In the great tradition of previous years, we start the year off with showing off some of our superstar clients. Looking back at 2016, these were the clients who had the greatest progress, or were the most dedicated.
Here are the selection criteria for client of the year:
- Got great results.
- Attended workouts with very few or no cancellations.
- Were always punctual. Never late.
- Were a pleasure to work with.
- Spread the word to their family, friends, and coworkers.
And heck, do you want to finally stick to your New Year’s Resolutions, and get the results that you didn’t get in the last few years? See if you qualify to work with us, by filling out this form.
Based on these criteria, here are our top picks (in no particular order):
Honourable Mention: Carole
A few months ago, I actually wrote a full-feature article about Carole, which you can read here, so it should be no surprise that she was one of the clients selected to get an honourable mention.
I won’t rehash everything from that article, but she had some incredible results:
- At the age of 72, she almost completely stopped using her cane
- She got off her pain medications
- Her hip felt a lot better
Besides that, Nem (Carole’s trainer. He covers the downtown Toronto area) had a great time working with her. She was fun, rarely canceled, and told some very politically incorrect jokes that made Nem think “did she really just say that?” (all in good fun) Sorry, I can’t reveal any of the jokes in this article. It’s rated PG. Carole’s jokes aren’t 😉
Honourable Mention: Johanna
Johanna started working with Kevin after hearing me do a presentation at IBM. Her goals were to lose weight, and get toned.
In the 2 or so months that she worked with Kevin, she managed to:
- Lose 10 pounds of net weight.
- Gain some muscle (which means that fat loss was even greater than 10 pounds)
Her nutrition was on par. She had great compliance, even though that’s one of the hardest things to change.
She was also always on time (she better be… her work is literally down the street from our gym 🙂
And even though she didn’t have the easiest workouts, she never complained, and she always worked hard.
Honourable Mention: Risa
Risa is another client who is a pleasure to work with. After initially hearing me speak at a singles group, she started working with my downtown trainer, Nem.
Over the past year, she has:
- Lost weight
- Reduced inches (went from a size 34 waist, to a size 31)
- Got stronger
- Reduced the pain in her knee
Honourable Mention: Debbie
Debbie is a human resources manager, who had been getting my newsletter for a while, and finally decided to hire one of my trainers (Peter) to help her tone her stomach, thighs, and arms, improve her energy levels, and lose weight.
And once she got started with Peter, they got to work hard. Debbie:
- Almost always showed up to the workout 10 minutes early to get warmed up
- Never canceled once, despite doing 50 sessions
- Continued to exercise with another one of my trainers (Jeff) while Peter was out of the country
- Continued to work hard, even when she hit a plateau, and her weight wouldn’t budge.
Over the period of time when she was working with Peter, she made very large improvements in her strength levels, energy levels, and muscle tone.
Honourable Mention: Anne
Anne right now stands as the only person about whom I’ve written not one, but TWO feature article. You can read the first one here, and the second one here.
Originally, Anne saw me speak at a personal training conference, a few years back. And despite being a fitness professional herself, she had persistent hip pain that wouldn’t go away. She just attributed it to age.
Fortunately, I connected Anne with her trainer, Brian, and together, they made miracles happen:
- Her hip pain completely went away
- She regained some movements that had been lost years earlier, and she accepted that they are permanently gone, again, due to age.
In addition, Anne is just a pleasure to work with, and is even trying to her husband into it. But that’s another story.
Honourable Mention: Jenny
Originally, Jenny came to us because she wanted to lose weight. She is a customer support specialist, and the corporate life got to her. Not really watching her nutrition, not really exercising, but eventually, she’s just had enough. She’s been from one personal trainer to another, until she found my company. I paired her up with Brian, and the results have been nothing short of extraordinary. In fact, Jenny even remarked to me recently, that after being through so many personal trainers before Brian who took advantage of her, she had basically lost hope of any personal trainer helping her. But she’s so delighted for me to have connected her with Brian. Part of having a good hiring process 🙂
Over the last year, Jenny:
- Lost over 30 pounds
- Is way stronger. She couldn’t do a single pushup before. Now, she can.
- Can sprint! Most adults who haven’t sprinted in 10-50 years completely lose that ability. Ask them to sprint, and they look very uncoordinated, tight, and clumsy. That was Jenny when she started with us. Now, she can sprint. Not run, or jog, but all out sprint. In fact, she can actually run 40 meters in about 6 seconds now. She actually looks athletic. And while there’s still more weight to lose, she’s doing great!
All in all, she looks better, and feels better.
Client of the Year: Ben
In a year with lots of great candidates, it was difficult choosing the best of them all, but Ben is the one.
Ben is a 33-year-old guy, who was referred to me by Dr. John Dempster. He was under-muscled.
He had been working out on his own for a while, and despite being about 5’6, when he started working with me (back in April), he was only 142 pounds.
Fast forward to his latest measurements (in mid-December), and he’s now 162 pounds. His body fat is not any higher than it was at 142. So what did he gain? Precious muscle.
- Ben always comes 10-15 minutes early
- His compliance is the best I’ve ever seen. You tell him to do something, he does it. No excuses. Sticks with it to the letter. A lot of people think it’s easier to gain muscle than lose fat. But it isn’t. When gaining muscle, you have to eat so much that it’s actually slightly uncomfortable. Difficult for someone with a naturally fast metabolism. Despite that, Ben did it.
- He’s inquisitive, and asks great questions, delving into the “hows” and “whys” of my exercise and nutrition recommendations.
- Initially, he was exercising in a small condo gym, with limited equipment, and despite that, he did all the prescribed exercises. Again, no excuses.
- Like me, he likes Weird Al songs 🙂
And for all those reasons, Ben wins the Client of the Year award for 2017.
