Aug. 26, 2024

This paid piece is sponsored by GreatLIFE Golf & Fitness.

Fitness trainer William Sturgeon is out to “take away the hard parts” of going to the gym.

After more than a decade in the industry, including owning his own business in Minnesota, Sturgeon joined GreatLIFE Golf & Fitness earlier this year.

“My emphasis is on looking at the future of personal training, where we take an individual, one-on-one approach and apply it in a small-group setting,” he said. “It makes personal training more affordable and creates a community of people trying to improve their health and have fun working out.”

Sturgeon offers his small-group personal training sessions at GreatLIFE’s Sertoma Avenue location twice each week. While he recently launched the program, “the response has been really good,” he said.

“It’s a new offering, but already a couple weeks in, I’m seeing people really like the variety they’re given and the community aspect. COVID took away our ability to connect with others in a close environment, and now I’m trying to re-create what I experienced in my own gym around community engagement.”

In a small-group setting, the emphasis is still on personal training, he added.

“You’re in a group of no more than six, and we might all be doing a similar exercises, but you’ll be working with your own approach to weights or your own individual intensity, for instance,” Sturgeon said.

“It’s catered to the individual and centered around how the body works. We’re using functional tools such as kettlebells, sandbags and body weight, these unique items that elicit specific results for specific goals.”

In addition, he also offers one-on-one training at Woodlake Athletic Club.

We sat down with Sturgeon to learn more about him and his approach to training.

Hometown: Granite Falls, Minnesota

 Joined GreatLIFE: January 2024

Education: Bachelor’s degree in exercise science, licensed massage therapist, NSCA-certified personal trainer, RKC-certified kettlebell coach, certified functional strength coach

What made you become involved in the fitness industry?

It started with a passion for what fitness did for me. It provided me confidence in a way that I was lacking and helped me better my physical and mental health. When I was 21, I got serious and decided to go to school for it.

What’s it been like for you joining GreatLIFE?

It’s been interesting to go from a smaller setting of six to 10 people to an organization in the hundreds, but it’s been very interesting to see how many more people can be involved and how many more people are helping members work toward a common goal. That’s to enrich and improve the life of others, and that’s been great.

How would you describe your fitness training niche?

My clientele is specifically adults who are usually 35 and older and who want to seek help in a professional way. They see value in working with a professional to bring results. My emphasis is using fitness as a tool to improve quality of life, so clients can enjoy the things they do more: golfing, hiking, hunting, playing with grandkids, getting rid of aches and pains, and being able to live more.

What can people expect in small-group personal training?

I like to introduce different approaches as the seasons change. In summer, people want to look more fit, and around fall, people focus on getting ready for winter and trying to maintain results from summer. And during winter, it focuses on building strength and increasing weight because we’re traveling, it’s holidays, we’re eating more, so let’s roll with it. And during the spring, we start getting people ready for summer, which is more of a fat-loss focus. So every season has a focus geared toward what’s going on in an individual’s life and what are the unique goals each person wants to accomplish. 

Even though your small-group training has started, can people still join?

Absolutely. This is going to be an ongoing service, so people can start anytime. It’s here to last and not a short-duration approach.

Click here to learn more about the program. 

 To learn more and connect with William Sturgeon, click here.