Independence is the fitness goal

By Erin Mellinger, Owner; Axio Fitness

At Axio Fitness, we are very passionate about goals. In fact, our mission is to be zealous for our client’s goals.

As you can imagine, most of the goals we hear are focused on body weight, clothing sizes or some sort of exercise achievement like doing a 5K run or getting off the floor without assistance. All those are great goals and things we as personal trainers can focus on with our clients.

But have you ever considered independence as a fitness goal? When I ask clients for a long-term goal, they usually give me something specific they’d like to see happen in a year. Because we are in the business of changing our clients’ lifestyles, to me that is a short-term goal.

I try to help clients see my mindset. If you’re 50 years old, where do you want to be when you’re 75? Will the 75-year-old you wish they had moved more and lived a better lifestyle in their 50s and 60s?

In my experience, people who live an active lifestyle are more independent when they’re older. They can still get in and out of a car just fine, mow their own grass and get up and down the stairs like they always have. A sedentary lifestyle is very dangerous in the long-term for your everyday life.

Certainly, there are factors that are out of our control. There is no judgment from me for anyone who is dependent on others because of physical limitations, but I have also seen firsthand men and women in their 90s moving better through personal training. For many people, it may not be too late to start improving.

My hope is that thinking about this motivates you to start moving today. Long-term thinking is not one or two years from now, but decades. If you need help getting started, Axio Fitness is here to help.

Axio Fitness is located within Main Street Physical Therapy at 3900 Medina Road in Fairlawn. In addition to Fairlawn, Axio also has six studios in the Youngstown area. For more information, visit AxioFitness.com or call 234-236-4296.