Eric Walden Manager/Personal Trainer

 Personal Trainer since:

 2004

Education:

B.A. in Health and Fitness from Purdue University

Certification:

Certified Personal Trainer- American College

of Sports Medicine

 Experience:

After graduating, I started working at a small personal training studio.  As I built clientele and experience, I worked into management at a large private club in Indianapolis.  There, I was able to teach some health education courses to the community, participate in health fairs, start a youth fitness program for younger children and continue personal training.  Eventually I created my own personal training business, Waldo's Personal Training, LLC, and was recently able to expand the business to Snap Fitness in Fishers.  I have trained ages 7 to 68, athletes to post pregnancy and everyone in between.  

 Areas of Focus:

Your goals are my goals.  I am good at helping the unmotivated exerciser get motivated and stay accountable.  I will challenge you to be better and you will feel great while accomplishing your goals.  Come work out with me and you will get results, guaranteed!

Highlights:

I have trained and competed in an OCB Natural Bodybuilding competition, placing 3^rd, and an intramural power lifting competition at Purdue.

Holly Lieb

A year and a half ago, I was 148 pounds with 30% body fat, and I was unhealthy.  I had really tried on my own to lose weight and get in shape.  I had done spin classes, Pilates, mini-marathon training, magazine and book diets and workouts, and even my own husband put together workouts for me.  I just wasn’t getting results and my mindset became, “This is just the way it is after having 2 kids in your thirties and there is nothing I can do to change it.”

After many conversations with my husband about how unhealthy a high body fat percentage is for women, I decided to try one last thing…a personal trainer.  I truly told myself that this was the last straw.  If this didn’t work, nothing would and I was done trying.

When I first met with Eric, my goals were very vague.  I wanted to lose some weight, but mostly just get a little toned and healthier.  I didn’t want to be very specific, because I had already decided that this wasn’t going to work any better than everything I’d already tried.  But working with Eric was different.  He brought something new to every workout.  He challenged me to push a little harder and never let me doubt myself.  When I looked at him like he was crazy, he just encouraged me and helped me through it.  Many times I ran out of the gym just to sit in my car and call my husband to tell him about my workout.  I was bursting with pride and could tell I was getting stronger and healthier.  After the first 3 months, I was 142 and 25% body fat.  I had lost 8 pounds of fat and gained 2 pounds of muscle!               

After about a year, I had lost 12 pounds and my body fat percentage was 22%, which was in the healthy range.  And even though it didn’t sound like a lot of weight, I had gone down 4 pants sizes because my body was changing and building muscle.  But now I wanted more.  I asked Eric to help me set some new goals.  I knew I was stronger and healthier, but I wanted to see all of the hard work I was putting into my strength training.  I wanted to look toned.  I needed to work more on my nutrition and I needed a firm date for a goal that couldn’t be moved.  So I decided to sign up for an OCB Bodybuilding Competition in the Bikini Division. 

Eric put together a training and nutrition plan for me for the 8 weeks leading up to the show.  It was a little harder than I was used to, but the changes were gradual so it wasn’t too difficult to stick with.  The last 4 weeks got tougher for me with 2 cardio sessions a day and fewer calories, but Eric understood the challenges of this part of the training because he has done it himself.  And he encouraged me and stood by me every step of the way.

 The day of the competition, I already felt like a winner.  I was 39 years old and standing in a bikini in a roomful of twenty-something girls.  My weight was 127 and my body fat was 18%.  So overall, I had lost 21 pounds of body fat!  But more important than the physical part was the mental aspect.  The whole experience of training hard and reaching each weekly goal had truly felt empowering to me.  I did it!  I set a goal.  I struggled a little.  And I reached it!