LITITZ -- She's gone from hurting people to helping people.
Leah Mellinger, a former high school cheerleader turned beauty pageant contestant turned professional boxer, is still a champion; only now she's a champion for fitness.
Mellinger now works a personal trainer, incorporating boxing, of course, in some of the workouts she brings to the privacy of people's own homes. "I had one client tell me I was the MacGyver of fitness," said Mellinger, referring to the former television hero who was a jack-of-all-trades. "I will just grab anything and I can make it into a workout."
CBS 21 News met up with Mellinger, 40, who trains and travels around the area using the business name
Get TKO Fit; as well as some of her clients at a home in Lancaster County.
She used a workout ball with Aubri Sweeney, who claims to have dropped a pants size in the short time she's worked with Mellinger.
Mellinger then wrapped the hands of Pete Scherer for a boxing workout. When the fists stopped flying and the gloves came off, he was beat. "To me, it's not boring at all," said Scherer of his workout routine. "It's something new every time."
"I also like the punching things, the boxing (part)," added Sweeney. "It's very therapeutic."
Boxing was more than that to Mellinger.
She went 11-5-1 and won the IWBF and IFBA Light Welterweight titles before injuries forced her to retire. "It was my whole world," she said. "I ate, slept, drank (boxing). Everything I did was training and having one singular goal and that was it."
Now her goal is to help others reach their goals.
Even though she's not boxer anymore, when the bell sound on her phone rings during a training session, her instincts take over.
Leah Mellinger knows its time to go to work.
