Personal Trainers

Personal trainers at Sierra Fitness are committed to their clients’ workout success.

Members won’t find better qualified or diverse staff geared to investing in their end game; trainers will coach, counsel, collaborate and even cheerlead (not literally) to accomplish that goal.

Check out Sierra Fitness – a fitness destination/gym located in Tucson’s foothills and conveniently near to various types of entertainment, shopping and dining options.

 

CELIA

Celia brings to her Sierra Fitness students a diverse physical fitness background, including having been both a gymnastics coach and sports trainer. Her goal? To help people become the best they can be physically, mentally and spiritually. How? Through body, mind and spirit connection.

Celia enjoys combining strength training, cardio endurance conditioning and Yoga balance. She has designed a training system that enhances muscle strength, tone and endurance.

She earned a B.S. in Psychology and is certified through Keiser Cycle, NASM and AFAA. She holds a 600 level Yoga certificate from Aura Wellness.

 

CHRIS

Having earned a BSc Physiology from the University of Arizona, Chris is a Certified Personal Trainer (ACE). His work experience includes:

• University of Arizona Campus Rec – Personal Trainer/Group Exercise Instructor
• Banner/University Medical Center – Exercise Specialist/Personal Trainer
• Arizona Arthritis Center – Exercise Specialist

His personal trainer philosophy? Help people of all ages and fitness levels reach their full physical potential so they may enjoy life in a more fulfilling way. Chris incorporates functional training in his workouts, making sure each workout helps clients improve physical performance outside the gym. He strives to make each workout a challenging learning experience; ensuring clients know how to properly perform exercises along with the ensuing benefits.

Clients who train with Chris can expect a fun and challenging work‐out geared to their specific goals. He promotes utilizing a variety of tools including weight machines, stability balls, medicine balls and balance trainers, as well as their own body weight to achieve the desired level of fitness. Chris wants his clients to find enjoyment in exercise and make it a part of their well-balanced lifestyle.

Among his personal training specialties are:

• Sport-Specific Training
• Conditioning
• Functional Training
• Core Strength
• Proprioception/Balance Training

Chris enjoys personal training a range of clients including weekend warriors, desk jockeys and older adults. He understands it’s his job to motivate his clients to unlock their physical potential.

 

DON

Don wants his clients to get stronger. He has been coaching and teaching for over a decade. Don has a masters in chemistry with bachelors in chemistry and biology and teaches chemistry at Pima Community College. He coaches the basic barbell movements, with attention to form. Don loves strength training because:

• It’s the fountain of youth. As muscles grow and joints bend, aches and pains melt away. Humans become more confident and independent. Training to be strong forces us to tune into our bodies.
• It’s a journey of self-discovery. Clients learn to do the things that help them; they then help others because sacrifice and hardship builds character. Clients will learn interesting things about themselves, good and bad. They will decide what to bring and what to leave behind on this journey.
• Clients get strong. It works. In weeks they can be stronger than their friends. In months, they can be the strongest people they have ever been. Strength helps everything: moving furniture, opening pickle jars, lifting grandkids and yes, spouses or significant others will notice the difference.
• Community. Barbell people are the best people. They are humbled over and over again. They support one another with kindness and want others to grow with them.

Don began using barbells 20 years ago and continues. He uses them to give adults strength and confidence and to help young athletes defeat their opponents and achieve their goals.

For adults, the confidence built along a relatively short journey with barbells can be invigorating. In can help get their lives back and cope with hardship (divorce, death of a loved one, body weight). Barbell training can be a comforting and stable part of the week when waves of life crash over them.

For young men and women, formative years of confidence and character building will start them onto a pathway. Seeing this transformation as maturity doubles, overnight sometimes, can be amazing.

 

CHRISTINA

Christina’s personal training philosophy is that exercise is an investment in her clients’ future happiness. She emphasizes a smart combination of nutritional knowledge, strength training and flexibility.

Personally training clients for 25 years, Christina’s #1 goal is to teach others to take control of their own health and fitness destinies and to realize the rewards of true health in mind and body.

She strives to be a positive role model for each one of her clients – living the lifestyle she espouses during her training sessions. Clients who have success do so because of their own determination and hard work; she merely facilitates.

Christina has worked with clients aged 9 – 100, all with a variety of fitness levels and goals.  She specializes in working with older adults and people with diabetes.

 

GALVIN

Galvin, M.A., C.S.C.S. lives by the fitness mantra “Excellence is a habit.”  How that habit is achieved is through a prioritized balance, quality and consistency of exercise, nutrition and recovery.

His personal training mission is to help his clients maximize their potential and live an active and healthy life by providing an elite level of coaching and service and customized workout plans and practical nutrition advice. And working with positive energy and developing habits that can be maintained.

Galvin’s core personal training and fitness components for his clients include:

• Regarding EXERCISE, Galvin emphasizes and implements a blend of personally-designed strength, mobility, cardiovascular exercises; tips and practice involving how to prevent injury, correct Imbalances, adapt to limitations as well as how to employ proper technique, quality effort and proper progression.
• Regarding NUTRITION, there is a review, analysis and modification regarding when his clients eat, what they eat, how they eat and how much they eat.
• Regarding RECOVERY, Galvin encourages establishing an optimal training program, maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and establishing a proper sleeping environment: light, noise, temperature.

Through a series of evaluation, goal setting, planning, and taking action positive results happen!

 

HEATHER

Heather is a personal trainer and coach who works with all ages and fitness levels of clients to improve strength, endurance and flexibility.  She enjoys assisting in their positive transformations. Further, she understands – through fitness – people can live longer, healthier lives.

Heather graduated from The University of Pittsburgh with a B.S. in Sports Medicine and dual minors in Speech Communication and Biology.

Over her 20-year fitness career, Heather has:

• worked for a chiropractor overseeing patient physical therapy
• focused on clients with disabilities, diseases and injuries
• worked with West Virginia University Athletic Department Football and Basketball teams to improve team flexibility as a means of injury prevention
• headed the fitness wellness program for West Virginia University Hospital employees
• was health coach for the Monongahela County homeless and teen runaway shelters – providing exercise and education to children
• offered post physical therapy to patients at a physical therapy clinic, helping them prevent future injuries
• taught fitness classes and personal training throughout

Since Heather’s return to Tucson in 2002, she has been teaching and personal training at Sierra Fitness and elsewhere.

Heather is certified through ACE fitness personal trainer, AFAA primary group fitness, 200-hour E-RYT Yoga Instructor, Kettlebell Training, Tabata programming, TRX-suspension Training, Cycling, dynamic flexibility, Pilates Mat, Bosu core conditioning, Strength Conditioning for the aging population, Pre-Natal fitness, foam rolling myofascial relief, aquatic aerobics, cardio combat and functional training for all stages of life.

 

MIDJI (individualized Pilates)

Midji, BS and MS, has been an ARA certified water fitness instructor since 2009 and an ADAA certified personal trainer since 2004. In 2003 she obtained her Pilates mat and machine certification from Long Beach Dance Conditioning and has been teaching Pilates ever since.

She also has completed Yamuna Body Rolling training, Levels I and II and NIA white belt training. Additionally, Midji has completed training in Practical Yoga, Stability Ball, BOS and Body Bar Flex.

A Stage III breast cancer survivor, Midji has both the understanding and knowledge to work with populations with special requirements, i.e., cancer survivors and older clients with unique challenges.

 

SHAUN

Health and fitness should be fun while being challenging, and Shaun strives to help his clients enjoy every moment they are engaged in physical activity. His clients realize it takes smalls steps over time to eventually achieve an overall healthy lifestyle in a shorter time period than they ever could have imagined.

Shaun has been working with most of his clients for eight+ years because they have a great time during their sessions and he keeps them engaged as to what they are accomplishing and why.

Shaun is certified by ACE, Crossfit, and RKC. He has been with Sierra Fitness for over twelve years. He has worked with clients ranging from children ages five to eight, high school athletes who have gone on to play college sports, persons undergoing post-surgical rehabilitation training and functional training and even a member of the USA Triathalon team. Most of Shaun’s client base are individuals wanting to lose weight, build lean muscle mass and better their lifestyle.

 

SUSIE

Susie has been teaching group fitness since 1987 and taught at a Sneakers Fitness in Wisconsin. She became a fitness instructor at Sierra Fitness in 2009 following a move to Tucson with her husband, Steve.

Susie is certified in group exercise, barre, strength conditioning and Tabata and HIIT training.

In 2011, Susie expanded her fitness education and was certified by the NASM as a personal trainer.