Client Success Stories: Genevieve

I want to start sharing some of my clients' success stories because a.) they make me look good! (It's verification that I do know what I'm talking about, if only people would listen, for the love!) b.) I am beyond proud of their accomplishments & so happy that they reached their health & fitness goals c.) I am inspired by them & hope my readers too will be inspired to set and reach their own seemingly impossible goals, whether you want to run a marathon, lose 10 lbs, or compete in a physique contest-- you CAN do anything you make up your mind to do!

So today I will post about one of my most recent success stories-- my dear friend and co-Ragnarian (we ran Vegas together) Miss Genevieve. Genevieve teaches high school phys ed, so it's clear that her knowledge of nutrition and exercise was strong. She was a roll-out-of-bed kind of runner aka too busy to really train but could get through a marathon anyway. She was active and strong, but like many an athlete, enjoyed fueling her body more than necessary. It's the classic Fit But Fat Syndrome: we work out so much, we deserve to eat whatever and whenever we want. I, too, have suffered and overcome Fit But Fat Syndrome. Alas, Genevieve decided one day that she needed a new goal. She was the running queen, racing virtually every weekend summer through fall. When we chatted about my bikini bodybuilding, a seed was planted . . .

So last October, we met up after she ran the Halloween Half Marathon down my way. (We live over an hour apart, so I wasn't sure how training her would go, but we made it work, thanks to the beautiful technology of email, text, and digital cameras. It helped that she was so on-the-ball & also educated in fitness, so she understood every direction I gave her.) We did an initial consultation, which consisted of me assessing her cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular endurance via the push-up test and plank test, flexibility of quads, hamstrings, & low back, body composition via tape measurements, photos, and fat pinching, as well as an alignment & postural assessment. We also discussed her current diet and foods she liked, disliked, etc.

Then home she went & I sat down to crunch numbers, which is really a big part of what personal trainers do, especially for clients wanting to compete. (Funny, I married an accountant because I was an English major, and now here I am always with a calculator and plugging numbers into formulas. At least he still handles all the bills!) It's a nit-picky art of balancing macronutrients, timing caloric intake, and determining true caloric needs. I devised her first phase of meal plans, intentionally giving her a bit more freedom to gradually introduce her to the strictness of the competition diet. With her OCD personality, however, she actually preferred when the diet got more rigid and precise, and that's when she really progressed quickly.

The girl was stellar! She was obedient to every detail of the meal plans I emailed her, which changed as her weight, tape measurements, and photos changed. I gave her a new meal plan about every 4-6 weeks. I also gave her strength training guidelines, a schedule of what days to hit which muscles and how hard. Luckily, she also had a trainer already up where she lives who works with her and really addresses muscle balance and postural issues, as well as helps Genevieve deal with any injuries/tight areas. Again, this long distance training worked because Genevieve already has a great knowledge of kinesiology, physiology, and anatomy. I'm not sure long-distance training can work unless you have a skilled and knowledgeable client.

Genevieve, Nov. 2011

Nov. 2011

Nov. 2011

And yada yada yada . . . drumroll, please. Genevieve started at 180 lbs, 29.6% fat. Now she is 132 lbs, 15.3% fat. And she competed in her very first NGA Bikini Bodybuilding Competition this past Saturday and looked amazing! Enjoy these pics, which she did give me permission to share, of her amazing journey! Love ya, GiGi-- YOU DID IT!!

pose practice March 2012