When youâve been a champion power lifter, personal trainer and longtime owner of two successful fitness gyms â when youâve devoted your lifeâs 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, heâs watched well-intentioned, but uninformed, fitness trainers pushing their high body-fat clients to do crunches and sit-ups.
âUntil you get your body fat down, the risks arenât worth the rewards of doing sit-ups,â said Lance McCullough, owner of Fitness Results, which has personal training studios in both San Dimas and Upland, Calif. âYou canât spot-reduce. You have to train all your core muscles collectively; otherwise, youâre likely to end up with an imbalance and actually create more problems for yourself, such as back problems.
âMaybe, when you reduce your body fat from, letâs say, 28 (mass body index) to 18 or 17, now maybe then you can start doing sit-ups.â A body mass index (BMI) over 25 kg/m2 is defined as overweight, and a BMI of over 30 kg/m2 as obese.
Itâs 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.
âWeâve been in business for 16 years, which speaks for itself,â said Lance, now 47, although he appears 10 years younger. âWe wouldnât be doing well and thriving if we didnât get results.â
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 teamâs 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. âWe had a couple in their mid-70s who couldnât do three minutes on the treadmill at the slowest pace,â said Lance. âWithin a week we had them doing a half-hour on the treadmill. Within a few months, they were doing things they hadnât done in 20 years.â
For his clients to obtain the fitness results they desire, he emphasizes weight or resistance training. âCardio is important, of course, but it takes a back seat to nutrition and weight training,â Lance said. âIf you spend 30 minutes of hard weight training (his most popular session), youâll burn more calories than an hour of hard cardiovascular conditioning.
âWhen you do cardio, youâre only going to raise your metabolic rate for a few hours; if do a hard work-out with weights, youâll elevate your metabolic rate for 23 hours. So, youâll actually burn more calories after working out than during your work out.â
Fitness Results employs all the bells and whistles to establish each clientâs resting metabolic rate, BMI and other baseline measurements. âThese measurements donât tell us the whole story,â Lance said, âbut with these simple tests, the pieces of the puzzle get a lot bigger and the puzzle gets a lot smaller.â
Although a fan of new technology, heâs 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.
âA 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,â Lance said.
âWe educate clients. Thatâs why weâve been so successful. If we put you on a program, itâs because thereâs a scientific basis behind it.â
In fact, Lance says itâs not the science thatâs difficult â for every 3500 calories you burn either through eating less or exercising, youâll lose a pound â 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 clientâs health and fitness goals.
âItâs not for me to tell them where I think they need to be,â Lance explained. âRather, they need to tell me what theyâd like to achieve.â
Often, clients wonât know exactly what they want, so thatâs where Lance or another of his certified and degreed trainers will make suggestions or recommendations.
âDo you want to just lose weight or would you like to lose weight and actually be in better health as you lose the weight?â 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.
âYou can lose weight faster,â Lance noted, âbut we usually donât recommend more than two pounds a week. Statistics show when you lose weight too fast, youâll gain it back, plus 20% more.â
Whatâs 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. âI try to practice what I preach,â Lance said. âIf Iâm not in the gym working, I love to be outdoors doing something.â
Fitness Results also has introduced wellness programs at several local companies, including both Hamilton Sundstrand and Frank Smith Masonry in Pomona. âItâs one benefit they can provide their employees that gives them an immediate pop on their investment,â Lance said. âStatistics 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 worldâs largest marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products, just invested $300 million in a wellness program. âThey feel theyâre going to recoup that investment in three years,â Lance noted. âThatâs money in the bank.â
Lance doesnât feel his clients have to invest that much, but an investment is required. âWe really feel weâre the best value in the area to help clients meet their health and fitness goals.â
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. âObviously, itâs going to be more expensive than club memberships, but we have partner programs where you can come in for less than $25 a session,â said Lance. âThatâs very inexpensive.â
Even Fitness Resultsâ most modest program will give the client a strong foundation for success. âWith it, youâll 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 donât know what youâre doing.â
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.
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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. âItâs an odd statistic because here Americans are spending more money on health and fitness than ever before, but as a nation weâre in the worst shape weâve ever been in.â
Again, Lance thinks itâs because many Americans have had the wrong focus. âEverybody 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. Itâs like anything else.â
With the work, his clients have become champions and all stars or simply healthier, more active people who have gone from âborderline diabetic, with high cholesterol and blood pressure, to textbook healthy,â Lance said. âThe life-changing results can be huge.â
âWeâre not going to follow the trends,â Lance added. âWeâre going to do what we think is best for our clients in a safe, supportive, one-one-one environment.â
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.
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