Photos by Marisa Padilla
Campus Recreation and the Weight Facilities Center are now offering personal training sessions — and the first two sessions are free.
For students, a single workout will cost $30 dollars, a package of five workouts will cost $125 and a package of 10 workouts will cost $200 dollars.
If you aren’t interested in buying a workout package, it may be worth it to try the first two appointments for free.
“You can just taste test it,” junior and manager of the Weight Center Brittany Tayloe said. ¨Find out what you love. There is no best exercise. It’s about finding what you love and keeping on doing it.”
Tayloe said she believes fitness has become more popular over the past couple of years. “There are also a lot of people who want to be a part of that ‘gym fad’ and just don’t know where to start,” she said.
The Weight Center already offers both cardio machines and free usage of weight machines to students, faculty and staff, but after seeing an increase in gym attendance, the management decided to offer personal training sessions as well.
The personal trainers are Pepperdine students, typically those who are sports medicine majors with an interest in personal training.
To become a personal trainer for the Weight Center, one must receive the appropriate training through an outside certification program like the American Council of Exercise (ACE), the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) or the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).
The first free appointment or consultation is with the personal trainer, when you share your fitness goals, undergo some basic fitness tests and discuss your current diet and exercise habits.
Between the first and second appointment, your physical trainer will create a plan of action with your fitness goals in mind and will then walk you through your second appointment, which is a workout.
Just as this is an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to learn how to stay physically fit, it is equally an opportunity for sports medicine students to learn how to teach others about their health.
There are currently three student personal trainers: senior Allen Stevens, senior Kyle Eastman and junior Dylan Bergstedt. Any student, staff or faculty member can call to set up an appointment with a personal trainer, and each trainer can be personally requested as well.
Tayloe added that she is excited to see this program take off. She also said that many students are interested in improving their physical health but seem unsure how to pursue it.
The personal training program allows students to learn about fitness in a comfortable, one-on-one environment. It begins with a phone call and setting up an appointment at the gym with one of the personal trainers.
“This is the least threatening way to learn how to work out,” Tayloe said.
If the Weight Center seems too daunting of an experience, a training session can be requested for another location, with no personal training session limited to one location.
“Many people are intimidated by gyms and exercise in general, and don’t realize that you don’t have to be confined to the weight room to exercise,” Stevens said. “I have had sessions with my clients in a variety of locations on campus such as the fitness studio, track, Towers gym, Alumni Park and the beach.”
The idea is simply to get students, faculty and staff more comfortable with working out, more knowledgeable of proper form and etiquette in gym settings and enable other students to learn how to train others in fitness.
To set up an appointment, call 310-506-7575 or for more information, visit community.pepperdine.edu/campusrecreation/fitness/personaltraining.
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Follow Connor Shewmake on Twitter: @connorshewmake
