Tag Archives: personal trainer

Josh Steele Lost 305 Pounds and Became a Personal Trainer to Change More Than His Own Life

By Shae Blevins for DietsInReview.com

Since we first featured Josh Steele’s 250-pound true weight loss story, he has continued to make tremendous strides forward. Josh has lost another 55 pounds, had skin removal surgery, and even became a personal trainer. It’s the kind of story that deserves being told once… twice… as many times as we can!

“Losing more than 300 pounds is crazy!” he told DietsInReview.com.

“I went from [being] the unhappy, depressed, lonely person to someone full of energy and hope for the future,” he said. “Some days I am just blown away by how far I came in just two and half years.”

That’s right! Less than three years and more than 300 pounds later, Josh is a new man! (more…)

Posted on January 13, 2024 by Health Buzz

Your Bad Personal Trainer is Ruining Your Fitness Goals and What You Should Do About it

Personal trainers are supposed to be the cheerleaders of the gym. Their role is to guide us through our weight loss journey by challenging us to work harder, demonstrating proper technique, answering questions, and giving the all-important pep talk. Unfortunately, they can also be overzealous, insensitive, inappropriate, and downright rude.

If you have a bad experience with a personal trainer but love your gym, it can seem like an inequitable fitness divorce. The personal trainer gets to keep the house (gym) with the pool while you sulk away with your bag of funky sweaty towels and workout clothes.

The Bored Trainer

After the birth of my second daughter I joined a local YMCA to get back in shape and eliminate my “bingo wings.” I was a tired mama looking for a beacon of weight loss hope. Instead, I was introduced to my personal trainer, the apathetic chubby lady babysitter. I talked about my goals. He yawned. I didn’t know how to turn on a stair climbing machine. He told me to get on, pushed all the buttons for me, and then watched Judge Judy on the gym TV while I tried not to pass out. (more…)

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Dani Stone

Susan Hanks Lost 118 Pounds with the Help of a Caring Personal Trainer and Flat-Out Determination!

Susan Hanks is the reason this True Weight Loss segment makes my heart happy. At one point, her weight exceeded 500 pounds. Instead of turning to fad diets or pills, she just dug deep and swapped bad habits for good ones. She admits it’s been a mental struggle, and she couldn’t have done it without the help of her fabulous personal trainer.

Now, 118 pounds down, this courageous woman knows how to lose weight and stay healthy, she just has to stay the course. “I take it one meal at a time,” she said.

Food was my comfort.

It’s a sentiment we hear so many times at DIR. People turn to food for celebration, comfort, boredom, and it’s rarely bell peppers that they’re mindlessly munching. “I ate all the time, bad food was better, and I never ate healthy,” Susan admitted. “I was miserable. I had no friends and low self esteem. I knew I was eating myself to death. Finally I realized I wanted more out of life. I was tired of just existing.”

(more…)

Posted on August 24, 2023 by Dani Stone

OITNB’s Matt McGorry Was a Smoking Hot Personal Trainer and Deadlift Record Holder in Real Life

Are you an Orange is the New Black fan? Then you must know a thing or two about Matt McGorry. He plays the super hunky but adorable prison guard Officer Bennett on Netflix’s hit show. Though we have had the privilege of seeing a bit of McGorry’s body on the show, many of you are probably unaware that he was actually a personal trainer before he got into acting. And according to Buzzfeed, very good at his job.

Not only that, but McGorry wrote for Men’s Fitness and participated as a bodybuilder. Who knew! No wonder Bennett looks too good to be true under that CO uniform.

As told to Men’s Fitness, McGorry got into athletics and training when he won a session of personal training classes in the eighth grade. Once he started to see results after working with his trainer, he became more interested in sculpting his body. In college, McGorry began to power lift, focusing on his personal goals and allowing himself to meet and exceed them. From there, he became a personal trainer, working at Peak Performance NYC for a few years.

One of the highlights of McGorry’s lifting career was winning the record for the New York State Raw Deadlift with a lift of 550 pounds in the 198-pound weight class. (more…)

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Jessica Tholmer

The 4 Keys to Real Fitness Start with Strength Training and Food Quantity, Says Trainer Pamela Hernandez

For those of you looking to get off the diet roller coaster, get back to the basics, and develop a balanced and sustainable lifestyle to get you feeling your best, health coach and personal trainer Pamela Hernandez has released an ebook just for you: The 4 Keys to Real Fitness.

Pamela Hernandez is an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer and ACE Certified Health Coach (who is also a long-time partner of DietsInReview.com) with a thriving practice in Springfield, MO, where she is the owner of Thrive Personal Fitness. We spoke with her about her no-frills, easy-to-follow guidelines to a healthier, happier life, and how her personal life experiences support her clients.

“I’ve always wanted to help empower women,” says Hernandez. “Fitness gave me the strength and confidence to pursue my dreams. I want other women to feel strong and capable of doing anything they wish.”

No matter the age or experience level, Pamela has found four essential components to fitness success, which she describes in her new e-book. These elements aren’t groundbreaking, “but when they are applied with the right mindset they work every time.” (more…)

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Katie McGrath

Tips on Getting the Most from an Online Training Program from Your Trainer Paige

We all know that working with a personal trainer can provide so many benefits. If you’re just starting out, a personal trainer is a great resource to learn how to exercise properly and regular appointments make you a lot more likely to show up at the gym. Of course, trainers often charge between $40 and $80 per session, or more. Luckily, there’s a great way to get the benefits of having a personal trainer for only a fraction of the cost: Online training. We sat down with Paige, an ACE certified personal trainer with years of experience training clients both in-person and online to find out a bit more about online personal training works.

1. What exactly is online training? How does it work?
Online training is a lot like in-person training, but all training is done virtually. After an initial assessment and consultation, I design a customized workout program for that client. However, instead of being there in-person for their “sessions” they refer to my online exercise video library, pictures, demonstrations, and detailed descriptions for the exercises. Depending on the tier of training they choose, my involvement can be a coaching them and providing feedback 3 to 5 times a week or as little as once a week.

2. What types of people (typically) sign up for online training?
The same as those who come to me in the gym—those who want to better their lives in some way through fitness. The only differences would be that often, those who come to me for online training have crazy hard-to-plan-around schedules. Also, online training is much more affordable than paying $70 an hour for in-the-gym training. Some of my online clients came to me looking for a more affordable way to have a personal trainer. (more…)

Posted on May 13, 2023 by Lauren Martin

The Hottest Trainers in America Share Their Favorite Fitness Moves!

On Shape.com last week, we were introduced to two of our favorite fitness lists of all time: The 50 hottest male personal trainers of 2024 and the 50 hottest female personal trainers of 2024. (Is it getting hot in here?!) Shape searched high and low across the country to find these fit and talented trainers and now readers get to vote for number one.

Of course, these hot and hard bodies are a lot more than just eye-candy. They’re highly trained fitness pros who could whip you (and me!) into shape in no time. In fact, why not get started right now? We got in touch with a couple of these featured trainers find out their favorite moves. Here’s what we found:

Chris Ryan (see above) is a 33-year-old personal trainer in New York City. (You might recognize him from the pages of Men’s Health and Men’s Journal, among other magazines.) Per Shape.com, the married model and certified strength and conditioning specialist is definitely of the belief that working out together is super sexy. Uh, us too! (more…)

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Jessica Tholmer

Destination Fit Offers Fitness Pros a Shot at Fortune and Fame

There’s no easy way to sum up Destination Fit, the new venture from David Norton, a former producer of several seasons of The Biggest Loser and the Miss Universe pageant, among other large-scale happenings. But the closest way to describe the venture might be along the lines of “American Idol for the fitness industry.”

In short, Norton’s goal is to help bring obscure but talented fitness instructors into the spotlight.

So how, exactly, does Destination Fit work? Workout pros with all sorts of backgrounds—from Pilates to bootcamp to indoor cycling—are invited to upload a full-length workout as an audition tape. They compete for votes against all of the other trainers who submit videos; when 12,000 total votes are cast the round is over and a winner is named.

(more…)

Posted on January 23, 2024 by Jessica Cassity

Josh Steele’s 250 lb Weight Loss: Inspired by Biggest Loser, Achieved Through Hard Work

The Biggest Loser is a popular show about average people who have not been successful losing weight by themselves. They see the show as both a last resort, and a second chance. Thousands try out each year but only 16 make the cut. Josh Steele knows all about this process. He’s been writing to the Biggest Loser for years, but was never chosen for the show. What happens to BL contestant hopefuls when they don’t make the cut? If you’re Josh, you embrace the old-school motto, “eat less, move more,” and by doing so, Josh lost a phenomenal 250 pounds! This is his story.

At nearly 7 foot tall, Josh Steele is a man who can afford to carry a few extra pounds and still be healthy, but the day he weighed in at just shy of 600 pounds, he knew his height couldn’t compensate any longer. Always a big strapping lad, he said he didn’t even really notice the weight coming on because it happened so gradually. “I think back and realized I just became lazy,” he confessed. “Partying and late night eating caught up to me.”

(more…)

Posted on November 2, 2023 by Dani Stone

Feel the Burn on Skype: Video Chatting is Transforming Weight Loss

In 2003, a handful of young software developers from tiny Estonia wrote the code for a voice-over IP program and called it Skype. Derived from the words “sky” and “peer,” Skype was a video chatting and instant messaging application that allowed grad students studying abroad to chat with their significant others back home. OK, that wasn’t the only thing it was used for, but more than 10 years and $8.5 billion later—thanks Microsoft!—the uses of Skype have outgrown simple peer-to-peer communication.

The live and instant nature of Skype holds the senders and receivers of information accountable, making the program perfect for dietitians and personal trainers. Citing affordability and optimum time management, both our resident nutrition expert Mary Hartley RD, and the wellness team at Retrofit, among many others in their shared industry use Skype to counsel patients on diet and fitness.

“I could base an entire practice around Skype,” said Mary, who meets with clients in real life and over video chat. Living in New York City, Skype saves her and her patients gas money, traffic time, and office expenses. “Their (patients) appointments are booked on their Gmail calendars, they pay via PayPal before their appointment, and then we’re on,” said Mary. (more…)

Posted on October 18, 2023 by Patrick

Ben Sweeney Lost 55 Pounds by Practicing What He Preaches In the Gym

Ben Sweeney is a man with a lofty goal, he wants to be a fitness trainer on the long-running NBC reality series, The Biggest Loser. As a personal fitness coach in New York City, Ben works with clients every day, motivating and helping them achieve their weight loss goals. However, not long ago there was a time when he was the one who needed coaching.

When Ben started college, he was a busy athlete. He knew what he had to eat to stay energized, particularly for the calorie-burn that comes with playing college baseball. Unfortunately, when his time on the field was over, he continued to eat like he was training for the next game. He also tried to tell himself that he could eat anything he wanted because he was trying to put on muscle, even though he stopped going to the gym and lifting weights.

(more…)

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Dani Stone

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