Faster, Higher, Stronger … Local Gym Gets FITNESS RESULTS

Fitness Results, Upland studio

When you’ve been a champion power lifter, personal trainer and longtime owner of two successful fitness gyms – when you’ve devoted your life’s work to health and fitness — you wince when you see people not getting the most out of their workouts, or worse, you see that their exercise program is actually counterproductive to their fitness goals.

Too many times, for example, he’s watched well-intentioned, but uninformed, fitness trainers pushing their high body-fat clients to do crunches and sit-ups.

“Until you get your body fat down, the risks aren’t worth the rewards of doing sit-ups,” said Lance McCullough, owner of Fitness Results, which has personal training studios in both San Dimas and Upland, Calif. “You can’t spot-reduce. You have to train all your core muscles collectively; otherwise, you’re likely to end up with an imbalance and actually create more problems for yourself, such as back problems.

“Maybe, when you reduce your body fat from, let’s say, 28 (mass body index) to 18 or 17, now maybe then you can start doing sit-ups.” A body mass index (BMI) over 25 kg/m2 is defined as overweight, and a BMI of over 30 kg/m2 as obese.

It’s little insights, like the above, that has clients knocking down his doors, including many doctors and nutritionists. They come as much to learn correct fitness habits and techniques as they do to lose weight, tone up or muscle up. His core clientele probably ranges between ages 30 and 60, but just as often he and his training staff produce fitness results for young athletes and seniors.

“We’ve been in business for 16 years, which speaks for itself,” said Lance, now 47, although he appears 10 years younger. “We wouldn’t be doing well and thriving if we didn’t get results.”

Lance with San Dimas-based trainer Ken Harsha

For one client, a San Diego State football player, that meant increasing his 40-yard time from the slowest time on the team to the fastest, after working out just one summer at Fitness Results. Another student who was cut from his freshman wrestling squad not only made the team the following year, but he was his team’s leader, again after working out one summer at Fitness Results. (Actually, my youngest son, Brett Bennett, who worked out with Lance during the summer of 2008 leading into his senior season, went on to lead the Bonita varsity baseball team and the entire San Gabriel Valley in RBIs and appear in two post-season all-star games after not even making the team the prior season.)

Seniors have boasted the same kinds of results. “We had a couple in their mid-70s who couldn’t do three minutes on the treadmill at the slowest pace,” said Lance. “Within a week we had them doing a half-hour on the treadmill. Within a few months, they were doing things they hadn’t done in 20 years.”

For his clients to obtain the fitness results they desire, he emphasizes weight or resistance training. “Cardio is important, of course, but it takes a back seat to nutrition and weight training,” Lance said. “If you spend 30 minutes of hard weight training (his most popular session), you’ll burn more calories than an hour of hard cardiovascular conditioning.

Trainer Kim McAlpin

“When you do cardio, you’re only going to raise your metabolic rate for a few hours; if do a hard work-out with weights, you’ll elevate your metabolic rate for 23 hours. So, you’ll actually burn more calories after working out than during your work out.”

Trainer Kim Knights

Fitness Results employs all the bells and whistles to establish each client’s resting metabolic rate, BMI and other baseline measurements. “These measurements don’t tell us the whole story,” Lance said, “but with these simple tests, the pieces of the puzzle get a lot bigger and the puzzle gets a lot smaller.”

Although a fan of new technology, he’s not a big proponent of circuit training and other flavor-of- the-week programs that he feels produce more marketing results (in the way of driving up memberships) than fitness results.

Client Gary Stewart

“A lot of these places advocate all this fancy new-age stuff and try to come up with alternatives to make you think you can get results without putting in the work,” Lance said.

“We educate clients. That’s why we’ve been so successful. If we put you on a program, it’s because there’s a scientific basis behind it.”

In fact, Lance says it’s not the science that’s difficult – for every 3500 calories you burn either through eating less or exercising, you’ll lose a pound – but the application that is the downfall for so many.

Again, this is why Fitness Results stands out. In a free consultation, Fitness Results seek to learn the potential client’s health and fitness goals.

“It’s not for me to tell them where I think they need to be,” Lance explained. “Rather, they need to tell me what they’d like to achieve.”

Often, clients won’t know exactly what they want, so that’s where Lance or another of his certified and degreed trainers will make suggestions or recommendations.

“Do you want to just lose weight or would you like to lose weight and actually be in better health as you lose the weight?” Lance asked, giving an example of a conversation he might conduct with a prospective client.

According to Lance, a good weight loss program will help the client shed one to two pounds a week. So a client that wishes to lose 50 pounds may need up to 50 weeks to accomplish the goal.

“You can lose weight faster,” Lance noted, “but we usually don’t recommend more than two pounds a week. Statistics show when you lose weight too fast, you’ll gain it back, plus 20% more.”

Client Maria Cenicevos

What’s good for the client is also good for the teacher. Lance tries to lift weights three to four times a week and is an avid cycler, on both roads and trails — activities in which he also invites his clients to participate. “I try to practice what I preach,” Lance said. “If I’m not in the gym working, I love to be outdoors doing something.”

Fitness Results also has introduced wellness programs at several local companies, including both Hamilton Sundstrand and Frank Smith Masonry in Pomona. “It’s one benefit they can provide their employees that gives them an immediate pop on their investment,” Lance said. “Statistics repeatedly show that for every dollar a company spends on a health and fitness program, they receive $3 to $5 back in return.”

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, the world’s largest marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products, just invested $300 million in a wellness program. “They feel they’re going to recoup that investment in three years,” Lance noted. “That’s money in the bank.”

Lance doesn’t feel his clients have to invest that much, but an investment is required. “We really feel we’re the best value in the area to help clients meet their health and fitness goals.”

Fitness Results can tailor programs to meet every budget and schedule, from six-session plans and up. Other popular plans are 12 sessions plus two free sessions and 24 sessions plus four free sessions. “Obviously, it’s going to be more expensive than club memberships, but we have partner programs where you can come in for less than $25 a session,” said Lance. “That’s very inexpensive.”

Even Fitness Results’ most modest program will give the client a strong foundation for success. “With it, you’ll at least now have the opportunity to go out and get some good benefits from your gym instead of paying $40 a month, walking in and feeling intimidated, then walking back out because you don’t know what you’re doing.”

At Fitness Results, there are no dues to pay or contracts to sign. You pay only for results. Armed with their new knowledge and results, many clients will opt for simple maintenance checks on a weekly or monthly level.

Client Robin Chapman

Ultimately, people have to decide how important health and fitness is to their lifestyle. While 80% of all Americans say their exercise, just a small percentage actually do enough exercise to make a positive impact on their lives, Lance said. “It’s an odd statistic because here Americans are spending more money on health and fitness than ever before, but as a nation we’re in the worst shape we’ve ever been in.”

Again, Lance thinks it’s because many Americans have had the wrong focus. “Everybody wants the quick easy fix, but the fix is, you still have to go to the gym and do the work. People that are doing the work are getting the benefits. It’s like anything else.”

With the work, his clients have become champions and all stars or simply healthier, more active people who have gone from “borderline diabetic, with high cholesterol and blood pressure, to textbook healthy,” Lance said. “The life-changing results can be huge.”

“We’re not going to follow the trends,” Lance added. “We’re going to do what we think is best for our clients in a safe, supportive, one-one-one environment.”

To learn more about Fitness Results, visit www.fitnessresults.com or call the San Dimas studio at 909.305.0188 or the Upland studio at 909.608.1780. Also find money-saving coupons by clicking on the COUPON button on the main page of LaVerneOnline.com.