that Bex says often carry the stigma of not getting along in the fitness world.
“These nights are for everybody to come together,” she explained.
When COVID-19 hit, the German government eventually closed all gyms, and Bex decided to permanently close the 10,000-square-foot facility she had purchased and was operating her business in. At that time, she was expecting again, and she and her husband were preparing for a permanent change of station
back to Fayetteville.
Back in the Fayetteville area, she had no intentions of opening another gym and planned on operating Gracefully Fit out of her commercially equipped home gym until her training waitlist grew beyond what she could support there.
She continued living by the motto she had coined for her business years earlier - “Do one thing today that you didn't do yesterday that will change your tomorrow”- and eventually began to see the need for an exclusive women’s gym in the area.
Having now faced three challenging birth experiences - journeys that she feels have given her the ability to relate to other women around her - she wants to create an environment where women can “feel comfortable and heard and seen and related to and the ways that only women can relate to each other.”
Gracefully Fit is set to open their new facility in a to-be-announced location in the first quarter of 2025. A boutique gym, Bex says they’ll focus on a “well-rounded, wellness approach,” offering classes and training in a variety of modalities such as Pilates, yoga, and barre in addition to regular classes. Other offerings will include an on-site cold plunge, sauna, discounted rates on child care at the facility directly next door, and Connect Groups.
“I’m really big on community,” Bex shared.
She said from the beginning of her journey as a personal trainer, clients have wanted spaces to connect, whether virtually or in person. Connect Groups give clients the chance to connect via book clubs, mom groups, and more according to Bex. She hopes clients will use the groups as a place to “find [their] people.”
Find more information on Gracefully Fit’s training packages and stay up to date with developments at https://begracefullyfit.com/

(Grace Bex will be opening a woman only fitness space in Fayetteville in 2025. Bex hopes the gym will bring ladies of all backgrounds together. Photo courtesy of Grace Bex)