Understanding Clients and Their Body Needs

As a personal trainer, my duty and responsibility to my clients is to empower them to achieve their physical fitness goals and beyond. I accomplish this by getting to know my clients: their wants, their needs, their goals, their motivations, and their aspirations. We work diligently from day one to establish a strong mind-body connection (understanding your body and how to operate it) creating a strong foundation on awareness and build up from there. If we neglect to listen to our body and what it is trying to “communicate” to us, this can lead to injury, under-recovery, burnout, the “aches and pains,” and lots of frustration. I am here to help address this!

 

My Journey

As a kid, I spent most of my days indoors. Gaming and hanging out with friends. When I got into sports for the first time, I was excited to get out and be active. I began playing soccer, then baseball, and finally settled into football, wrestling, and lacrosse. All three of those sports are very high contact sports. I also began weight lifting once I got to high school. Between sports and lifting, I started breaking down my body, leading to some hefty injuries. I battled with back pain, foot/ankle pain, migraines, and obesity. As I left for college and the sports stopped, I gained 80+ lbs almost reaching 300lbs.

I’ll never forget that day I stepped on the scale at my college gym and it read 299.8lbs. On that day, I said “no more!” I’ve watched my friends and especially my family battle with their weight and health conditions and I was following the same path. Using what I learned in school and with the help of my colleagues, I was able to lose over 80 pounds and improve my overall health and wellness.

 

I could not have achieved this on my own. To this day, I am collaborating with other professionals on my health and wellness journey:
  • My family physician helps me to stay current and check in on my overall health.
  • Even as a personal trainer by trade, I consult with other trainers to work on my programming and exercise. I think others will always try to push you more than you will push yourself. 
  • Whitney, our nutritionist, supports me in bettering my eating habits and improve my relationship with food. Not only to help me lose more body fat, but also to optimize my overall health and fend off illness that I am predisposed to. 
  • I have had support from mental health professionals in the past to work through traumas, anxiety, depression, and overwhelm.
  • My friends over at Core Health Chiropractic support me in keeping the injuries sustained to my spine at bay and keep my nervous system healthy.
  • Ariana, our yoga and mediation professional has been a support for me when it comes to working on my flexibility and embodiment, as I need A LOT of help meditating and working on my breath.
  • Elizabeth, our massage therapist, supports my body recovery from stress and vigorous workouts.
  • I also consult with Nate, our physical therapist, to get support with my injuries, aches, and pains.
  • I’ve also received support from energy workers. The list goes on and on…

With that being said, no matter how much research and self-teaching I do, I couldn’t have the vast amount of deep knowledge and experience that these other professionals have in their own fields! I work with them and trust them to guide me forward.

 

& Beyond

I take much responsibility and pride in forming a strong relationship with my clients and helping them grow in all areas of their lives. This is the tricky part. Within my scope of practice, I can only help so much. This is where integrating and working with other professionals comes into play. My clients and I have worked very hard together to achieve their goals and my clients work very hard to become the strongest/best versions of themselves. 

Before Ampersand Integrative Wellness was born, I have worked to create a strong referral network, but noticed that sometimes this system still came up short feeling that I was not able to offer the top quality, consistent service that my clients needed, outside of personal training.

 

Advocating for YOUR Wellness

Having a team of healthcare professionals who are all in constant communication with each other helping to work towards your goals and wellness journey and nothing else. Sound too good to be true? No longer! At Ampersand Integrative Wellness our sole purpose revolves around integration and integrative services. That’s a lie; our sole purpose revolves around YOU. You guide us and we listen. When you work with one of us or a few of us, we have a roster of professionals, from inside and outside of our walls, which work with you on all the various spokes of the “Wellness Wheel.” The Wellness Wheel is composed of your physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, social, environmental, and financial well-being and health.

If you are struggling working on creating harmony in your life and trying to improve on the spokes of your own wellness wheel, I openly invite you to reach out to me or the other professionals at Ampersand Integrative Wellness to start your journey.

You and your health and wellness are worth it. What do you have to lose? You can only gain.

Contact Stefano

 

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