finding time for fitness

By Rebecca Murphey

April Brown needed a nudge.

Ten years ago, exercise was an important part of her routine, but now, the mother of two young boys was finding that it had all but vanished from her busy life.

"We get up at six, the boys are on the bus at 7:15, and my husband and I are at work by eight. At the end of the day, we get home, spend some family time, put the kids to bed and just collapse," she says.

Colleagues at Duke University, where Brown, 43, is the chair of the electrical and computer engineering department, had told her how personal training had put them back on track. But Brown had tried that route before.

"I'd worked with a trainer very briefly once," Brown says. "It really made me feel not so great about working out."

News of a personal training studio opening in Carrboro led Brown to give it another try.

"I really wanted to feel good again," she says. "Honestly, I spend too much of my time sitting at the computer-not immobile, exactly, but certainly not moving as much as I should."

A Perfect Match

"Not as much as I should." Those words are often the cue for Elizabeth Towe to enter someone's life. And though Brown didn't know it, she was just the kind of person that Towe, a certified personal trainer, had in mind when she opened Balanced Movement Studio.

Towe, 37, is an 18-year veteran of the fitness industry. From her days at a gym in Greenville to her recent duties as program manager of GlaxoSmithKline's largest fitness center, Towe says she's discovered one overriding truth about fitness.

"Our bodies are meant to move," she says. "People who incorporate fitness and movement into their lives improve their quality of life by doing what their body was meant to do. It's that simple."

Towe says that many people are so intimidated by a large gym that they forgo fitness entirely. Often, she says, people are far more comfortable in a private, non-intimidating setting, instead of a gym.

Getting Started

At Brown's first appointment, she and Towe sat down to figure out her goals-and her limitations. They talked about Brown's exercise history, her successes and setbacks, likes and dislikes.

That approach was a good sign for Brown.

"In my previous experiences with personal trainers, they weren't very understanding of what I could and couldn't do," she says. "I needed someone who would focus on progress, not failure."

Towe knows that establishing a relationship in that first meeting is important.

"Personal training is personal-the thing you have to establish immediately is rapport," says Towe. "Basically I have to convince the person, `I'm not here to hurt you.'"

To that end, Towe kept things simple that first session: she focused on Brown's flexibility, strength, and range of motion, trying to discover any imbalances that were causing pain.

"That first workout, I'm not looking for someone to leave feeling like they've had a workout," says Towe. "I just want to see where they are."

Towe also makes clear her expectations.

"I told April that I would be asking her a lot of questions," says Towe, "and I told her she was going to have to think about movement in a way that she hadn't thought about it before."

"I feel very comfortable with Elizabeth," says Brown. "Knowing that she's going to be there waiting for me forces me to stick with this, and I'm glad for that."

Towe says she discovered the same truth in her five years at Glaxo.

"A lot of what I do is about building relationships," she says. "After I help someone put together a fitness routine, so much of my job is just keeping in touch with them, seeing how they're doing. Sometimes it's just that nudge, knowing that someone cares, that people need to stay on track."

Four weeks later

After just seven sessions, Brown was seeing a change in how her body felt.

"Elizabeth pushes me right to the limit of what I can do, but she doesn't make me do anything more than I'm capable of," says Brown.

"The one thing I really enjoy is building on what we've done the session before. There's repetition, but I'm also learning new things."

Towe makes frequent use of "stability balls"-big, colorful rubber balls that often dot the floor of the studio-in her personal training programs.

"Luckily, April trusts that the crazy things I'm asking her to do are really for her benefit," says Towe.

The stability balls are one of Brown's favorite things about her new exercise routine.

"They let me work on more than one thing at a time," says Brown. "The exercises that Elizabeth has me do on them have really helped me with my core strength and balance."

Her least favorite exercise?

"Squats," Brown says with a laugh. "I'm still not as flexible as I'd like to be, but I can feel that starting to change."

These days, it's Brown who's singing the praises of personal training.

"It's nice to have someone who really focuses on you, who helps you understand how your body is working," says Brown. "I can already see I'm moving toward where I want to be. It's making me more committed than ever."

--

Have more questions? Contact us!

news & links