The Lounge Q+A: Adam Quick, Fitness Trainer

Can you tell us where you are right now and what you do?

I am in Columbus, Ohio at the gym that I am a trainer at. It’s called Fit One Four. It’s in Westerville, New Albany area, a suburb of Columbus. We’re pretty much here in Columbus, Ohio.

Given Covid, are people curious about how to stay in shape without the machines in the gym?

I’ve had people outside the gym who are still not comfortable coming back to a gym contact me and they’re asking, “How can I work out at home? Here’s what I have.” So, I try to help them out. When we closed down I created kind of a YouTube community for my clients. I don’t have equipment at my own house so I ran out and got some bands. I made some dumbbells out of some water jugs. I did the best that I could. Then with that, I tried to show what people could do with just whatever they had at home. So, I made probably 30 videos in the 11 weeks we were off. I use a lot of backpacks with books and water bottles. I did have some bands and I used a cooler for my step and just tried to make do with what we have and show how other people could make do with what they had too.

Do you delve into meal planning as well?

I work with a registered dietician to help me with that. If that’s something that the client needs, then I definitely help them. We work on lifestyle changes, tracking what you’re doing. I think a lot of people get lost in how much they’re consuming. A lot of people don’t eat enough, some people eat too much. You need to figure out what that is and how to make it work within your life. So if they come to me for diets, I reach out to them and see where their needs are. I consult with everyone when they first come in. I do measurements of their body and body fat. Then I try to get a BMR and I send information over to the dietician. Then with what the dietician gives me for the client, I try to help them work that into their lifestyle.

Why should somebody invest in a personal trainer instead of doing it themselves with an app?

As far as using an app versus in person, you’re going to get that personal coaching. I’m going to be able to literally point out something that might be wrong in a squat or a deadlift. I use those examples because they are the most injury prone. You can’t get that from an app. You can ask some questions, “All right, here’s what I’m doing.” Maybe send a video, but that’s not going to be immediate. You can’t practice the fix that I give you. So if you’re rolling your back on a deadlift, you’re going to send that to your coach through an app. Then they’re going to tell you what to do. Then you’re going to have to go back the next time you deadlift and practice it. Where if you’re working one on one with somebody, those immediate fixes can be corrected and hopefully improved more immediately so you’re not wasting so much time and hopefully not causing any injury in the process of trying to learn.

What do you love most about what you do?

I think I fell in love with being a trainer because all my adult life I’ve either coached or helped kids of all kinds. So I’ve coached kids from second grade all the way up through high school. I’ve worked in schools as aids and in multiple disabilities rooms. If you want to help people, this is a way to do it. If you like trying to create a better life for somebody else, then this is a way to do it. I came through to personal training by helping kids in a different sport. It was a sport that I was good at. Then I’m like, “Listen, if you guys want to be better, come to the gym with me.” That’s how my personal training started. Working out with kids that I was helping in different sports. I didn’t realize how much the working out would’ve helped my sport when I was doing it. I was coming to the end of my career in that sport and I wish I would have at 18 years old been in the gym while I was doing that other sport.

Now you have to tell us this sport! We’re on the edge of our seats here.

I rode bulls for 16 years.

Are you kidding me? Come on, man.

So when I turned 30, I had a major knee injury, tore my ACL, PCL, and meniscus. I was still riding bulls, but I didn’t have insurance. So I was like, all right, I’m definitely not having surgery. So what can I do? So I stopped playing basketball and I started working out. I realized then that the working out really helped my bull riding, which I wish I had done when I turned 18. About the only time I ever worked out was for football in high school. I tried to avoid it as much as I could then. I just liked playing football. I had some equipment at my house to practice riding bulls. So I had a bunch of the younger kids, high school kids, coming over and I was just teaching them riding bulls. I ended up getting them to the gym with me. The gym that I went to then was owned by somebody I had known my whole life. He was like, “Hey, why don’t you try this?” So it worked out. I knew, literally, everybody that went into the gym, so it was more like, “Hey, can you help me with this?”

How did you manage fear?

There’s a handful of times I was actually scared because it was just something that I wanted to try. When I first did it, I literally watched rodeos my whole life. I always loved the cowboy life, the western lifestyle. Well, you don’t have that in central Ohio. I’m not out on the ranch. I’m not herding cows or anything. So, for me, rodeo was a way to be a cowboy. Growing up there’s no way that I could even do that, but it turns out I could. I figured that out. There’s probably two times that I was scared riding bulls. I did it for a long time. I’ve been on thousands of bulls. My third ride ever, I was scared, because I’d watched this bull that I ended up getting on beat people to what I thought was near death. So I was a little scared to get on him and he pretty much did the same thing to me. It’s just I’ve been a competitor all my life. So that was just a different way to compete for me.

It’s really cool that you donate your amazing talent to help others.

So growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher. Right? That didn’t work out. I started college and then I started riding bulls and I realized I’ll just ride bulls and not do college. But I still always wanted to help people. I had a lot of people help me throughout my life. That’s where the coaching came in. Most of my people that helped me were my coaches throughout school. I’ve got into some camps for disabilities, mostly autistic kids. I worked at a school in a high-functioning autism room. It was 10 kids that were all basically on the same side of the spectrum. I think anytime you can put yourself in a position to help somebody else, it’s going to make you more aware of yourself and why you’re here. So if we look at everything going on in the world today, how can you help the next person? Not only are you helping that next person, but maybe you are teaching them a little bit about how you got to where you’re at.

When you look ahead, what do you see?

Personally, I love what I do. There’s a lot of fitness that has gone online. Like in Columbus, Ohio online training is a big thing. I think online training is a thing of the future, but I do believe there will always be the personal experience of one-on-one, in person training that people will also continue to want. It might not be everybody. I feel like the online thing is for somebody who knows what they’re doing that just needs a little bit of an extra push. I think the personal side may move more towards somebody just trying to get healthy and doesn’t really have an idea on what the next step is for them. I think you’re always going to have a little bit of both.

You’re stranded on a desert island. What one book, movie, and record would you take?

One book that I love, I listen to on Audible a lot is Shaken by Tim Tebow. I will be honest, if Tim Tebow does it, I like it. Just the way he lives his life, for me, it’s hard to argue with. So, Shaken by Tim Tebow. Movie, Shawshank Redemption. And then the album, hmm, that’s a tough one. Probably Poets and Pirates by Kenny Chesney. There’s a lot of good songs on that album.

A message to the PocketSuite community.

PocketSuite has been a godsend for me. It was literally what I was looking for instead of chasing payments down all the time. I love PocketSuite and what it’s done for me, and I’ve pretty much got every trainer here except a few old school people using it. For the community, just be focused on what it is that’s next for you. On PocketSuite, we all have clients. So focus on your clients. They’re people. They all have something going on, so don’t just go through another day. It might be your session or whatever you have with them, but they might just be there just to not deal with whatever is going on in their life. So don’t press them too much. Feel it out. Focus on what’s next for you and try to make the best of every day for you and your clients.