Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mira Rasmussen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mira , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you ever experienced a times when your entire field felt like it was taking a U-Turn?

I can’t speak of U-turns, but I’ve seen the fitness industry take a lot of detours! With twenty years of experience, I’ve seen more people engage in hyped-up exercise trends than stay on a steady track of accomplishments. I started professionally training in 2005, after I completed my bachelor’s in Exercise and Sports Science from the University of Utah. My education was rich in research and clinical experience, which drove my desire to understand how the human body functions and adapts to exercise. This degree allowed me to train in reputable facilities, with well-educated trainers. With this common background between us, I expected the vast majority of clients to reach their goals. And they did, for a short while. But I couldn’t help but wonder why so many of them eventually developed a musculoskeletal injury. If exercise is medicine, and training makes you healthier, why are so many dedicated individuals ending up in pain?

It became clear that common training methods produced short-term results and those results came at too high a cost. Training and goal achievement were inevitably delayed due to back, neck, shoulder, hip, or knee pain. I believe training should increase health and performance, long-term. Injury and resilience should oppose each other. If we are truly training someone to perform better, get stronger, be healthier, their body should be less susceptible to injury, not more. I wanted more for my clients than a grueling workout that broke them down. I wanted to truly build them up. This was where my ‘best practices” completely changed. Determined to do things differently, I pursued my education as an exercise physiologist – an allied health professional who specializes in functional movement as the foundation for strength and conditioning. Now I have the privilege of helping clients overcome performance plateaus or chronic injuries, helping them achieve their goals faster and longer.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Fitness Beyond Training, LLC was established in 2015. Though I had the opportunity to work in great facilities, I no longer wanted to be the lone exercise physiologist among trainers. I wanted a team of highly educated professionals that could really make a difference in the industry. Unfortunately, this type of education isn’t found in schools or training certifications. We needed more than the industry could offer. We needed to bridge the gap between training and health professionals. I spent years cultivating staff members who were willing to deep dive into the science of neuromuscular learning. Our team had to understand what type of training opposes healthy adaptations in the body and what methods drive the body forward. Last, we needed the skills and knowledge to intervene appropriately, and in a manner that fits our client’s expectations and timelines. The hard work was worth it. Our clients learn how to move well in and out of the weight room, so they have true strength and resilience. This key concept changes their entire life and keeps them on a steady track of building new goals, because the initial ones were accomplished a long time ago. We have a regular trend of people who’ve previously bounced back and forth from rehab to training before they came to us. Those same people credit our work for finally being free of nagging pain and able to focus on their training.

Fitness Beyond Training works with dedicated individuals to increase performance, overcome chronic training issues, and develop resilience to the grind our environment has on movement quality. We cover the bases of holistic nutrition, metabolic testing, strength, conditioning, weight-loss, and performance. We have two studio locations in Georgetown, and Salado, TX.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Our most effective strategy for growing clientele has been our success rate. When clients are successful, they are eager to tell their friends and family about what they are doing and who they are doing it with.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As a fitness professional, it’s easy to promote a quick-fix training method or get caught up in branding yourself. But the truth is, fitness needs to be about the client, and as individualized as they are. There are important principles to follow, but there is no one-size-fits-all successful training method. The most important lesson I’ve learned is to ensure a client’s adaptability to training before overwhelming their system with sets, reps, and weight. It’s important to avoid the assumptions that every person can achieve something the same way. We must assess and reassess to prove each person is heading in the right direction and can take advantage of increasingly more training options and challenges.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fitnessbeyondtraining.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fitnessbeyondtraining/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FitnessBeyondTraining

Image Credits
‘Tian Drew Nevitt