F.A.Q.
General
My primary client population are just people who want to get a little bit stronger, get a little bit healthier, and feel better.
Many of these clients are people who have struggled with chronic pain in some form or another. I have helped clients go from being couch-ridden with back pain to lifting heavy objects pain-free and participating in their first 5k. I have also worked with competitive powerlifter and teenage athletes and helped them reduce their risk of developing persistent injuries and future chronic pain.
I work with people who identify as women, men, transgender, and nonbinary.
My philosophy is that whoever you are, there is always some way to move, some way to get a little bit stronger—some way to tick the needle just a little further in the direction of where you want to be.
With any personal trainer or coach you are considering working with, the first thing is making sure they have some type of training/certification in their area. Certifications alone don’t make a great coach, but anyone advertising themselves as a fitness trainer or a health and wellness coach with no official education in that area is a red flag for me. Other than that, just make sure that whoever you choose to work with is someone you *like*. You’ll probably be spending more time with them than any other service provider you work with.
Make sure they treat you as a whole human and take your preferences into account when coaching you. You should never be made to feel ashamed of yourself or your body, that your goals aren’t the “right” goals, or that you’re “just not trying hard enough”. You should leave coaching sessions feeling empowered, uplifted, and looking forward to the next one!
What do you want to change in your life right now, and what do you not want to change? (What’s working for you/what isn’t working for you?)
For training: how much time are you willing to commit to exercising? Training 2x/week is usually the minimum amount required to start to see tangible results. Do you have the room in your schedule for that, or more? If not, can you make the room?
How does coaching fit into your monthly budget? How much are you willing/able to pay to improve your health? If it seems like it’s not much, are there any areas in your life where you can free up some funds (rarely used streaming services, frequent Starbucks trips, etc.)?
What are you *willing* to change in your life, and what are you *not willing* to change in your life? When it comes to reaching your goals, what are your non-negotiables? Are you READY, WILLING, and ABLE to change? It’s okay if the answer is no right now. But try to figure out if that’s due to temporary circumstances, or if there’s something more permanent that might be holding you back from where you really want to be.
In-Person Training
The first session is 90 minutes where I will take you through a workout while also assessing how your body moves.
We will get to know each other, I’ll gather more information about what you are hoping to get out of this experience, and at the end of the session I will present a plan for moving forward and how we can address any pain, weaknesses, or other areas for improvement that are holding you back from reaching your goals.
Depending on how often we’re meeting in person, training on your own during the week can be a great way to increase your progress!
For clients that are training with me at least 2x/week, I can write sessions (at no extra charge) for you to complete on your own that will complement the work that we do together. These aren’t required, but they are an option if you want them!
I’ll take into account where you’ll be working out (at a gym or at home) and what equipment you’ll have, as well as how much time you want to spend on them.
In general, if you’re doing any structured training or exercise outside of our sessions, definitely tell me about it because it can help inform how I write your program and what we do during our training sessions.
I do!
1-on-1 personal training can definitely be expensive.
I offer duet training where you can train with a friend, significant other, or even team up with another one of my clients! You still get individualized attention and training, but the session rate is lower.
There is also the option of hybrid training, where you do one in-person session per week and then have additional workouts to do on your own (at home, at a rec center or any gym, etc.). This works best for people who already have some gym experience.
At the end of the day, if you really have your heart set on 1-on-1 training, I try to offer multiple options for packages and memberships to lower the per-session cost of training. Depending on your personal situation, there may be other expenses in your life that can be adjusted to help cover the cost of training.
I do not believe that quality training should just be for the privileged few. In the near future I plan to offer more options at different price tiers to help accommodate more budgets.
It all depends on the person, but some of the things I can uniquely offer you as your coach are:
1) Privacy. It’s just you and me in there. There’s nobody watching you, judging you, and nobody is going to come over and tell you that you’re doing something wrong. I’ve built a space where it’s safe to explore and learn new skills, make whatever noise you want to, and just be completely and confidently YOU.
Plus you get to call the shots with the music and nobody is going to take your equipment!
2) Cleanliness. Many gyms are great at maintaining cleanliness. Others are not. The gym is one of the #1 places to catch a cold. My space and equipment not only has fewer hands touching it overall, but is cleaned between every session.
3) Convenience. If you live in the Reunion area of Commerce City/Brighton, I’m only a 5-10 minute drive away (or a short walk away, if you happen to live REALLY close).
4) Me. I’m only confident where I can back it up—I’m a great coach. Most of my clients stay with me long term because I’ve helped them get out of chronic pain; I explain things in ways that make sense and click like they might not have before; their preferences are taken into account and built into their program; they get RESULTS; and….we have FUN. Training should not be something you dread or force yourself to do. I want you to look forward to coming here!
A lot of it depends on the person in front of me! If I had to condense it down, I would say I do primarily strength training that meets the following criteria:
1) Trains all foundational movement patterns: squat, hinge, lunge, push, pull, and carry.
2) Trains those patterns in ways that do not create pain or make existing pain worse.
3) Is relevant to your goals.
4) Includes the things that you ENJOY.
That’s it. There’s a lot of wiggle room in there to account for training style preferences, injuries and limitations, specific goals, and what you find fun or not.
The best training program is one that you will follow, and follow consistently. If you like barbells, we’ll use barbells. If you like kettlebells, we’ll use kettlebells. If you want to get really good at moving your body through space, we’re do bodyweight. If you’re not sure what you like or if you like variety, we’ll do a little bit of everything!
Health Coaching
Meal plans (writing out specific foods and amounts for you to eat) are not in my scope of practice, legally. Only a registered dietitian (RD) should be doing that.
I can work with you to create a meal plan that includes foods you enjoy, fits with your lifestyle, and feels sustainable. Which, in my opinion, is much more valuable than me telling you what to eat.
If you are someone who is seeking nutritional guidance and a meal plan to treat a medical condition, that’s where an RD should come in. If you need help finding one, let me know and I can help!
For online coaching (training or health coaching), we will have a 45-minute Zoom consultation. We will get to know each other, I’ll gather more information about what you are hoping to get out of this experience, and at the end of the session I will present a plan for moving forward and how we can address any areas for improvement that are holding you back from reaching your goals.
We can discuss any goals or behaviors/habits in your life that you would like to either create or change. They could be related to nutrition, sleep, stress management, movement (in or outside of training), or anything else you can think of.
I’ll probably ask some questions trying to get to the deeper “why” behind your goals. Why is this truly important to you? What is the kind of lifestyle you are trying to build? What is the version of you that you want to better embody?
Obviously the answers to some of these questions can be very personal, and I will respect any boundaries you have.
This session is also for you to ask any questions you have and decide if YOU think it feels like a good fit.
Definitely not!
Macros can be a great option for many people to have on the table, but I have had plenty of clients achieve weight loss, improve their relationship with food, and improve their bloodwork never counting a single macro.
If you love them, great. If you hate them, great. We’ll decide together what the best path is for YOU.
Treating eating disorders is outside of my scope of practice.
However, if you are in recovery and looking for strategies to build healthy eating and lifestyle habits, we can definitely work together!
Even if you’re still working towards recovery, if you are seeing someone qualified to help with the treatment of eating disorders, I can still help you with any lifestyle or behavior changes you’d like to make to be a happy, healthier, you.
Memberships
Memberships set up recurring payments and include a certain number of sessions per week. For personal training, they also allow you to get the best per session rates.
Signing up for a 6 or 12-month commitment also gives you an extra 5% or 10% off, respectively.
After the initial 3-month commitment (if you haven’t selected a higher level commitment), memberships can be cancelled at any time.
Initially I tried monthly memberships, but found that charging monthly for something that happens weekly get confusing very quickly.
If you’re training 3 times a week, some months you would get 12 sessions and some months you would get 13. Biweekly is just easier for everyone.
I was raised by two accountants, so don’t worry. The math is mathing correctly and the per session price remained the same during the conversion from monthly to biweekly.
Memberships can be paused, but they can only be paused for the duration of billing cycles. So if biweekly membership is paused, it will be for two weeks minimum.
If you’re only going to be gone a week or miss a couple of sessions, you can carry those sessions over and have some bonus sessions in the following weeks.
We can also extend some of your sessions to 90 minutes instead to make up for the lost session time.
Otherwise, if you want to work out while you’re away, I can provide you with sessions to complete on your own, with whatever you’ll have available. These aren’t necessary, just a nice option. (I definitely don’t always work out on vacation, and I don’t expect you to, either!)
For video check-ins, if you’re going to miss a week and we can’t reschedule, we can always communicate via email or text that week.
We can address longer duration pauses due to things like injuries or other circumstances as they come up.
Is your question not here?
Pricing
