Jen Sinkler

Jen Sinkler (born August 10, 1978 in Oskaloosa, Iowa) is a fitness magazine writer, personal trainer, and former American women’s national team rugby player for the sevens and fifteens.

Rugby career

Sinkler began playing rugby in 1997 as a flyhalf at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Ceder Falls, IA, where she was awarded All-American honors in 1999, 2000, and 2001. Sinkler earned the Most Valuable Player award at the Division 2 collegiate national championships in 2001, where UNI won the final against University of Nevada, Reno 52-10.

Following her graduation that year, she went on to play rugby with the Minnesota Valkyries from 2001 to 2007 (the team placed either second or third in the country every year during that time period), and served as captain from 2004 to 2007; with Philadelphia Women in 2007; and then the Keystone Griffins in Philadelphia from 2008 to 2009 (the team took fifth place nationally both years). She represented the Midwest All-Star Sevens Team from 2001 to 2006, and then the Northeast Union All-Star Sevens Team (NRU) in 2008 and 2009 (the team won the national championship in 2009 and Sinkler scored the game-winning try in the final against the Mid-Atlantic Rugby Union). Sinkler also played for the Midwest Under-23 Fifteens Team from 1998 to 2001, the USA Under-23 Fifteens Team from 1999 to 2001 (Sinkler earned MVP honors in her first international match against Wales in 1999), and the Midwest All-Star Fifteens Team from 2002 to 2005.

Sinkler made her debut for USA Rugby Fifteens Team in October 2000 against the New Zealand Black Ferns during the Canada Cup, having been called up temporarily from the USA Under-23 Fifteens Team due to injuries suffered in the senior side backline. She would become a permanent addition in 2003, until her retirement from international fifteens after serving as a traveling reserve in the 2006 Women's Rugby World Cup in Canada.

Sinkler made the U.S. Women’s Sevens Team for the first time in 2002, and played in many international tournaments from then until her retirement from international sevens following the World Cup in Dubai 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens in March 2009. She was the top scorer on the team’s tour to Fiji and New Zealand in 2003, and the second-highest scorer at the Hong Kong Sevens Tournament in 2005.

Sinkler was named Goffon Rugby’s (now Goff Rugby Report) Readers’ Player of the Year in 2004. She has been featured in articles about rugby in the New York Times and the New Yorker, as well as a number of local publications.

Fitness career

Until December 31, 2012, Sinkler served as the editorial director of fitness content for Experience Life magazine, a publication she worked for from November 2003 to that point. On January 1, 2013, she launched the website www.jensinkler.com, where she covers fitness, food, fashion and general health topics. She also writes for a number of national magazines, including Men’s Health, Women’s Health, and Experience Life.

Her advice has been featured in a number of national magazines, such as Shape, Self, Paleo Magazine and Oxygen, as well as websites such as Yahoo, Huffington Post, Greatist and FitFluential

She was named to Greatist’s list of "The 100 Most Influential People in Health and Fitness" in both 2014 and 2015, and one of their "15 Must-Read Trainers Rocking the Web in 2013"; as one of Shape magazine’s "50 Hottest Female Trainers in America 2014" and their "Top 30 Motivators for 2013"; and was listed as one of Huffington Post’s "20 of the Best Fitness Experts Worth Following on Twitter" in 2013.

In March 2014, Sinkler released her first ebook, Lift Weights Faster, a collection of more than 130 conditioning workouts designed for greater fat loss, increased athleticism, and better overall health. The sequel was released in March of 2015.

Sinkler trains clients at The Movement Minneapolis, a facility that uses an unusual biofeedback-based training protocol. She is a certified RKC II and KBA kettlebell instructor, and an Olympic lifting coach through USA Weightlifting. She also holds coaching certifications through Primal Move, Progressive Calisthenics, Onnit, CrossFit and DVRT (Ultimate Sandbag).

In December 2014, an article in the Star Tribune outlined her foray in powerlifting.