Pumps Fitness Celebrates the Culmination of 6-Week Challenge

Pumps Fitness Celebrates the Culmination of 6-Week Challenge

What makes a good trainer? Is it his ability to make you do as many burpees as he can inside a minute? Is he like our mom at dinner, hovering over our mental shoulder making sure we eat our broccoli? Or is it something a bit more intangible than that?

Perhaps what makes a good trainer is that they earn your trust and make you realize that they truly care about your success. Perhaps a good trainer takes the time to get to know you as a person, to learn who you are and what you do when not under their watchful gaze.

Ian Bowen, who was a recent recipient of the annual Ideas in Motion Media Good Life Awards, is the Owner and Head Trainer at Pumps Fitness in Valparaiso. It’s a personal training gym that specializes in small group training as well as traditional one-on-one training.

“We care about our clients,” Bowen said. “There’s a personal connection that we make once they step through that door. Small group training allows us to really know our clients and get to know what makes them tick, their families, and their habits. This gives us a personal stake in their success.”

We’re all conscious of the fact that we could lose a few pounds here and there. And with the holiday season coming up quick, most of us succumb to the many holiday parties, and especially the treats (cookies!). This often leads to us feeling a bit fluffier than we’d like. So, inevitably, we search for a gym, and if we’re a bit bolder, we’ll go looking for a personal trainer.

“Know you. Like you. Trust you.” Bowen believes in this statement firmly.

“We wanted to make sure we made a deep impact into their lives,” said Bowen. “Especially their habits.”

In that vein, he came up with a comprehensive 6-week Challenge.

“Tomorrow is the culmination of our 6-week transformation program,” explained Bowen. “They can come in and work out, Monday to Friday. With that, they get meal plans that give them meals for Monday through Sunday, with 6 meals a day. They got a lot of motivation and encouragement as well.”

“We had a private Facebook group that posted videos and recipes,” he continues. “We’ve done a 2-week and 28-day challenge before, but this was our longest challenge. We wanted to make sure we made a deep impact into their lives, especially their habits.”

The crowd that gathered the night the challenge ended all knew each other, even if they all hadn’t worked out together, which was another testament to the success of the challenge. Bowen made sure to congratulate each person who completed the challenge with a humorous and thoughtful description as he presented each one with a trophy.

The challenge was to see who could lose the most body fat percentage, which is a more accurate way to measure fat loss than scale weight. The top 4 winners all lost 5% or more body fat in 6 weeks, with the winner losing over 8%. That’s no small feat, and Bowen celebrated each winner by gifting them with a trophy and a gift.

Nicole Blashkey was one such winner and was all smiles.

“I was already training with Ian,” said Blashkey. “I first started training with him on another fat burning session that he did. It just pumped me up and got me excited that more people would be joining. So I knew I needed to it again.”

“It really shows you what you can do when you set your mind to it,” she continued. “So many times, especially as women we’re kind of put these parameters on us and we’re more powerful than we know. And this place is really good for nurturing that empowerment.”

Becky Amick was also presented with a trophy for her hard work these last 6 weeks.

“I’ve been a client of Ian’s for a long time,” said Amick. “I just wanted to get back on the road to getting healthier. I’ve always worked out but this added that kick to get my food intake right.”

“This is just the beginning, starting to eat healthy again. This is awesome that I lost so much and Ian is just so great,” Amick beamed.

Bowen does a remarkable job at getting his clients to trust him, and in the process they become more than just clients- they become family. That was definitely how the gathered people felt at the celebration. These weren’t just people, these were friends who encouraged and motivated each other to do a very difficult and long-suffering task; losing weight and restricting their food intake in a society of abundance. It’s thanks to Bowen that they were able to achieve that.

For more information on Pumps Fitness, please visit http://www.pumpsfitnessinc.com/