A Sparwood-based fitness studio has recently opened its doors, specializing in personalized training.
Katie Jackson is brains and brawn behind Next Level Fitness, and is ready to help locals with their fitness goals. Her one-on-one training is tailored to the individual clients.
“Usually their first appointment is more of a consultation. We talk about why they are here, what their goals are. I have to ask them some medical questions, things like that,” said Jackson.
At the first consultation, Jackson also takes a variety of measurements, including a body fat test, to help understand the client’s overall fitness.
“The scale doesn’t give the whole picture. It’s only telling us what your total weight is, but it’s not telling you the ratio of muscle to fat in your body,” she said.
After the first consultation, Jackson then creates workouts based on the clients specific needs and wants.
“From there I will do customized workouts with them every time they come to see me,” she said. “We are doing Monday, Tuesday and Friday and I have five openings.”
Jackson has a basement studio set up in her house, which she and her husband have recently renovated. Clients complete the workouts in the studio, where she challenges them with a variety of workouts. Jackson doesn’t like to repeat workouts too often for fear of mundane routines, but sometimes a repeated workout can be beneficial.
“Sometimes I will repeat a workout just because I want to see how their progress is. If they did something two months ago and I want to see if they can better themselves or if they are using heavier weights or if they seem that they can get through it a bit easier than they did before, then it’s a good judge for me for progress,” said Jackson. “I don’t like to do that too often because I like to keep it interesting for them and kind of change it up, because I think that’s what they’re paying me for.
“I do have a pair of ladies that come to see me every week and it’s fun training two people at once. And they feed off of each other as well, so they really keep each other going,” she said about the partner option.
Jackson became a certified professional trainer last year, while she was at home, raising with her youngest son.
“Because I had the little kids, I couldn’t exactly go to school for it so I took a course online through the NFPT, which stands for National Federation of Professional Trainers,” she said. “I took my time with it given that I had the little ones. I had it done in I think about eight months or so.”
Being a fitness buff, Jackson stresses the importance of a balance of activities.
“I think it’s really important to have a balance of strength, cardio flexibility – those are three very key components that I try to stress to everybody,” she said. “If I had to pick, I would go to strength training more than anything.”
