The most important to realize about health, fitness, and a beautiful body is that it is an ongoing journey. The people with ripped abs and defined muscles did not get that way by taking pills or the latest "five minute to defined abs" gadget. They put in hard work for a long time on the basics. This page is dedicated to our clients that embark on that journey, along with their challenges along the way.
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My son, Dylan at age 14. He has 24% body fat. Typical for kids his age these days. He is fairly active, but less so than kids 20 years ago. His hard, consistent training starts today. 08/24/2009. January 29th, 2010. New photos coming soon. Dylan trained hard and consistently for 2 months, then we backed off because he started playing basketball on 2 different teams and had no time to train or recover. He has grown a couple of inches and has lost some fat along with building a base level of strength. We will resume again in February. Update as of 11/02/2010. New photos of Dylan. As you can see, he has lost a considerable amount of fat, gained some muscle, and has also grown in height. Going through his teen growth spurt. He has not weight trained with me during this time because he started playing high school football. It was very time consuming and demanding on his recovery. It goes to show how well exercise works. We will start his training program this winter after he recovers from football. With proper training, he should see much more strength and fuller muscles. Stay tuned...
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Ella starting out. She is coming in three times a week and started watching her diet. She has a lot on her plate with her career and family. Her challenge is to not burn out and pace herself. She needs to learn how to view exercise differently and embrace it. She is very motivated and has already started noticing changes in her physique. These are positive signs that can be helpful with long term motivation. Update: 10/26/2010. The last 2 photos are more recent (3 months ago and 2 weeks ago). It is very clear she is losing inches in her waist as well as everywhere else. We speculate she has lost about 40 lbs at this point. We did not take measurements because she is better motivated by embracing a healthy lifestyle than focusing on measurements. You can see she holds herself with better posture and clearly more self confidence. She is looking good. Update: 11/07/2011. Ella has dropped off from working with us. We don't have a clear reason why. Here is hoping that whatever she does, she will reach her goals.
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Anna has been working closely with a doctor for nutrition supervision for a year before working with us. He had her on 800 calories a day that whole time. It worked, for she lost over 100 lbs before starting with us. Her doctor recommended she work with a fitness trainer from this point on to build muscle and physical conditioning. The 800 calorie a day diet is too low to maintain, so we added a protein shake after her workouts, and will recommend a higher daily caloric count in a couple of months, with approval from her doctor of course. She is still losing weight consistently and getting stronger to boot. She has good energy levels at the moment and her body is reshaping. She is pleased with her progress and motivated. We will report her progress in a couple of months. January 6, 2010. Anna has lost six percent of body fat and has gained a considerable amount of strength and stamina. Her clothes are also fitting better. She does not let us weigh her, so we don't know how much actual weight she has lost. As a personal note, I am fine ith her not weighing herself if it discourages her from sticking to her program. It is much more important to make a lifestyle change than to overfocus on looks. Update as of 10/26/2010. Anna took off from training for six months due to finances along with extra focus on career and family. We were hoping she would come back(that's why the photos didn't come down), and she did come back. She said she really missed the workouts. She really felt good while training. She had better energy and strength. She lost 65 lbs while working with us, and gained 9 lbs back when she took the time off. She is especially motivated now, because she knows this works. We will post photos soon. Update as of 11/08/2010. Anna has already lost 15 lbs since coming back! Way to go! Sharon has been really harping on her diet, and it is paying off. In a couple of weeks we will take photos and post them. Update: 11/22/2010. Here are the photos. She is starting to show the weight losss, and looking firmer. We'll post more in a couple of months. Update 11/07/2011. Anna dropped off because of personal reasons. She is now doing zumba class. She said she may be back when finances are better. We wish her well.
Mindy has been working with us for 5 months now. She has struggled with her weight for some time, along with overcoming self image issues. She has dived into the strength training with gusto because she likes the feeling of empowerment it provides, as well as the added strength, vitality, and body shaping aspects. As with most of our clients, her main struggle is her diet. In spite of Sharon and I explaining the simple calorie in/calorie out aspect of fat loss, the concept is hard to grasp because of all the misinformation. Lately she has really been on it and lost 4 lbs in one week! She is motivated, and we are looking forward to her progress. The photo with her standing next to her friend (she is on the right) is the before photo, the one where she is alone the after photo. You can see a big change in body fat loss, better posture, and general sense of well being. She has lost at least 25 lbs so far, and I suspect the fat loss will happen faster now that she has a better sense of diet and nutrition. As personal trainers, Sharon and I find this very fulfilling work when we see life changing results such as this.
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Rob has been a long time client of mine. He tried 3 other trainers before working with me, with little success. We have increased his muscle and strength considerably from when he first started to now. He has also lost over 10% bodyfat as well. Ironically, I had to cut his exercise volume back for him to see gains (he was overtraining...a common problem). He is 17% body fat now. Started at 32%. He was down to 12% body fat at one point, but it crept back up to 17. We are nailing down his diet and he will be back down to 12 percent soon. Good work, Rob.
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Janelle before she started working with us and after (the photo with her on the boat is after). She did not have much bodyfat to lose before she started, but she sure looks more toned and defined after. She has lost 2 sizes in that period of time, and improved her strength remarkably as well. Keep up the good work!
Update 11/07/2011. Janelle has kept up her training this whole time. She also has maintained her weight muscle as well. She is also moving to hawaii (lucky woman!). She promises us that she will keep up with the program. Good going, Janelle!
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Eva started working with us in August of 2011. She has worked very hard and consistently while nailing the diet as to Sharon's recommendations. As you can see, she looks remarkable. She weighed 136 pounds when we started with us in May of 2011. As of Feb 4, 2012 she weighs 118 pounds. We did not take measurements until October so we don't know what her body fat was. When we took it in October she was around 29 to 30%. When we took them in February, she was around 23%. Based on this I wil guesstimate the following: Her body fat was around 35 to 37% when she started. She lost a total scale weight of 18 pounds. From the looks of her body, she gained about 4 or 5 pounds of muscle. Meaning she lost 20.5 pounds of fat (maybe even as much as 22 pounds). She did it by not missing a workout and training hard everytime. She also nailed her diet from the get go. Sharon had her eating 1500 calories a day of healthy food...and she transformed. This also brought home a very important message: the type of food is just as important. We have clinets that do stay around 1500 calories a day but with low nutrient foods and alcohol. They do not see results like this. Eva clearly demonstrated how important good foods are in the process.
Good job, Eva! Keep up the good work!
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Photos of Robin who started working with us on September 8th, 2011. Her measurements are as follows:
Robin is commited. I put this info into the web page on November 7th, and she has been coming in consistently. She is even close to doing 500 pounds on the leg press. She is already looking leaner and has lost some weight. She is also pacing herself so she won't burn out.
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September 8th, 2011.
As youcan see, Andrew is already in good shape. He has been working out consistently, albiet inefficiently. He used to do a split routine. I convinced him to train harder only three times a week, whole body. Even though he was in shape, the intensity took a bit of getting used to. He has the hang of it now. He had a set back, for he tore his knee playing flag football. We focused more on upper body and the good leg. He is doing well, and he will soon be able to train his other leg. If you look closely, you can see he has rounded shoulder syndrome. We will address it with appropriate stretching and balancing his lats and pecs.
Bicep: 6mm Tricep: 8 mm Subscap: 19 mm Suprailliac: 13mm Total: 46mm
Body fat% 25
Stay tuned for his progress..
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September 26th, 2011.
Chris started with us because we were recommended by his doctor. He is not in bad shape, but he wants to get into good shape. Here are his measurements.
so we don't know what her body fat was. When we took it in October she was around 29 to 30%. When we took them in February, she was around 23%. Based on this I wil guesstimate the following: