In the Media
2004-02-23, The Edmonton Journal
Body & Health Personal Trainer Feature
Chris Zdeb; journal staff writer, Edmonton
Personal Trainer: Alexandra Senkow
PERSONAL WORKOUT: “My personal workout has changed dramatically because I’m five months pregnant right now. I’ve been keeping up with the swimming, and typically in a week I teach eight to 10 classes as well. I also incorporate one night of yoga, Pilates or weight training, and I do at least three or four cardio workouts a week. Right now I’m doing some light jogging and indoor cycling and I’ll do the elliptical cross trainer because there’s no impact.”
LIKES: “Personal training. I think it’s true, that if you find a job you like, you never work another day in your life.”
DISLIKES: “Processed food.”
FAVORITE NATURAL FOOD: “I love mangos and beets… layered beet and mango salad is very good.”
HER RECIPE: “Boil the beets. Chill and chop. Chop mangos. Some white Spanish onions if you like. Make a vinaigrette of equal parts vinegar and canola or olive oil and a little less liquid honey and add a little sea salt. Marinate beets in vinaigrette for a day or two and layer with fresh mangos.”
GREATEST EXTRAVAGANCE: “Groceries. It’s not a necessity, not the way I grocery shop. I probably spend as much grocery shopping for myself and my fiancé as most people spend for a family of five or six because I really believe that what you put in your mouth is so important. Some people like to go out to a restaurant and I like to just prepare everything from scratch at home.”
ONE THING YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT YOURSELF: “If I could be a little less bullheaded that would be good.”
MOST TREASURE POSSESSION: “My fitness level because I’ve worked very, very hard to achieve it.”
ALEX’S TIPS
Personal Trainer on the Run
Just when you thought you had a legit excuse for not working out regularly – no time to get to a gym to work with a personal trainer – along comes Alexandra Senkow. She pulls up to your door in a cute-as-a-button yellow Mini Cooper, unloads a large blue fitness ball and a set of portable free weights from the hatchback, and suddenly your legit excuse evaporates.
Alex is a mobile trainer with Defining Eve, a mobile personal training service, who for the last year has been training clients in their homes, their offices – wherever they are doing what they say interferes with a regular workout.
One of her clients is Kathleen Gagnon, a hairstylist, who works out of her home. Kathleen is a runner with occasional knee pain who needed help to strengthen the rest of her legs to support her knees better. She also wanted to loosen her hip flexor muscles, which were tight from running.
“I bought equipment to work out with at home – a set of dumbbells, a stationary bike and cross-country ski machine, and I just sold them all at a garage sale because I didn’t use them,” Kathleen says. “I tried, but I wasn’t inspired to do it on my own.”
Kathleen missed a recent yoga class because she didn’t feel like venturing out in minus-40-degree weather. The temperature was still in the deep freeze the next day, but Kathleen didn’t miss her workout, because Alexandra was the one who had to brave the cold to get to her.
Convenient?
“I don’t have to drive anywhere,” she beams. “It’s awesome.”
Mobile personal trainers are new to Edmonton, but not to larger North American cities like Toronto or international centers such as London, England, where most people work out at home because there are few gyms – the overhead costs are too high to operate them, Alex says.
Factoring in travel costs, it costs about $65 an hour to work out with a mobile trainer at home, but then you’re not paying the $40 to $150 a month that it costs to belong to a fitness club, Alex says. She and her business partner got the idea for mobile personal training after reading market surveys that said one third of Canadians who exercise prefer to workout at home. Also, some of Alexandra’s own clientele began asking her to work with them in their homes or offices.
“Some people, most of them women, don’t feel comfortable working out in a gym environment, whether it’s because they’re self-conscious - most of the fitness industry focuses on athletic women who already have a high level of fitness – or they can’t always get to use the equipment they want if it’s crowded,” Alexandra says.
Others have beautiful equipment at home that they don’t know how to use or are not motivated to use. And then there’s the time-deprived like Doug Bychyk, who Alexandra trains once a week in the middle of his office at his South Side collision repair place.
“You’ve got people calling up on conference calls, coming in and checking paint colors with him while he’s on the elliptical cross trainer, which is distracting for him, but I think he wouldn’t be able to workout without being in his office,” Alex says. “It’s a matter of being able to fit his workout into his life – although it’s not a completely seamless fit,” she says laughing. “He’s able to work out this way, as opposed to not being able to work out at all.
“I think it’s important that people can choose their exercise venue, and if they want to work out at home with professional help, they should have the option,” she says.
Back in the middle of Kathleen’s cozy living room, above her salon, Alex puts her client though an exercise routine involving the fitness ball, yoga, Pilates and stability exercise on the mat and portable free weights. They work out like this once a week and Alex gives Kathleen a program she can follow on her own the rest of the week.
“I do one really good workout with Alex and commit to one more that’s really strong on my own,” Kathleen says.
The only thing concerning some of Alex’s clients these days is that she is pregnant.
“They say they want to improve their fitness levels as much as possible because they want to be able to keep up with the pregnant lady,” Alex says laughing.
GETTING STARTED
You don’t need much equipment to work out at home.
- A mat, a fitness ball and a light set of dumbbells is all you need to exercise, “though I’ve created workouts for people where all they use is their body weight,” Alex says.
- For a cheap cardio workout, buy a step board or buy a video, Alex recommends.
- Defining Eve can be reached at 482 - 7030 or by visiting www.definingeve.com
