Meet Your Trainer & Studio Manager - Robert

Fitness background:

I started my fitness journey about 10 years ago when I realized that I had not been living a healthy life and it was impacting my daily life and activities. I started to focus on my health by taking small steps, first by walking on a treadmill and then by removing certain foods from my diet. This led to great success in losing weight, but I realized that I had also lost muscle since I wasn’t doing any strength training. I struggled to lift some objects that used to be easy to lift. Fortunately, I had a friend who had just started as a personal trainer, and he was able to take me on as a client. After training with him, I discovered not only a love of exercising but also a love of helping people pursue their health and fitness goals. A few years later I started to focus on running and trained to be able to run in a 5k. My first 5k was in the Fredericksburg Turkey Trot in 2015. I also started to go hiking and have completed multiple hikes in the Shenandoah area!

Introduction to Obstacle Course Racing

After running a few more races, a friend and I decided to try a short obstacle course race called Storm the Beach. It was the most fun I had experienced for a running event and that got us to start looking at signing up for a Spartan Race. I ran in my first Spartan Race in 2017 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was about a 5-mile course with about 20 obstacles ranging from monkey bars to rope climbs. While I was unable to complete every obstacle and had to perform the penalty burpees, I felt like I was able to challenge my body and mind in a way I had never before. I did another Spartan Race that year and started planning for the next year. In 2018, my friend and I ran in 10 obstacle course races including the Trifecta Weekend for Spartan Race where you complete 3 different races in a weekend. Obstacle course racing changed my professional direction from pursuing a degree in accounting to a degree in Sports and Recreation Management.

Getting started at fit20

I found out about fit20 while I was completing my degree at James Madison University. My mother told me that she had started training at fit20 and said I should meet her trainer since he loves to help people pursue their health and fitness goals. I met with the trainer, and he took me through the fit20 training. I thought it would be easy since I had trained for and completed several different obstacle course races and I like to push hard on my normal workouts, but by the end of my training session I felt like I had worked out for an hour, but it had only been about 20 minutes! I inquired about an internship since I needed to complete an internship to finish my degree, and I thought fit20 would be a great opportunity that would grow into a career. After completing my internship hours, I was offered the Studio Manager position at the fit20 located in Cosner’s Corner and I had to say yes since I had seen some amazing progress in myself and the members I was training!

Why I love fit20

When I first started at fit20 I thought it was the best way for older people or people with injuries to perform strength training. The more I learned about fit20 and saw the progress in myself and the members I train, I believe fit20 to be the best way for people to train in general. fit20 is time efficient and you have a trainer there to ensure you are doing the exercise correctly and safely as well as providing that extra accountability that helps people make it in for their session. fit20 has allowed me to keep a consistent training schedule even when I have busy weeks that I'm not able to run or walk as much.