We were lucky to catch up with Shane Pepper recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about the best advice you’ve ever given to a client? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve given to my past and current clients is finding their own fit. When it comes to building healthy movement practices it’s important to find activities that not only promote health but are also fun and invigorating for your unique makeup. Yes, going to the gym and working on general fitness (resistance, endurance, and flexibility training) is great and extremely useful, but finding a sport or activity that feeds your soul is what’s going to drive you to stick with working out. When a client comes to me we will put together a training routine that fits their lifestyle, but I will still always push them to find an activity that doesn’t feel like a workout. This could be things such as hiking, dancing, rock climbing, or intramural sports.

One huge success I’ve had with a client was her ability to reach her weight loss goal with the addition of activities that she grew to love. She would train with me twice a week but I pushed her to pick up jazz dance and body pump since she’d always wanted to try them & with her new found confidence through sessions she made the jump to sign up for them! She ended up loving both activities and we used the time in our sessions to not only get in better overall shape but to also increase her skills in those activities as well. She ended up losing 100lbs with me during that year! Not only did she blow her weight loss goal out of the water, she performed in a jazz recital and grew friendships in her body pump class. This both impacted her positivity and her family followed suit; with her sons picking up activities like hiking and martial arts, and her husband started cycling. Not only did uncovering her own desires for herself to get in shape, it motivated the people around her to also go find activities that make life worth living.

Shane, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Shane Pepper and I am a personal trainer who specializes in corrective exercise and weight loss. Building a career in the fitness industry was something I’d never imagined I would do; I grew up as unhealthy as one could be. I was obese during my childhood and suffered from an array of health problems that stemmed from my poor nutrition and lack of movement. When I was a junior in high school the official classification by my doctor as being obese is what set me on my health and wellness journey. I felt lethargic, sick, and useless. I decided enough was enough. I started making minor adjustments on my own to live a more balanced life. After I turned 18 I hired my first personal trainer and that’s when everything transformed for me. I lost over 100lbs and was able to do things I never thought possible for me. I could participate in all the activities I had only dream of once doing now that I was in shape! My chronic health problems started to heal and I felt like a whole new person.

This is what propelled me to pursue a career in personal training. I wanted to be able to guide others toward the healthiest most vibrant versions of themselves! As I went through the process of becoming a trainer, I realized a lot of the typical ways people started training weren’t ideal or optimal. Given the lack of movement in our modern societies it’s no wonder injuries are so prevalent. One of the quickest ways of halting your health/fitness journey is from sustaining an injury. On top of focusing on helping people lose weight, I also started studying ways to mitigate injury for those who want to start to move again. Every human I train is so different from one another and are in need of very specific training protocols. It could be an imbalance in the hips, a deficiency in the range of motion of the shoulder, maybe it’s just a need to strengthen the core. For most it’s a combination of things; in either event breaking down what is most important to strengthen is what I do best.

I specialize in corrective exercise as well as functional range and conditioning mobility. A simple explanation of what I do is breaking down each specific joint and figuring out which ones need work in order to safely perform the standard exercises most know and love in the gym. By doing this in the early stages of training, I help lessen the chance that my client will be derailed in the future by an injury. An example of this was with a client I had a few years back who wanted to lose weight and stand for a full concert at Red Rocks. The issue was this particular client had 3 surgeries on her left knee and also suffered from lower back pain. Within the first few weeks I realized we needed to strengthen her hips and ankles to allow her to safely perform the exercises that would lead her to her weight loss and standing goal. In 8 months she managed to lose 25lbs and stood for not just 1 but 3 Red Rocks shows in a week! This was a magnificent achievement for her and wouldn’t have been possible without the fine tuned training we did to clean up the movement of her hips and ankles.

I want people to know that no matter where you are coming from or how unhealthy you may feel, you have the ability to positively change your life. I’ve worked with people from all walks of life and have seen first hand what some small changes in nutrition and movement can do for them.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I originally moved to Colorado in 2019 I had to start my career from scratch. I was working 4 different fitness jobs; from sales to private one on ones to senior group classes at the park district, I was trying to build up my reputation in the Denver fitness industry. Right when things were starting to pick up the pandemic hit and all gyms had to be shut down. A lot of personal trainers were out of work but there was one pivot that I believed could be made. I was able to transition almost all my one on ones and group classes to remote online training. This was extremely helpful in maintaining relationships with my clients and group class participants. This was also a time when people needed an outlet for exercise but couldn’t go anywhere due to the lockdown. The beautiful thing was during this time I was able to not only survive a tough situation but thrive and move even more successfully into in-person training once the restrictions were lifted. While businesses were at a freeze I was able to continue growing, expanding and learning valuable lessons in adaptability.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I believe there are two things that help personal trainers succeed. One, is understanding that this field isn’t about your abilities or training but about helping the individual in front of you. There are so many trainers that get into this industry because they “like to workout”, but in order to succeed in this field you need to “like to help people”. I’d go to the length of saying you need to be just as excited about your client reaching their goals than they are. This isn’t about how strong, fit, or in shape you are, this is fundamentally about increasing the quality of life of the people you work with.

Second, being able to market and sell yourself or your brand. I know people from a lot of industries fall prey to this. If you can’t effectively get your service or product in front of people then you won’t have any people to help and If you do get your service and product in front of them you better be able to prove its value. With personal training the best marketing is your ability to show people that you’ve had success with clients in the past; before and after pictures, reviews, testimonials – all of these things will draw people to you. You need to then effectively communicate how you can help new clientele achieve their goals through your style of training.

These two aspects will help any trainer succeed in the fitness industry.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Shanejpepper