It's My Turn Clare!

Editor’s Note: The Villager recently wrapped
up a two-month-long, nine-part series, chronicling
the fitness journey of Staff Writer Clare
Hopkins at Midtown Fitness

This week, Midtown owner Mike Bogdanski weighs in on Hopkins’ trek from fitness rookie to gym champion.

First, a big congratulations to you Clare, for achieving your weight loss and embarking on a new road to a long and healthy life. Just before the New Year, Clare and I chatted about a New Year’s resolution story. I thought it would be a great idea for her as a reporter to work out at the gym and write about the experience and after speaking to her editor we set a date to begin.

Just after Jan. 1, we met to plan Clare’s fitness journey.We weighed her, determined her body fat and body mass index to get a baseline. Clare had not been exercising much prior to meeting with me but seemed to be in average shape. Her body mass index told us she was slightly overweight.

Here at Midtown Fitness, we always work gradually to get people in shape before we raise the effort level of a workout. This method works well to help assimilate new members into learning about our programs and letting their muscles accommodate to new workloads. Clare, however, was determined to make serious gains in just eight weeks and I told her that this was going to be challenging because she was de-conditioned and without much strength or cardiovascular endurance.  She said she was ready to achieve in eight weeks what an average person would have done in 24.

Clare’s goal for week number one (which should have been a month) was to build a core foundation. I wanted to get her conditioned enough so I could give her the exercise program needed to achieve weight loss and muscle building.

Week one was fairly easy. In week two, Mr. Nice Guy was gone and Mr. Results Man was in the gym to challenge her with a workout even an advanced gym member would sweat through. In each week of training, Clare followed a regiment of cardiovascular, strength and flexibility training sessions while cleaning up her diet.

The psychological pressure was high due to our goal to tell her story to the public. If you want to do something great, the secret is to tell everyone. This will motivate you to live up to your goals through positive peer pressure.  This also put responsibility on Clare to get results while educating herself and the public to what a good gym and motivated personal trainer could do for you.

Intensity (yes, intensity Clare!) and education were our key focus. Clare was sore after many early workouts because of our eight week training schedule. To get weight loss in this short a time, F.I.T.
(frequency, intensity and time) became our motto. Clare’s training was focused on achieving a strong level of exertion necessary to achieve her goals. Enhancing Clare’s fitness knowledge was also critical in every Midtown Fitness workout program we develop because members must understand how and why things are done while keeping in mind that we want to avoid any injuries that could happen because of improper training methods.

Midtown members vary from age eighty all the way down to teenagers and their workouts must be age and ability appropriate. Here at our gym, we always offer free equipment orientations as well as free monthly fitness education classes.We also have videos on our website of how to use our equipment properly.

Through group fitness classes, one on one sessions and Clare’s determination, week by week, the weight came off. Clare has cemented a new life style where she can now follow a maintenance program to keep herself fit. The last eight weeks have been like a boot camp where she worked hard to graduate. This marks just the first step on her lifelong health and fitness journey. I plan to train Clare twice monthly for a few more months and then once monthly after that. More sessions will be key to make sure she has some variety in her workouts, keeps them balanced and maintains her motivation. Remember, it is necessary to have goals and always work towards something.  Clare will need to maintain 30 to 60 minutes of exercise five days a week which should include biking, hiking, snowshoeing and walks on the beach, to live a long and healthy life (yes this means heart attack prevention).
Well done, Clare!

Here at Midtown Fitness and Martial Arts,
co-owner Kristin Duethorn and our staff have
helped thousands of people on a road to health
for more than 20 years. It is not about the destination,
it’s about the journey.

Mike Bogdanski is co-owner of Midtown
Fitness and Martial Arts, a nationally certified
personal trainer, carries a Bachelor’s Degree in
Psychology, a Master’s Degree in School
Counseling, is a 7th Degree Black Belt, and is
the proud trainer of Clare Hopkins!