People/Profiles Articles

Client:Carol Ann Personal Trainer: Eric Taylor, owner, Taylor Made Training Location: St. Simons Island, Georgia Origin. At age 67, Carol Ann knew she needed help. She longed to improve her health and fitness, but a dysfunction in her gait produced a significant roadblock. She’d made little progress with physical therapists and doctors, so she decided to try a new approach: personal training. “I met with Carol Ann about 6 months ago,” explains Eric Taylor, owner of Taylor Made Training. “She was very nervous and apprehensive for two reasons: One, she had been to physical therapists and doctors and had not had much success; two, she had never had a trainer before.”

client: Paul | personal trainer: Boualem Aggoune, owner of Personal Trainer 4 You Inc. | location: Muskegon, Michigan

Here I am [on the right] at the base camp of Mount Everest, which is 17,600 feet. Our training and acclimatization were brilliant. We started at around 9,000 feet and then went progressively higher and slept at a higher level. The day before base camp we climbed Kala Pattar, which is 18,200 feet. We had a great view of Everest and a psychological edge for the following day. The guides and sherpas could have had a degree in exercise physiology. They knew our bodies better than we did. Two of the 10 people on our team needed to go back down because they had symptoms of altitude sickness.

client:Kelly | personal trainer: Aimee Gallo, founder, VIBRANCE Nutrition and Fitness | location: Seattle Hoping for a half. Aimee Gallo, certified holistic health coach, licensed sports nutritionist and founder of VIBRANCE Nutrition and Fitness, first met Kelly at a holiday party. “I was just in the process of trying to get into an exercise and nutritional rhythm again after having a second child,” recalls Kelly. “I was really struggling and having a very hard time with ups and downs in energy.”

client: Carina | personal trainer: Mike Z. Robinson, owner, MZR Fitness | location: San Luis Obispo, California Serendipity. Carina, a 34-year-old health reporter for television station KSBY starts her day while most people are waist-deep in sleep. She rises at 2:00 am so that she will be alert and presentable by the time she arrives at the studio an hour later. Carina had been only a sporadic exerciser, but her life began to change after she received a call from an eager personal trainer with an interesting story.

Down for the count. Life came to a halt for Jeff when he collapsed in the boxing ring, clutching his back. As a lifelong athlete, he had experienced pain before. “At 23 years old, Jeff had already undergone serious spinal surgery to address ruptured disks,” explains Whitney Rippelmeyer-Tucker, co-founder of Studio 26. “[Surgery for] two ruptured disks that were pushing fluid into Jeff’s spine had left his back full of scar tissue, [making him] susceptible to reinjury. There was very little likelihood he would be a serious athlete again.”

Seamus Mullen has blended his expertise as an award-winning chef, his childhood spent on the family farm in Vermont and a personal health crisis into a new book that may be the first gourmet publication to truly celebrate food as medicine.

client: Amy | personal trainer: Christie Bruner | location: St. Petersburg, Floridacalling all Do you have a client who has overcome the odds to achieve new heights in health and fitness? Send your story to rhalvorson@ideafit.com and you and your client may be featured in an upcoming issue of IDEA Fitness Journal.

Rachel Brathen, international educator, yoga director at Manchebo Beach Resort & Spa in Aruba and Stand-Up Paddleboard Yoga pioneer, loves getting people excited about this mind-body form of exercise. This year she is hosting a yoga challenge to inspire her social media followers—and has used the free Client Challenges tool that is accessible through IDEA FitnessConnect.