Success Stories
Matt Kingsley
“Overall, I am extremely happy with EFL and feel like I’ve had an amazing return on my investment. I came in pretty frustrated with an almost 20-year history of frequent back pain. Since training with you the frequency and severity of my pain has been vastly reduced which has greatly increased the quality of my life in many other ways. My strength and mobility have improved greatly and this has led me to do activities I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing a year ago such as riding a bike or even sitting on a deep, plush sofa! For this I am very grateful (and to Dr. Snell for pointing me in your direction; I would have had no idea where to go). It hasn’t been a quick fix and I understand there isn’t one, but with your help my efforts have been rewarded for sure.”
Kelly Barnard
Kelly came to me originally wanting to drop some fat and get healthier in order to run some local events. Over the course of her training she has dealt with a host of health, medical, and lifestyle issues. We have worked with her physical therapist to deal with various joint and soft tissue injuries, and medical doctors for dealing with GI and other health concerns. We give her all the credit in the world for sticking with training through all of those challenges. Kelly’s approach to eating has drastically changed through trial and error, which has also resulted in positive benefits to her joints and is better able to do other activities with less likelihood of injuries occurring.
I hit my 20 lb. fat loss mark today! WHOOO! It’s official! The big difference for me was in changing how I ate – and doing it consistently together with training in the gym. It took awhile at first, but over time I realized how poorly I felt after eating “junk” and how much better I felt when I ate real food. I’ve learned to only walk the perimeters of the grocery store, cook instead of relying on convenience foods, and to use a food scale. Knowing that I am eating 5 oz. of chicken for a fact is a big deal.
My biggest lesson learned was that it’s all about changing your lifestyle, not just dieting or exercise alone. If you make change a priority, it eventually will become a part of you. All of this has taken me training for almost two years to really stick in my brain, but I got there.
Kelly Barnard
Beginning strength training 2011
November 2012. 20+ pounds of fat gone and many pounds of muscle on.
Toni Sexton
I started with Elemental Fitness Lab for a variety of reasons.
1. I routinely wanted to work out and every day I said I would and every day I just wouldn’t do it.
2. I had pneumonia and I lost a lot of muscle tone while I was down being sick.
3. I was so overwhelmed with all the information that is out there I didn’t really know what to do.
4. I was avoiding stairs because I felt like I was going to fall, and when I did take a flight up I was out of breath.
Luckily a friend of mine was already working out at EFL and she told me about how great it was. I went in for the initial meeting with Chris and had no doubt that I was in the right place. Chris is very knowledgeable and pushes you to just the right point (we always keep good form) while making it fun and different. I was a little nervous about the small group training at first, but after my first session I LOVED it! Not only have I met a lot of great people, I realized that being healthier is work that is challenging and that feeling is good for you. Watching others working hard to get it is motivating.
My first goal was to feel great and my ongoing goal is to lose fat. I was feeling so much better after the first few weeks. My fear of stair climbing and falling disappeared. The more I went - the better I felt. I know the more consistent I am with training – the easier it is to stay training. So I make the effort to be as consistent as I can. Also I see the more consistent I am with healthy eating choices the lower my body fat is so I continue my work on that as well.
I am 47 today and I feel like I am in my 20s most of the time. It is so great to have everything that I do feel so easy to me now – playing with the dogs and getting on the ground with them and then back up, going for walks, carrying groceries and so on.
Frances Portillo
Frances came to see me not too long after getting out of a wheelchair due to a bad fall. She still had metal pins in her feet from the surgeries which had limited her ability to even get up and down from the floor. However she was getting married in 7 months and wanted to lose the weight gained while being inactive after her accident.
Frances before she started training
By necessity her training had to begin with adjusting nutritional habits and working first on getting her moving better, which included increasing strength levels, especially in her lower body and core. As she progressed in strength and mobility we were able to start incorporating some metabolic training to increase the rate of fat loss. All the while we kept on improving her movement quality and strength.
Fast forward to July and Frances was down 40lbs of fat and had gained an appreciable amount of muscle. And she was not shy about showing it off on the dance floor!
From barely walking to dancing the Tango
Showing off a lot of hard work
Frances trusted in our process of proceeding with training in an order that ultimately allowed her to make much better, and long lasting progress that would not happen is she simply tried to do more cardio or join a yoga class. There are certain aspects of fitness that must be addressed in order for true change to happen, which brings us to the concept of building a wide base of movement quality.
Move better, then move often
Too often we think about fitness in terms of cardio capacity or strength, but largely ignore the concept of movement quality. Worrying about your cardio level if there are restrictions in hip or ankle function is like worrying about the type of gas in your car when it has a flat tire. This is why every EFL member does a full assessment including a Functional Movement Screen. The FMS was developed by noted physicial therapists Gray Cook and Dr. Lee Burton, and is widely used in the very best facilities and in many collegiate and professional sports programs.
As fitness professionals it is our responsibility to make sure you stay healthy while training, and the FMS is an excellent method for determining how well you move, which serves as the basis for developing strength, losing fat, or improving conditioning. All too often individuals undertake a quest to improve their fitness without addressing movement quality and soon bump up against limitations which often result in pain and injury. Our job is to remove those limitations and enable you to attain higher levels of fitness.
In addition to the Functional Movement Screen, new members do a fitness consultation and refine goals, and a strength assessment. Only then are we able to determine the best course of action and begin developing your program, whether it be focused on semi-private training with supplemental small group coaching, or small group coaching alone.
