We get to know Ron Duppert in this Trainer spotlight episode of FITLETE Radio.
GEORGE: Introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do and your background.
My name is Ron Dupert. I am a certified personal trainer down in Charlotte, North Carolina. I actually got my bachelor's degree in exercise science up in New York at the State University at Cortland. And currently, I am the facility leader at a private fitness studio called Lake Norman Fitness Specialist, which is in a small suburban town north of Charlotte called Cornelius. And I honestly love to work with anybody, anybody that is really willing to work hard. I typically work a lot with, recently, I've actually noticed I've been getting a lot of people who are cyclists, runners, people that are just looking to get better overall so they can play with their grandkids, play with their kids, play other sports. But recently, I've actually been getting a couple more golfers, which has been interesting enough, because I don't have any golfing background or I don't have a golfing certification, but I do have an understanding of the sport, per se. So the workouts I've been running up recently have been focusing a lot around the game of golf, which is kind of fun because it's just something new for me to learn. But yeah, no, I love training anybody and anybody that's willing to work hard. And I don't want people to think that training has to become an absolute priority in their life, but I do think it is necessary for them to incorporate strength training or some kind of training routine into their life so they can get better at anything else that they want to do in life, whether that's sports, playing with their kids, their grandkids, hiking, cycling, golf, etc
GEORGE: Tell me a funny or interesting story about yourself that help's us get to know you as a human.
A funny story that has happened to me probably a couple years ago. This is actually back when my wife and I were on our honeymoon. We went to Punta Cana. This was the first morning that we went onto the beach. We were just hanging out, enjoying a couple drinks together. Literally just actually sitting in the chairs and actually reading before jumping into the water. And this guy kept walking by with these parrots. And we noticed that he was taking pictures with kids, adults, and all these other people. And we thought it was kind of cool until he finally approached us. He grabbed my wife, didn't even mention anything of it. He just told her to get out of her chair. She stood up and he started putting the parrots on her. Like he put her on her shoulders to help her head. She got to hold them on her finger like you would see in movies and everything. And then he asked for my phone. And I gave him my phone and he started snapping all these pictures from all sorts of angles. He had me get into a couple photos with her. And we just thought this was great. It was a very good time. It was probably about five or ten minutes of this photo shoot going on with these parrots. And then once he was done, he was like, oh okay, well here's your phone back. And he took his parrots back. And then after we were done, I said, oh great, that was a great time. And he turned to me and goes, yeah, they'll be $90. We're like, $90? Oh, okay, that's kind of cool. So we thought $90 Dominican dollars, which is a little bit cheap. I think the currency is half of what the U.S. dollar is over there. But then he goes, no, it's $90 U.S.D. And we were like absurdly angry about this. So we ended up paying the guy $90 U.S. dollars for these five minutes of photos they took of us. And then later on, my wife noticed on a Facebook page for the resort is that people were complaining about these guys walking around with monkeys and parrots. And they were doing the same exact thing to everybody. So if you guys are going to go to one of these resorts, try to stay away from these people because they will probably do the same thing to you.
GEORGE: What strategies do you use to attract and retain clients in your personal training business?
The strategies that I use to attract and retain clients is to, one, always be, you know, that positive guy in the gym. Always be the high energy person. Welcoming everyone into the gym. Knowing everyone by their name. And I just, you know, I like to be known. I like for everyone else to be known in the gym as well. So, because I do think the gym is a place for someone to escape their personal life, for them to just kind of come in and just be themselves, do something for themselves personally. That's one of the things I like to do to attract clients. Also, I just think, you know, I'm also in charge of our gym's social media page where every Friday I do post a reel of clients' training. And I just kind of show off some of the snippets that we do at our gym with our clients and just kind of show off that we don't do anything too extravagant. Anything that it should be too intimidating for someone to come into our gym to train, but we're basically doing some kind of press, pull, hinge, squat, lunge, and then some conditioning. Just stuff that people are kind of like, oh, I know I could actually probably do that, so maybe I should go check this gym out. As for retaining clients, honestly just results. I think results are the first and foremost thing because that's why clients are coming into the gym in the first place. They're sneaking you out for help, whether their goals are fat loss, injury prevention, muscle gain. But I do think results are the first thing to do to retain clients, but also getting that – building a relationship with that person as well to getting with them, getting to know them on a personal level, knowing stuff they like to do, knowing things about their family, their kids. Just because you always want to be able to keep up with them, learn about them, and every person loves to be acknowledged and talked to.
GEORGE: What is your process for assessing a new client's fitness level and addressing their goals?
Our process of assessing a new client's fitness level and Adjusting their goals is pretty simple. We have a new client come in for a free intro session They fill out some basic paperwork that addresses their their goals their injury history their exercise history and then also some of their Medical history as well Then after they fill out that form it takes about five minutes to do they'll meet up with a trainer that I will Get them scheduled with and the trainer will take them through just like a generic workout that incorporates some mobility and some stability and some in the being of the session and then after that after that stuff is done, we'll take them through just a little circuit of you know some of our baseline exercises and Those baseline exercises consist of push-ups some kind of row variation squats a Hinge and as well as like a split squat or like a stationary lunge and also a farmer's carry We take them through two rounds of that as kind of a circuit because we use that as a circuit because It allows us to kind of see their conditioning level where they stand like cardio wise But then also we do two sets of it because we'll take them through the first that kind of look at their movement It's how they move on their own and then in the second set We'll actually add a little more value to it and kind of give them a little more coaching cues fix up some Things that we need to work on going into it and then after that's done We'll actually bring them back into the office Sit them down talk about their goals a little more in detail and then you know come up and then based on there We go over their session with them kind of draw the baseline of roadmap a plan for them how they're gonna achieve their ultimate goal and Then we get and then we after we're done with that. We pretty much come up with a plan with them from there That's how our process works for assessing new clients
GEORGE: What certifications do you hold, and how do you stay updated on the latest fitness trends and research?
I am currently a NASM certified personal trainer. I have the precision nutrition level one certification. I Have John Rusin's pain-free performance Certification and I'm also a level one kabuki strength certified as well And how do I stay on top of the latest fitness trends and research is? Honestly one a little bit through social media where I have a lot of people I follow and some of their content Is you know unique to me, and I actually will personally shoot my message asking them. Hey, what's the what's the point of this? I've never seen this before can you do some explaining, and I'll actually get some decent Feedback from them, and I'll honestly learn From other people on social media we work alongside a phenomenal group of physical therapists as well One of the physical therapists is a pretty serious golfer, and she's really big on rotational Exercise right now and Just learning from her is just awesome stuff because I have but like I said before I am training More golfers more rotational people and the stuff that she's been learning about has been just like Mind mind-blowing to me personally because I am quite a geek at this kind of stuff But on on top of that I think you need to to stay on top of the latest fitness trends and research reach out to other trainers through social media or Ones that you may know from school or anything like that reach out to physical therapists nutritionists and Also, I go to conferences as well you people need to more people need to go to the fitness conferences I'm going to one here at the end of February called raise the bar in Dallas, Texas Which I'm extremely excited about this is actually my fourth. I'm going to it and Yeah, every time I go there I link up with someone new or some old friends, and I learn something new from them every single time so you know don't be Don't be stuck in your own boat When you're as a as a professional to get better your craft you need to be willing to learn more and expand your knowledge
GEORGE: How do you envision your personal training business evolving in the next few years?
Well, I'm already super excited about 2025 because we are looking to expand our gym because we are now at a point where we are hitting pretty close to full capacity of clients and trainers and it's about time that we need to actually expand our space and luckily enough that we may be getting a space sometime this spring or early this summer that is about twice the size of what we are going to what we currently have and this actually will be awesome because it will open up some opportunities for us to start doing more group classes, semi-private trainings instead of just focusing solely on one-on-one trainings because one-on-one trainings do add up on people's schedules, and it does make a person very busy But I do think as long as we can with a bigger space we can add in more small group classes, semi-private trainings to help with trainer schedules, but also offer more opportunities for clients that are looking to come in that are not really necessarily into one-on-one training, but maybe they still want to train but do something more like small group or semi-private as well Also, my role as facility leader at the gym is to also educate our trainers on training philosophies and everything so I still want to keep up with that kind of keep everyone fresh learn new things teach new things just to keep us on top of you know being one of the better being one of the best gyms in the Charlotte area
GEORGE: What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing the fitness & personal training industry?
I think the biggest challenge currently in the fitness industry is Just how extra everyone is these days. Everyone is a lot of the people you'll see on social media, especially are just extra meaning like people are saying hey, listen, don't eat this don't eat that eliminate this eliminate that and Like Lane Norton says in a lot of his videos is that you know when people are kind of getting through this whole eliminate this I'm like that. This is not good for you. Stay away from this It's actually creating, you know, a lot of like eating disorders for people like people are just people just don't know what to eat anymore To be healthy and it's really simple if you just want to eat to be healthier, you know It's kind of asking yourself the question. Well, it's fried chicken or grilled chicken better for you grilled chicken is uh Would you would you feel better eating a bowl of strawberries or in that bowl of Skittles most likely the strawberries? Okay, so just you know stick the basics eat more whole foods and you'll start to feel better overall your energy would better You'll start to feel stronger. Your workouts will be better And then on top of the workout thing too is that you know people just underestimate the basic exercises the basic exercises being a push a pull a squat a lunge a hinge a loaded carry and then other core exercises as well and People just underestimate that doing these movement patterns are just the the foundation to just better strength muscle hypertrophy better mobility better flexibility and then just better overall movement in general and Over time just keep doing the same exercises over and over and over again, but then just progressively overload them add reps add sets Shorten rest add weight and just keep progressively overloading them over time because then that's what is what's gonna lead to the results that you are absolutely after so I just think people are overwhelmed with what's going on in the industry and I think people just need to realize that The basics are what's gonna get them the best results possible
Want more Ron Duppert in your life? You can find’em here:
visit: https://www.lknfitspecialists.com/ron-duppert-certified-personal-trainer/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coach_ron_duppert/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Ron-Duppert-Fitness/100063800965363/
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