Personal Training Is Not Always About Extreme Weight Loss

Extreme weight loss is not always a goal with my clients. I wanted to write about another personal training success story. This is a story about someone who didn’t set out to become an athlete or a super-obsessed fitness fanatic.

I met Verlane about a year ago. Verlane was the friend of my client Valerie (check out Valerie’s success story or her testimonial). Verlane had seen the success that Valerie achieved by dedicating herself to changing her life through exercise and nutrition.

When Verlane and I first met, she told me that she had multiple surgeries in the past. She had cervical and lumbar fusions, and she had a limited range of motion in her right hip. With these limitations, her program was going to have to be tweaked a bit more than my normal everyday clients.

She also had lower back pain, shoulder pain, and neck pain.

Woo boy.

Verlane wanted to lose weight (but not have extreme weight loss), gain upper body strength, and have more energy. But her overall greatest motivator for wanting to get started was to be healthier and feel better. She told me, “I am at a turning point in my life. The time is now to take charge of my health so as I get older, I can feel confident about my health and my abilities.”

Ahhhh…personal trainer nirvana!

Verlane also never participated in any type of exercise program before. She did swim for a while, but that was two years before we met.

For the first couple of months, her program was very basic. It involved a lot of core strengthening since she had never worked on her core muscles before. After that, we started moving towards more overall strengthening. We were using her body weight and using the Powerblocks and medicine balls.

And then it happened.

First, the back pain started to go away. Then the issues with her hip and neck pain went away.

Verlane was on her way.

She also noticed that doing chores or lifting things that she wouldn’t normally lift got a heck of a lot easier. She started to ride her bike and got back into swimming!

Did Verlane lose a lot of weight? No. But remember she wasn’t looking for extreme weight loss. She did lose some weight for her to notice that her clothes were getting looser! For Verlane, the benefits of being stronger, having more energy, and having more confidence was all she needed.

In the 11 years that I have been a personal trainer, the reason the majority of people seek me out is to lose weight. And as a personal trainer who has to market his business, that is something that I need to focus on. But we tend to forget that being healthy is not always about extreme weight loss. It is about becoming stronger. It is about becoming healthier on the inside.

And Verlane proves that at any age, no matter what your physical limitations, you can always better yourself physically.

Verlane continues to work with me twice a week. She continues to improve every time that I see her. I am excited to watch her continual progress as she becomes healthier and more confident in her day-to-day life. Verlane is just another client that reinforces why I chose the career that I have!

You can check out Verlane’s testimonial here.

Onward!