Byline: Leslie A. Young Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
You can't miss it: a 34-foot motor home bearing the words ``Wellness on Wheels.'' Perhaps it should be renamed ``The End of Excuses for Not Working Out.''
Six days a week, early or late, personal trainer Howard Radin of Denver parks his well-equipped Winnebago outside a home or office, ready and waiting with exercise machines, expertise and enthusiasm. All that clients have to provide is the desire.
``I'll either meet you at work the minute you get off or I'll meet you five minutes after you get home,'' Radin says. ``This just makes it convenient to work out.''
Wellness on Wheels may be the answer for people who have problems fitting fitness into their cramped schedules. It doesn't have waiting lines, music you find obnoxious or exercise buddies who really want to visit members of the opposite sex strutting around in their workout finest.
In fact, you can bring your own music and leave the rest to Radin.
The massive mobile unit is Radin's dream come true after seven years as a certified professional trainer. It cost him $100,000 to put rubber to the road. He says the financing was the result of scrimping, scraping and credit card loans.
When a person converts a dream to reality, he doesn't take shortcuts. Radin selected Cybex machines based on his experience in strength and conditioning.
``I cannot go to someone's home or office building and bring what they might have inside,'' Radin says. ``People are not going to spend $25,000 and put this equipment in their home.''
The array includes a $10,000 computer assessment system.
``It gives clients a baseline of where they're starting from with respect to blood pressure, overall health risk assessment, stress, cancer, diabetes, strength testing - everything is online,'' Radin says. The program also ranks clients with others in their age category. At the end of each workout, the client can take away a printed summary.
Radin counsels his clients to get cardiovascular exercise on their own - walk, run, ride a bike.
``I don't baby-sit people,'' he says. ``I believe in self-responsibility. You can get up and walk three times a week.''
Two months after hanging his shingle, Radin has a half-dozen or so clients, certainly not enough to allow him to quit his other job as a personal trainer at Greenwood Athletic Club. But he says he'll give it a try for a couple of years.
Radin isn't the only have-equipment-will-travel game in town. Fitness on Wheels started 10 years ago. Founder Jeff Hopley, 36, operates four vans with three other personal trainers in Denver and Cherry Hills. His service offers vans chock-full of fitness equipment; the personal trainer wheels the equipment into clients' homes for their workout.
In 1993, Kurt Van Portfliet, 37, bought a franchise from Hopley for $10,000 and covers Douglas County with three vans. Van Portfliet says he hopes to add two more vans.
Having an equipped personal trainer in your driveway or living room isn't necessarily more expensive than retaining a trainer at a health club. Radin charges $55 a person or $70 a couple for an hour-long workout with a sliding scale for an extended contract. Fitness on Wheels charges $40 a session, $50 for two or more people, for an hour session.
Hopley has about 75 clients and 13 to 18 appointments a day.
``Our busy time is from about 4:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.,'' Hopley says. ``Most of these people are brokers and doctors, some attorneys. Surgeons that have 6 o'clock surgeries, 7 o'clock surgeries, they're the first ones to work out and get going.''
Lunch hours work best for Dara McLeod, 35. Last week, Radin parked his motor home across from the office building where she works. She came ready for her workout, reporting that she had gone rollerblading, cycling and skiing since their appointment the previous week. McLeod is married with three children, ages 5, 4 and 5 months. She concentrated on strength training until a month before her last baby was born. She works for Wellness International, marketing and distributing nutritional supplements.
McLeod says she decided to try Wellness on Wheels as a timesaver and a toner after the baby. ``You'd never work this hard by yourself,'' she says.
``I think most men, if they're anything like my husband, like to see their wife in good shape,'' McLeod says. ``When I'm feeling good, I have more energy for the kids, I have more energy for him.''
Mary Zius, 42, of Aurora juggles her career as a pharmacist with her family, which includes four children. She has a home gym in her basement, but she's been working out with Hopley for six months. When necessary, he supplements her gym with
Good times roll
for fitness fans
equipment from his van.
Her husband got her started with Fitness on Wheels as a gift. Now she works out with Hopley three times a week.
``He's very motivating,'' she says. ``When I want to give up, he encourages me to keep going.''
Hopley and Van Portfliet say half their customers are female.
``My youngest client is 7 years old; my oldest client is 76,'' Van Portfliet says. ``I work with clients who have M.S., Down syndrome.''
The common bond among the trainers is their level of job satisfaction.
``I don't have a humdrum job,'' Hopley says after a decade at it. ``I don't get burned out. I really enjoy helping them. I enjoy their excitement when they're down a dress size; they're so excited about that.''
Van Portfliet says his four years with Fitness on Wheels have been the best of his professional life: ``When I get up to go to work in the morning, it's not going to work - it's getting up having fun, helping people do the things they want to do.''
Radin knows he has a ways to go before he can bask in job satisfaction. ``If I'm still here in two years, I'll be happy,'' he says.
``My goal is to get people inside. I want everyday working people to know that they can get a trainer, afford it and not go to the poorhouse.''
INFOBOX
MOBILE FITNESS
If you're interested in learning more about mobile fitness, Wellness on Wheels is available for consultations. Call Howard Radin at 733-1191.
Fitness on Wheels has two area contacts: Jeff Hopley, Denver and Cherry Hills, 778-8060; and Kurt Van Portfliet, Douglas County, 693-3626..
CAPTION(S):
Color Photo (2)
By Steve Groer / Rocky Mountain News.
CAPTION: Personal trainer Howard Radin coaches Dara McLeod through her wourkout in his `Wellness on Wheels` gym. By Stever Groer / Rocky Mountain News.
